When do parents or caregivers have been arrested for domestic violence, it is imperative you use a perpetrator pattern-based assessment lens to determine risk and safety issues related to the children. When there is a “dual arrest,” as these situations are sometimes referred to, it is easy to assume that both parents are violent and have a problem. This type of automatic assumption can skew your child safety and risk assessments. Use a perpetrator pattern-based approach to assessment instead of making assumptions. This means asking questions about each person’s pattern of behavior, in this relationship and other ones, not just looking at this incident or seeing this as a “dysfunctional” relationship. The following questions can help:
Just like in any other case you want to gather information about each person from multiple sources of information including the CPS case record, police reports, interviews with the family and collaterals.
Gender expectations can also play a role here. We need to aware we may be more judgmental toward women who use violence. This can be amplified by our expectations of women as parents.
Both men and women can be controlling and violent. Research leads us to believe that in many cases women’s and men’s use of violence in heterosexual relationship is different in some significant ways. Men’s use of violence against women is more likely to cause injury and to be associated with a broader pattern of coercive control. Why is this important to child welfare? Because violence that leads to injury is more likely to be traumatic for children. Violence that is associated with coercive control is more likely to negatively impact child and family functioning. When a woman is identified as being violent it is important to do the same behavior focused perpetrator pattern-based assessment on her as it would be to do on a man. You want to find out about severity, frequency, association with other behaviors of coercive control and impact on child and family functioning. These are some of the questions that can help:
Gender expectations can also play a role here. We need to aware we may be more judgmental toward women who use violence. This can be amplified by our expectations of women as parents.
Domestic violence occurs in same sex couples as well as heterosexual couples. In same sex couples a perpetrator pattern-based assessment can help determine who is the perpetrator and the harm he or she may creating for the children and family. It is important to remember that adult survivors in same sex couples may have unique vulnerabilities, e.g. isolated from family of origin support because of their homophobia. Domestic violence perpetrators in same sex couples may also actively use homophobia, to actively attempt to control his or her partner, e.g., ”Go ahead and call the police. I’ll get queer bashed if I go to jail. Is that what you want?” Same sex families may have a different kin structure than other families, e.g., a stronger network of friends. Gay, lesbian and transgendered people affected by their partner’s domestic violence behaviors will benefit from a worker’s awareness of these differences.
When the survivor has been victim in multiple abusive relationships here are some things to keep in mind:
It is important to partner with her around her identified needs related to safety and family functioning. In some cases the adult survivor only needs support and not a referral for services. Information about services and options for police and court involvement can always be shared. It is important to remember that because someone is a domestic violence survivor, it doesn’t automatically mean she needs to be “treated” for a problem. Individual assessment is key. Burdening an adult survivor with services she does not need can make her more vulnerable.
Perpetrators often can leverage family court proceedings to their advantage. It is important to recognize that most family courts will give perpetrators unsupervised access to their own children even when they have perpetrated severe violence against the survivor. The survivor’s concerns about this outcome need to be taken seriously.
Research and clinical experience indicates that some domestic violence survivors also have substance abuse issues. For some, substance abuse issues may have existed before the current abusive relationship. For others, the substance abuse may have come about as a direct result of being abused and traumatized in the current relationship. In order to engage in both trauma and domestic violence-informed practice, it is important to explore what is the relationship between the perpetrator’s coercive control and the adult survivor’s substance abuse. Here are some questions that may help with that assessment process:
A domestic violence survivor can abuse and neglect her children. Situations where a mother is being abused and she is physically or emotionally abusive or neglectful to her child needs to be evaluated carefully. The immediate safety of the child is paramount. Once that has been established, it is important to consider the following factors: Was her abuse of the child part of effort to protect the child from worse abuse from the perpetrator, e.g. a mother hitting her child for bad grades so the perpetrator doesn’t engage in worse violence? Does she have a pattern of child abuse separate from being a domestic violence survivor, e.g. she abused her child prior to meeting her abusive partner? What role does trauma play in her behavior toward the child? Trauma survivors may respond to stress with aggression. Finally, did the perpetrator’s behaviors undermine the mother-child relationship leading to more stress and conflict? While none of these factors justify the abuse, they can provide clues to what might help remediate the situation.
It is important to screen for domestic violence in all cases regardless of the referral reason.
Many child welfare cases with domestic violence present as other issues such as substance abuse or mental health issues. It is important to screen for domestic violence in all cases regardless of the referral reason. There can be many indicators of potential domestic violence that should automatically lead to further assessment. These include, but are not limited to,:
Many families involved with child welfare cases have an identified history of domestic violence. Domestic violence-informed practice teaches us the importance of integrating this information into the assessment process. “Prior domestic violence” can refer to a number of different scenarios and each one dictates a slightly different course of action.
Children with delinquency frequently have been impacted by domestic violence. Seek to understand the impact of any prior or current domestic violence on the child.
Human trafficking and domestic violence can intersect in a few ways. In families where there is violence children may be traffic. Pimps or sex trafficking may be done by a survivor’s partner. He may pimp her out for money for drugs or to other people for different reasons. Women may be trafficked for domestic work or to be a partner and may get abused in those settings. It is important to consider these intersections when working with families.
While very rare domestic violence homicide presents unique challenges to child protection. If it is a murder suicide the children have lost both parents and need support for that. This often involves traumatic grief. In these cases, the placement of the children needs to be assessed as family might have been part of the abuse. In cases where the perpetrator is still alive, he often will not automatically lose parental rights. Child protection can play an very important role in assessment and interventions in these situations.
Do a domestic violence safety check to before making a decision on network meetings:
Next week we complete this piece with “What to do when…” for supervisors.