Exploring the interface between family violence child protection and community based support

1. Exploring the interface between family violence child protection and community based support Professor Cathy Humphreys University of Melbourne and Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, Victoria

2. Outline Issues • Challenges for the interface between child protection and domestic violence • Engaging with the issue of severity

3. Recurrent problems • 1) Intervention in a widespread social problem • 2) A clash of values and perspectives between different sectors • 3) Culpable women and invisible men • 4) Managing the interface with family law • 5) Managing complexity

4. Managing a major social problem • International Violence Against Women Survey (Mouzos and Makkai, 2004) 57% of women had experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual assault and for one third this was from a current or former partner • One quarter of 5000 children surveyed reported witnessing violence against a parent (Indermaur, 2001). • Increase in reporting (19% to 36% in 10 years)

5. A gendered issue • The British Crime Survey (Walby and Allen, 2004) 13% of women and 9% of men reported being subjected to DV in the past year. • Among those subjected to 4 or more incidents 89% were women • Of all incidents 81% involved violence by men against women. • The most severely injured, the most frequently attacked the most fearful were overwhelmingly women. • Assess for the primary perpetrator

6. A major social problem • The largest category of reported concern in most states. • For example NSW – 58,758 reports in 2006 – 27% of reports to the central reporting line. • Significant aspect of overwhelming the Tasmanian statutory system (Jacob and Fanning 2006). • In Victoria 52% of substantiated child protection cases occur in a context of domestic violence

7. DV Centre Stage • Statutory child protection is a mainstream domestic violence intervention organisation • Domestic violence is not on the margins of the work

8. Culpable women and invisible men • Same old, same old……. • Individual workers making heroic efforts but can be defeated at the strategic level • How to manage and structure a child protection system which responds to an adult victim and a child victim? • How to re-focus the intervention to manage the perpetrator?

9. Cultural Clash • Child protection – focus on the child • Legislation which supports the intervention of the state in family life • Family violence, community base sector – greater focus on the empowerment of women • A major issue for closer collaboration/integration

10. An inappropriate welfare approach • In Victoria 73% of substantiated child protection cases involved adult problems – mental health, substance use, family violence • The return of the multi-problem family • The emergence of ‘dual diagnosis’ • Who did what to whom and the effects of this can be lost

11. The interface with family law • Most perpetrators of family violence will be given contact with their children. • A systems issue which requires continued strategic intervention • Current a major inconsistency and contradiction between family law, child protection and specialist domestic violence sector.

12. Complexities • Forced marriage • Child abduction • Teenage family violence (young boys towards their mothers; intimate partner violence in teenage relationships) • Community violence and its impact on children

13. A hierarchy of principles • Safety and protection of children • Empowerment and safety for women • Responsibility and accountability of perpetrators (Burke, 1999) • Support for the relationship between mothers and children

14. Engaging with severity • Issues in relation to children • Issues in relation to perpetrators • Issues in relation to women • Issues in relation to the system response

15. Children’s emotional well-being • A consistent research finding is that the emotional well-being of a substantial group of children is undermined by living with domestic violence. • Meta analysis of 118 studies showed significantly poorer outcomes on 21 psychosocial measures for children ‘witnessing’ domestic violence, than those not living with violence (Kitzmann et al, 2003). • 63% of children ‘witnessing’ domestic violence doing worse than those who do not witness domestic violence.

16. Children managing in the face of adversity • ‘Resilience’ – not an individual trait – children live in different contexts of severity and protection • In any sample of children between one third and a half are doing as well as or better than children not living with family violence.

17. Child Risks and protective factors • Direct abuse/exposure to violence – a false distinction • Some studies suggest ‘double whammy’ of direct physical abuse and exposure -> worse outcomes • Mohr and Mertin (2001) – no difference • Kitzmann et al 2003 – 118 studies – no difference. • Longscan – children under 8 – witnessing violence towards primary caregiver more traumatic than direct physical abuse.

18. The role of the perpetrator • The perpetrator may be the intervening variable (Sullivan 2000). The direct negative effect is due to the man’s abuse and is not mediated by the mother’s well-being. • Domestic violence is an attack on the mother-child relationship – an indirect effect is undermining the women’s emotional well-being so that she is not in a good position to parent. • Essential to provide assessment and support for women experiencing mental health problems.

19. Perpetrator risks • Often little impact on child protection assessments – exception Cardiff MARACs • Simultaneous safety planning/risk assessment • Provide an appropriate re-focusing on perpetrator

20. Duluth Questions • Do you think he will seriously injure you or the children? What makes you think that? If not, why not? • What was the time you were most frightened or injured by him? • Are things getting worse? Describe the pattern of the abuse (frequency, type severity, escalation).

21. Standardised risk assessment: health warning • Only a rationing mechanism • Too much focus on physical violence • Too inaccurate – a false ‘science’ • Too little focus on children’s wishes and feelings • Too much focus on lethality and future risk rather than current safety and well-being

22. Perpetrator risk assessment Coherence needed across: • Police risk assessment models • Child protection assessments • Child contact risk and safety assessment

23. SPECIALCASES SPECIALCASES • Separation, pregnancy and child contact, escalation, child abuse, isolation, attempts/threats to kill self or others, controlling behaviour, stalking, substance use and mental health problems, sexual assault,

24. Separation example • Heightened risk of escalation and homicide • London domestic homicide review showed 76% of women separated or in process of separation • Sexual assault in context of domestic violence – 116/217 during or post separation • Child contact the greatest opportunity for post-separation violence

25. The system matters The most chronically violent men were not those with the highest number of lethality factors, but those men who continued to ‘get away with it’. (Gondolf, 2004) The ‘system’ needs to be assessed as a risk factor. Are there consequences for continuing violence and abuse?

26. An integrated domestic violence system • A system which meets the needs of children for safety, well-being and development • Responds to women with separate but linked services • Effective intervention with the perpetrator