Season 2 Episode 18: Multiple Pathways to Harm: An Assessment Approach That Better Mirrors the Lived Experience of Survivors

About This Episode

Phrases like “child witness to violence” or “children exposed to violence” only capture a small slice of how domestic violence perpetrators’ behaviors harm children. Assessment frameworks based on these concepts primarily emphasize the traumatic impact of the direct witnessing of acts of physical violence. But what coercive control teaches us is that harm also involves patterns of entrapping and controlling behaviors that deprive adult and child survivors of their basic human rights, including safety, well-being, and autonomy. 

The Safe & Together Institute uses a Multiple Pathways to Harm approach that brings assessment processes into alignment with a coercive control framework.

In this episode, David and Ruth discuss the Multiple Pathways to Harm framework, including how it:

• Adds to the “child exposure” approach

• Increases accountability for perpetrators as parents

• Operationalizes improved gender equality 

• Makes wider impacts of coercive control visible 

Additional Resources

• Podcast: Season 2 Episode 14: How to Perpetrator-Proof Custody and Access Processes

• Podcast: Season 2 Episode 12: How Coercive Control Harms Child Safety and Well-Being: An Interview with Dr. Emma Katz

• Safe & Together Institute’s domestic abuse–informed trainings

• Safe & Together Institute’s upcoming events

• David Mandel’s book Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to Transform the Way We Keep Children Safe from Domestic Violence