Children and Domestic Violence:

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• Children and Domestic Violence
• Time to Listen
• _____________________________________
• Nina Dahms
• Childrens Services Officer
• Womens Aid

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Overview

• Understanding of domestic violence
• Prevalence of DV in relation to children
• Link between DV and child abuse
• Effects of DV on children
• Specialist support services for children
• Protection and prevention
• Post-separation violence and safe child contact
• The way forward partnership working
• Womens Aid Listening to Children Campaign

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Womens Aid

• The national charity working to end domestic
  violence against women and children
• support an England-wide network of 300 local
  organisations providing nearly 500 refuges,
  helplines and outreach services
• work is based on 30 years of campaigning,
  research and advocacy to improve responses and to
  prevent domestic violence
• Services Freephone 24-hour national domestic
  violence helpline run in partnership with Refuge
  UK Refuges Online
• advocate for abused women and children,
  nationally and locally

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Why must domestic violence involve women and
children? (girl, 14)

• Pattern of coercive control by one person over
  another within the context of an intimate or
  family relationship
• Happens irrespective of race or ethnicity,
  religion, mental or physical ability, age,
  sexuality, class
• Domestic violence is gendered government
  recognises it is women who are more likely
• to experience domestic violence at some point in
  their lives
• to experience repeat victimisation
• be injured, seek medical help
• to experience fear, threats, intimidation and
  significant post-separation violence
• Children are often traumatised by witnessing
  domestic violence and are frequently abused by
  the same perpetrator who abuses their mother.
• Domestic violence is intentional behaviour rooted
  in the relations of power existing within
  traditional family models and in traditional
  gender roles and expectations of men and women in
  society

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Prevalence

• In 90 of cases children are in the same or next
  room
• 10 of children witness mothers being sexually
  assaulted
• In 30-66 of cases children are directly abused
  by same violent man.
• In 2002, refuge organisations in England
  accommodated 23,500 children and provided support
  services for over 110,000 children

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Prevalence

• Domestic violence is present in about 16,000
  cases annually involving Court Welfare Officers
  almost 50 of cases where a welfare report is
  ordered. (ACPO 1999)
• Domestic violence features in 23 of private law
  contact cases (Smart et al, 2003)

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Domestic Violence and Children A child
protection problem

• In 2003 the Department of Health acknowledged
  that
• At least 750,000 children a year witness
  domestic violence. Nearly three-quarters of
  children on the at risk register live in
  households where domestic violence occurs.

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How can children be affected?

• Emotional and behavioural difficulties (increased
  behaviour problems and greater adjustment
  difficulties)
• Developmental delay
• Problems with social competence and peer
  relationships
• Post-traumatic stress reactions
• Decline of academic achievement
• Damaged relationship with mother
• Increased likelihood of developing attitudes that
  are tolerant of violence against women

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Resiliency

• Children's responses to witnessing domestic
  violence vary according to a multitude of
  factors, including
• age
• race
• class
• sex
• stage of development
• role in the family
• relationship with parent(s)
• availability of sources of support outside the
  immediate family situation
• personality

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Cycle of violence myth?

• DV - written and presented by Kyvon, member of
  Kidz Krew
• Domestic Violence, Domestic Violence the most
  horrible thing I know, 
• I dont know why parents do this, 
• It is so cruel and heartless, I dont think they
  know, 
• What they do to us,
• How it affects us, 
• I dont like it coz it makes me cry,
• I dont know why he does it, 
• And then mum lies,
• To cover the pain she is feeling,
• I want it to stop and it will stop,
• Sooner rather than later,
• coz I dont want to grow up a hater.

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What do children want?

• Safety for themselves and for their mums
• Support someone to talk to

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Childrens Services in Refuge Organisations

• Organised group play sessions
• Working with mothers on childrens issues
• Advocating and liasing on behalf of children
• One-to-one play or one-to-one support sessions
• Organise outings and special events
• Organise holiday play schemes
• Youth work with older children
• Deal with child protection issues
• Counselling and group work with children
• After-care services

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The way forward Provision of support services
for children

• Consistent, reliable statutory funding framework
  for childrens services in refuge organisations
• Community and refuge-based specialist domestic
  violence services in every local area
• Advocacy, specialist trauma counselling,
  specialist groupwork treatment

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Need for an integrated approach to protection

• How come our dads get away with treating us so
  badly, yet we are the ones who have to move,
  making it look like we are the ones who (have)
  done wrong? (girl, 8)
• Why do men only go to jail for one night and get
  released in the morning, when they have done
  domestic violence? (boy 11)
• What is being done to help men - not just those
  convicted of domestic violence crimes? (boy 10)

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Long-term prevention

• What training can schools get to help them
  recognise that children are affected by domestic
  violence? (girl)
• Why cant children do work about domestic
  violence in schools? (unknown)

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Will the government help my mum and me be safe
from my dad? He beat us and we dont want to see
him. (girl, 9)

• 10 children have been killed in connection with
  contact arrangements since February 2002.

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Why do the courts force children to see their
dads when they are frightened of them? (girl, 14)

• Findings of the recent Failure to Protect report
  indicate that
• 46 of DV services know of violent fathers
  tracking former partners through contact
• 18 children were ordered to have contact with
  fathers who had committed offences against
  children (Schedule 1 offenders)
• 64 children were ordered to have contact with
  fathers whose behaviour caused CP registration
• 21 children were ordered to have unsupervised
  contact with a violent father
• 101 children were ordered to live with a violent
  father

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Risks to children during contact visits
(SturgeGlaser 2000)

• Failing to meet and actually undermining the
  childs developmental needs or causing emotional
  abuse
• Escalating the climate of conflict around the
  child, which would undermine the childs
  stability and sense of emotional well being,
  resulting in a tug of loyalty and a sense of
  responsibility for the conflict
• Direct abusive experiences
• Denigration of the child or the childs resident
  carer
• Dominant or bullying relationships, created by
  fear, bribes or emotional blackmail

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Legislative Opportunity?

• Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill hardly
  mentions children
• Children Bill barely mentions domestic violence
• Information sharing proposals will be a serious
  risk to children affected by domestic violence
• Proposals in the Green Paper on Parental
  Separation will be damaging for children and
  mothers affected by domestic violence unless they
  contain adequate risk assessment measures

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Partnership Working

• The proposals in the Children Bill and Every
  Child Matters Next Steps are for all vulnerable
  children
• They do not address the specific needs of
  children affected by domestic violence, but they
  have the potential to be developed to include
  children affected by domestic violence (eg.
  Childrens Trusts)
• Local Authorities working in local partnerships
  must ensure that domestic violence features
  prominently in the work of Crime Disorder
  Partnerships in relation to violent crime

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The Way Forward Partnership Working

• Routine screening for domestic violence in
  midwifery services in all areas
• Inclusion of domestic violence outreach services
  in extended schools
• Routine domestic violence awareness lessons in
  schools
•  Provision of mandatory domestic violence
  training to all new professionals working with
  children and to be included in continuing
  professional development
• Commissioning in all areas specialist domestic
  violence support and advocacy services, including
  child-focused therapeutic services that can
  ascertain the feelings and wishes of children and
  make appropriate risk assessments
• IRT scrutiny for the safety of children
• Commissioning all areas at least one accessible
  and supervised child contact centre

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We Want the Government to Remember, all that evil
needs to succeed is for good people to stay in
posh rooms talking in meetings and never taking
action. We Want the Government to Remember their
children.
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