Child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory and qualitative study of child welfare workers' practice in cases involving domestic violence. The research aimed to focus on child welfare workers' interventions with families experiencing domestic violence, elements influencing the child welfare workers' decisions, and the factors facilitating and creating obstacles for intervention. An analysis of the qualitative data showed that child welfare workers have different ways of intervening in cases involving domestic violence. Also, the interventions were especially centred on women victims of violence and they were held responsible for protecting their children. Finally, the dilemmas and difficulties which child welfare workers face in these cases are discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Medical management of perimenopausal menorrhagia: an evidence-based approach

About one-third of women report heavy menstrual bleeding at some time in their lives. Menstrual blood loss increases with age. Menorrhagia is usually defined as heavy but regular menstrual bleeding of over 80 ml/cycle. Complaints of menorrhagia are common. Several medical therapies are suitable for perimenopausal women with either regular or irregular heavy bleeding. The most effective is intrauterine levonorgestrel. Other options are oral progestogens, the combined oral contraceptive pill, tranexamic acid, mefenamic acid, danazol and gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues. Systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials are discussed.     

Domestic violence: a worldwide exploration

The concept of domestic violence is important to nursing because further knowledge of this phenomenon can help drive more effective intervention and prevention approaches. Domestic violence, also known as gender violence, interpersonal violence, and domestic abuse, is a daily and often a deadly fact of life for millions of women and girls around the world. Attacks are perpetrated in settings that include public streets, at places of employment, in the home, while serving in the military, and in prisons and jails. The costs of this violence, both monetary and in human lives, are tremendous. Although nurses are in a unique position to screen for domestic violence and provide assistance and advocacy for victims, barriers exist related to victim disclosure and staff training and comfort levels. Advanced practice nurses can address the issue directly through appropriate treatment facilitation, including both physical and psychosocial intervention.     

Factors predicting prosecution of child maltreatment cases

ObjectivesThe purpose of the current study was to examine what case characteristics increased the likelihood of a child maltreatment case being prosecuted, and upon prosecution, of being convicted.MethodsData came from 406 criminal court case files from nine judicial districts in North Carolina. Using logistic regression, we examined how county-level and individual characteristics of arrests predicted the probability of prosecution, and for arrests that result in prosecution, the probability of conviction.ResultsNearly two-fifths (39%) of individuals arrested for child maltreatment were also charged with a concurrent offense. Of those with a concurrent offense, 11% had a felony charge. Of those arrested, 40% were prosecuted on at least one charge. Two case characteristics, the presence of any concurrent non-child maltreatment charge or a concurrent felony non-child maltreatment charge, were positively associated being prosecuted on at least one charge. Prosecution for child maltreatment was less likely when there was a concurrent felony charge, when the defendant was the father or a non-parent (relative to the mother), and if the youngest child named was between ages 2–5, or 6–12 (relative to children < 2). Only 18% of cases had physical evidence available. Conviction on at least one charge was more likely when there was a concurrent felony non-child maltreatment charge. Conviction for a child maltreatment was less likely when: there was a concurrent non-child maltreatment felony charge, the defendant was not the parent or caregiver, and there was a CPS investigation or assessment for neglect within a 30 day window of the arrest relative to no investigation.ConclusionsProsecutors in child maltreatment cases weigh not only the admissibility of evidence in deciding whether to pursue prosecution, but also other case characteristics such as the age of the child victim, whether there is available evidence outside of victim testimony, and other concurrent crimes. The prosecutor may have a stronger case for concurrent non-child maltreatment crimes, and these will thus be more likely to result in conviction. This may also play a role in prosecutor decisions.     

Domestic violence laws: the voices of battered women

This article reports the findings from an exploratory survey of battered women's views about mandatory arrest, mandatory reporting by doctors and nurses, no-drop policies, confidentiality laws, privilege laws, court-victim advocate programs, and specialized domestic violence courts. Although there was general support for the adoption of these laws, some variation based on demographic and situational circumstance was found. These findings raise questions about the universalistic nature of polices developed to address the problem of domestic violence. Battered women are not a homogeneous group, and public policy may be better designed to accommodate the individual needs of victims.     

The violence of materialism in advanced industrial society: an eco-sociological approach

The main argument to be developed in this article is that such phenomena as war, vandalism and urban ‘terrorism’are not isolated events, but reflect the values and beliefs embedded in the deep institutional structure of advanced industrial societies. It will be argued that in such societies, however politically patterned, there is a universal, and virtually unequivocal, acceptance of economic growth and expansion as the prime objective to be pursued. As such economic expansion depends on advances in scientific and technological knowledge the control and manipulation of nature is given full legitimacy. This attitude towards nature is seen as a central feature of the industrial culture as a whole and reflects the dominance of material over other human values. And it is the asymmetry between these value systems which predisposes the industrial culture to violence and instability: in short it gives ideological support to the use of violence in the resolution of problems, whether these be of a political, social or economic nature. It will be contended that there is a clear need to go beyond the traditional marxist analysis of capitalism in order to show how the institutional structure of advanced industrial societies plays a part both in stimulating and reproducing the ideology of violence notwithstanding considerable differences in the political arrangements in such societies. It follows from this that what is required is a broad theory of industrialization, rather than specifically of capitalism. As Illich argues     

