The Supreme Court of Ohio: Assessing Allegations of Domestic Violence in Child Abuse Cases

In child welfare cases involving allegations of domestic violence, courts and child protective services agencies often struggle with how to properly assess risk to children while avoiding punitive approaches toward non-offending parents. The Supreme Court of Ohio's guide "Assessing Allegations of Domestic Violence in Child Abuse Cases" offers a powerful framework that shifts focus to where it belongs: on the behaviors of domestic violence perpetrators.

Moving Beyond the "Failure to Protect" Paradigm

For decades, child welfare systems have relied on a problematic approach when domestic violence exists in a home. Non-offending parents (typically mothers) have been blamed for "exposing" their children to violence or "failing to protect" them from an abusive partner. This approach:

• Places responsibility on victims rather than perpetrators

• Ignores the protective efforts victims make daily

• Creates additional trauma for families

• Discourages victims from seeking help

The guide from Ohio's Supreme Court represents a significant shift away from this paradigm by incorporating principles from the Safe & Together™ Model, which centers perpetrator accountability and partners with non-offending parents.

The Safe & Together Model’s Critical Components

At the heart of this approach are five key assessment areas:

1. Perpetrator's Pattern of Coercive Control – Looking beyond isolated incidents to identify patterns of behavior that harm family functioning

2. Actions Taken by the Perpetrator to Harm the Child – Directly assessing how the perpetrator's choices endangered children

3. Adverse Impact of the Perpetrator's Behavior on the Child – Examining effects on children's emotional, physical, and developmental wellbeing

4. Role of Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Culture and Other Socio-Economic Factors – Understanding how these factors intersect with domestic violence

5. Full Spectrum of the Non-Offending Parent's Efforts to Promote the Safety and Well-Being of the Child – Recognizing the many ways protective parents work to keep children safe

Seven Essential Questions for Courts

The guide provides juvenile courts with seven concrete questions to ask child protective services agencies:

1. What were the perpetrator's specific actions and behaviors that harmed the children, including patterns of coercive control?

2. How have these behaviors affected family functioning and what are future concerns based on past behaviors?

3. How has the domestic violence perpetrator's behavior caused or exacerbated other issues like substance abuse?

4. Has the perpetrator interfered with the family's access to services?

5. Were reasonable efforts made to reach both parents, and how will the agency's plan improve child and family functioning?

6. Are children's basic needs being met, and by whom?

7. What is the non-offending parent doing to provide for child safety and wellbeing?

What Should Be in a Proper Assessment

The guide also sets expectations for what courts should find in CPS reports:

• Detailed descriptions of the perpetrator's harmful behaviors and their impacts

• Avoidance of vague statements like "The family has a history of domestic violence"

• Recognition of the non-offending parent's protective efforts

• Explanations of how domestic violence contributes to other family problems

• Case plans that are appropriate, realistic, and tailored to each parent's situation

Why This Matters

This approach represents a significant step forward in how our systems respond to families experiencing domestic violence. By focusing on perpetrator behavior while partnering with protective parents, we can:

• Create more effective interventions that address actual risk factors

• Reduce unnecessary separations of children from protective parents

• Hold perpetrators accountable for their choices and behaviors

• Support healing and recovery for the entire family

For practitioners working with families impacted by domestic violence, this framework provides a path toward more effective, just, and trauma-informed practice. It reminds us that in domestic violence cases, the best way to protect children is often to support their protective parent while holding the perpetrator accountable.

The Safe and Together Model, embraced by many Ohio child protection agencies, offers a proven approach that keeps the focus where it belongs—on the behaviors that cause harm to children and families, not on blaming victims for the violence perpetrated against them.