Chronic child abuse and domestic violence: Children and families with long-term and complex needs

It is estimated that up to one million children may have been exposed to domestic violence in the UK, with significant consequences for their social and emotional development in childhood and later life. At a time when the central and devolved administrations in the UK have developed strategies to tackle domestic violence, this paper reports the findings from a study conducted on children in the child protection system with long-term and complex needs as a result of experiencing domestic violence. The research identifies the characteristics of the children and their families and tracks their careers through the child protection system. The findings indicate that professionals have an awareness of domestic violence, and that younger children with younger parents are most likely to experience prolonged periods in the child protection system. Domestic violence in this context typically co-exists in families experiencing other difficulties such as substance misuse and socio-economic deprivation. In conclusion, the paper argues that Government policy and professional practice should primarily be concerned with assessing the risk that men present, rather than the risk that children are at. By reframing professional interventions, men are more likely to be challenged to accept responsibility for their behaviour and the consequences for their families.

Beyond "Witnessing": Childrens Experiences of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence and Abuse

Children’s experiences and voices are underrepresented in academic literature and professional practice around domestic violence and abuse. The project “Understanding Agency and Resistance Strategies” (UNARS) addresses this absence, through direct engagement with children. We present an analysis from interviews with 21 children in the United Kingdom (12 girls and 9 boys, aged 8-18 years), about their experiences of domestic violence and abuse, and their responses to this violence. These interviews were analyzed using interpretive interactionism. Three themes from this analysis are presented: (a) “Children’s experiences of abusive control,” which explores children’s awareness of controlling behavior by the adult perpetrator, their experience of that control, and its impact on them; (b) “Constraint,” which explores how children experience the constraint associated with coercive control in situations of domestic violence; and (c) “Children as agents,” which explores children’s strategies for managing controlling behavior in their home and in family relationships. The article argues that, in situations where violence and abuse occur between adult intimate partners, children are significantly affected, and can be reasonably described as victims of abusive control. Recognizing children as direct victims of domestic violence and abuse would produce significant changes in the way professionals respond to them, by (a) recognizing children’s experience of the impact of domestic violence and abuse; (b) recognizing children’s agency, undermining the perception of them as passive “witnesses” or “collateral damage” in adult abusive encounters; and (c) strengthening professional responses to them as direct victims, not as passive witnesses to violence.

Protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a web-based healthy relationship tool and safety decision aid for women experiencing domestic violence (I-DECIDE)

BACKGROUND: Domestic violence is a serious problem affecting the health and wellbeing of women globally. Interventions in health care settings have primarily focused on screening and referral, however, women often may not disclose abuse to health practitioners. The internet offers a confidential space in which women can assess the health of their relationships and make a plan for safety and wellbeing for themselves and their children. This randomised controlled trial is testing the effectiveness of a web-based healthy relationship tool and safety decision aid (I-DECIDE). Based broadly on the IRIS trial in the United States, it has been adapted for the Australian context where it is conducted entirely online and uses the Psychosocial Readiness Model as the basis for the intervention. METHODS/DESIGN: In this two arm, pragmatic randomised controlled trial, women who have experienced abuse or fear of a partner in the previous 6 months will be computer randomised to receive either the I-DECIDE website or a comparator website (basic relationship and safety advice). The intervention includes self-directed reflection exercises on their relationship, danger level, priority setting, and results in an individualised, tailored action plan. Primary self-reported outcomes are: self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale) immediately after completion, 6 and 12 months post-baseline; and depressive symptoms (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Revised, 6 and 12 months post-baseline). Secondary outcomes include mean number of helpful actions for safety and wellbeing, mean level of fear of partner and cost-effectiveness. DISCUSSION: This fully-automated trial will evaluate a web-based self-information, self-reflection and self-management tool for domestic violence. We hypothesise that the improvement in self-efficacy and mental health will be mediated by increased perceived support and awareness encouraging positive change. If shown to be effective, I-DECIDE could be easily incorporated into the community sector and health care settings, providing an alternative to formal services for women not ready or able to acknowledge abuse and access specialised services. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Trial registered on 15(th) December 2014 with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12614001306606.

Domestic Violence

Since the 1960s, there has been growing awareness regarding the issue of domestic violence as a form of violence against women, which has been largely influenced by the work of feminist activist and scholars in North America and Europe (Dobash and Dobash 1992). Other terms have been used to describe the same phenomenon, including domestic abuse, spousal abuse, wife battering, marital violence, intimate partner violence. Though there is no doubt that this problem has existed for much more than five decades, the tendency to label it as ‘private matters’ or ‘marital disagreements’ has obscured the reality of women living with abuse in their home. At a general level, domestic violence can be defined as the means used by a man in order to assert his control and domination over his intimate partner, whether they are married or not (Mullender 1996). It can involve incidents of physical and sexual violence, as well as verbal, psychological and financial abuse. Though some of its manifestations may be associated with particular cultural or religious groups – e.g. forced marriage and honour killing in South-Asian communities – domestic violence affects women from all classes and backgrounds.