Domestic violence: analysis of a community safety alarm system

This paper presents the findings of an analysis of the trial period of a local authority community alarm system adapted to protect adult and child victims of domestic violence and enable them to remain living in their own homes. The system was augmented as a response to government guidance on promoting interagency initiatives to tackle the crime of domestic violence. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed to seek the perceptions and experiences of referrers, service users and potential service users in the context of the administration, resource implications and cost‐effectiveness of the new system. The evaluation discovered that potential service users were anxious about police and social services involvement in relation to child care. The system was considered to be protective, enabling women and children to remain in their own homes, and relatively cheap to operate. It has the potential to provide a deterrent to perpetrators and enhance interagency cooperation in protecting children, subject to further refinement and longer‐term evaluation. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Engaging families in child welfare services: an evidence-based approach to best practice

Successfully engaging clients in the helping process is a critical task for child welfare practitioners. Drop-out and noncompliance rates in child welfare services are high and lead to high rates of removal of children from their families and to eventual termination of parental rights. Although no known interventions guarantee treatment compliance, this review of the empirical literature delineates critical components of engagement in child welfare services. Effective engagement strategies, including service components and caseworker qualities and behaviors, are identified as contributing to the positive case outcomes of treatment compliance, family preservation, and placement prevention. The unique needs of neglectful parents are also examined, with recommendations for practice.     

Domestic violence and child protection: issues in safety planning

There is strong evidence for the link between domestic violence and child abuse. Agencies' policies regarding domestic violence and child protection are critical in determining the dimensions of practitioner intervention, including safety planning for women and children. This paper explores the issues identified in research around safety planning where there are domestic violence and child protection concerns which was conducted with practitioners in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, in 2001. In particular, the paper focuses on three of the factors that influence practitioner intervention with women and children. These are: definitional understandings of domestic violence and child abuse; child protection legislative changes, including mandatory reporting and domestic violence as a child‐at‐risk category; and the NSW child protection statutory authority's response to domestic violence. The interplay between these factors results in complexities of practice for practitioners as they attempt to maximize women's strengths and minimize risks to children's safety. The resultant inconsistent response to domestic violence and child protection by government and non‐ government agencies suggests the need for domestic violence interagency guidelines. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Marital violence: An integrated systems approach

A review of current issues and approaches to the problem of marital violence is presented. In order to understand volatile relationships, these attachments are discussed within the context of the normal progression of events in the formation and development of a marriage. A systems model that integrates current conceptual thinking is presented. The article concludes with a paradigm for therapeutic decision-making and strategies that flow from the integrated systems model.     

Victim of and witness to violence: an interactional perspective on mothers' perceptions of children exposed to intimate partner violence

This article reports a study of how mothers perceive the effects of intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy and children's exposure to IPV: (a) Do interactional aspects of IPV have a negative impact on the fetus during pregnancy or on the newborn baby? and (b) Is there a relationship between interactional aspects of IPV and (a) children's risk of being exposed to IPV and (b) the age of the child when at risk for exposure to IPV? A representative sample of 137 IPV help-seeking mothers in Norway was interviewed. Severity of physical IPV and injury from sexual IPV increased the risk of consequences to the fetus. Frequency of physical and psychological IPV increased the likelihood of children's exposure. Duration of the partnership increased the risk of children's exposure to physical and sexual IPV. Finally, there was a negative linear association between children's age when exposed for the first time and frequency of physical and psychological IPV.     

Building an evidence-base for the training of evidence-based treatments in community settings: Use of an expert-informed approach

In order to make EBTs available to a large number of children and families, developers and expert therapists have used their experience and expertise to train community-based therapists in EBTs. Understanding current training practices of treatment experts may be one method for establishing best practices for training community-based therapists prior to comprehensive empirical examinations of training practices. A qualitative study was conducted using surveys and phone interviews to identify the specific procedures used by treatment experts to train and implement an evidence-based treatment in community settings. Twenty-three doctoral-level, clinical psychologists were identified to participate because of their expertise in conducting and training Parent–Child Interaction Therapy. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were completed by phone, later transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic coding. The de-identified data were coded by two independent qualitative data researchers and then compared for consistency of interpretation. The themes that emerged following the final coding were used to construct a training protocol to be empirically tested. The goal of this paper is not only to understand the current state of training practices for training therapists in a particular EBT, Parent–Child Interaction Therapy, but also to illustrate the use of expert opinion as the best available evidence in preparation for empirical evaluation.     

Domestic violence and child abuse: developing sensitive policies and guidance

Domestic violence is everywhere and nowhere. No statutory organization or health service has work with either perpetrators or survivors of domestic violence (usually women and children) as the primary focus of their service, yet all agencies will have very significant numbers among their clients/service users. It is therefore crucial that the policy framework is developed both within and between agencies to address the need, and scope, of intervention in this area and particularly the impact on children. Currently, significant steps have been taken by some agencies in the UK to address this previously neglected issue, though the developments are patchy. This paper draws on a UK‐wide research study which mapped the extent and range of service provision for families where there is domestic violence and also developed a framework of good practice indicators for provision in this area. This article examines one of the indicators of good practice arising from the research—that of policy development—within social service departments and within the multi‐agency arena. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Domestic violence research: Theoretical and practice implications for social work

Identified in the late eighties as the number one public health risk to adult women by the Surgeon General of the United States, domestic violence remains the leading cause of injuries to women, ages 15 to 44, more common than muggings, auto accidents and cancer deaths combined (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 1992). Academics and practitioners have assessed the problem and its potential solutions using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Yet, how far have we come and how much do we really know? This paper will attempt to answer these questions by critiquing the “current state of affairs” of domestic violence research. Common theories of causation and their applications to social work theory and practice will be delineated and an ecologically based intervention for domestic violence will be proposed.