Knowledge and perceptions of domestic violence services among women in Ghana

Support services are important to the mental and physical well-being of survivors of intimate partner violence. However, researchers and service providers note that survivors seldom report violence to formal domestic violence services in Ghana. Despite calls from service providers for Ghanaians to report domestic violence, few studies have focused on women’s knowledge and perceptions of formal domestic violence services in Ghana and how these perceptions influence their help-seeking behaviour. This thesis presents qualitative findings on Ghanaian women's knowledge and perceptions of formal domestic violence services. Also, challenges to service delivery are explored. Results revealed that awareness among respondents of available services was low. Additionally, most respondents had negative perceptions of these formal services. This study demonstrates that more educational campaigns need to be carried out to raise awareness among Ghanaians on domestic violence and the formal interventions available in the country. Additionally, service providers and policy makers must formulate programmes and policies that are better suited to the uniqueness of the Ghanaian situation.

Feminist Disability Theory: Domestic Violence Against Women with a Disability

Women with a disability continue to experience social oppression and domestic violence as a consequence of gender and disability dimensions. Current explanations of domestic violence and disability inadequately explain several features that lead women who have a disability to experience violent situations. This article incorporates both disability and material feminist theory as an alternative explanation to the dominant approaches (psychological and sociological traditions) of conceptualising domestic violence. This paper is informed by a study which was concerned with examining the nature and perceptions of violence against women with a physical impairment. The emerging analytical framework integrating material feminist interpretations and disability theory provided a basis for exploring gender and disability dimensions. Insight was also provided by the women who identified as having a disability in the study and who explained domestic violence in terms of a gendered and disabling experience. The article argues that material feminist interpretations and disability theory, with their emphasis on gender relations, disablism and poverty, should be used as an alternative tool for exploring the nature and consequences of violence against women with a disability.

Domestic violence in the urban fringe

Police call data for domestic violence incidents in the city of Brisbane were used to further explore the locational disadvantage thesis. it was hypothesised that the supposed additional burdens and stresses on disadvantaged families living in the outer suburbs may be reflected in significantly higher rates of reported domestic violence. Using an index of relative socioeconomic disadvantage and employing Analysis of variance (ANOVA) this research shows that significantly higher rates of reported domestic violence occur in the inner suburbs relative to the middle or outer suburbs of Brisbane. This finding adds further doubt to the magnitude of locational disadvantage impacts on outer suburban low income family households.

From domestic violence to sustainable employment

International research has found that domestic violence is a significant barrier to accessing and sustaining work (Lloyd and Taluc 1999, 385; Browne et al. 1999, 398). In the Australian context, the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research reports that between 6 and 9 per cent of Australian women aged 18 and over are physically assaulted each year and that more than half of all women in Australia experience sexual or physical violence across their adult lifetime. Such behaviour has been estimated to cost $8.1 billion, of which $4.4 billion is estimated to be borne by the victims themselves, $1.2 billion by the general community and smaller amounts by friends and family and various levels of government (Access Economics 2004). This assessment underestimates the costs of domestic violence in terms of the inability of those who have experienced domestic violence to move into and secure sustainable employment options. Despite these statistics there is a dearth of Australian research focussing on the link between domestic violence and its impact on long-term sustainable employment for those who have been subjected to such violence. This paper explores the issue of domestic violence and access to work opportunities. In so doing, it links the work of Gianakos (1999) and her Career Development theory with that of Bandura‘s (1989) Social Cognitive Career Theory to develop a framework which would provide a pathway to enable those who have suffered domestic violence to achieve sustainable employment and economic independence.

Child welfare policy and practice on children’s exposure to domestic violence

There are emerging movements in several countries to improve policy and practice to protect children from exposure to domestic violence. These movements have resulted in the collection of new data on EDV and the design and implementation of new child welfare policies and practices. To assist with the development of child welfare practice, this article summarizes current knowledge on the prevalence of EDV, and on child welfare services policies and practices that may hold promise for reducing the frequency and impact of EDV on children. We focus on Australia, Canada, and the United States, as these countries share a similar socio-legal context, a long history of enacting and expanding legislation about reporting of maltreatment, debates regarding the application of reporting laws to EDV, and new child welfare practices that show promise for responding more effectively to EDV.

Theorizing Police Response to Domestic Violence in Singapore: Police Subculture Revisited

This article focuses on the well documented, yet potentially contested concept of rank-and-file policesubculture to conceptualize policeresponse to situations of domesticviolence in Singapore. It argues that the utility of the concept to explaining police behavior is often undermined by an all-powerful, homogenous, and deterministic conception of it that fails to take into account the value of agency in police decision-making and the range of differentiated policeresponse in situations of domesticviolence. Through reviewing the literature on policeresponse to domesticviolence, this study called for the need to rework the concept of policesubculture by treating it as having a relationship with, and response to, the structural conditions of policing, while retaining a conception of the active role played by street-level officers in instituting a situational practice. Using Pierre Bourdieu's relational concepts of ‘habitus’ and ‘field,’ designating the cultural dispositions of policesubculture and structural conditions of policing respectively, the study attempted to reconceptualize the problem of policing domesticviolence with reference to the Singaporean context.

The Operational Policing of Domestic Violence in Singapore: An Exploratory Study

This article examines the formal processing of domestic violence as accomplished by institutionalized policing in Singapore. The description of the process through which domestic calls for assistance were shaped and translated into relevant categories for appropriating a particular police response was facilitated through the use of the participant observation method. The ethnographic fieldwork reported here, including observations of call screening in action, is an attempt to explicate the phenomenological grounds employed by organizational members to constitute calls as instances of categories for practical policing purposes. Theoretically, the data point to the need for a reconceptualization of the problem of policing domestic violence by emphasizing the point that the eventual institutional response be understood as a product of the relationship that exists between police subculture and structural conditions of policing unique to contemporary Singapore society.