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Child Abuse Review: Rising to new heights with our 2017 Impact Factor

I’m not usually one to boast, but as a co-editor of Child Abuse Review I’m feeling really pleased with the latest news from the journal.

2017 Thomson Reuters Journal Impact Factor

The 2017 Thomson Reuters Journal Impact Factors were released this week, and I’m really proud to report that our impact factor for Child Abuse Review has shot up from 1.543 to 2.253!

CAR Impact Factors 2011-17

This is particularly encouraging as we had set our target, in our 2014-19 business plan to increase it to 1.2 by 2017.

The result places the journal 4th out of 42 social work journals and 9th out of 46 in family studies.

 

Publishing high quality research that has an impact on practice

While journal impact factors have their limitations, I think this is a recognition of the fact that we are managing to publish really important, high-quality research in child protection, and that this research does have an impact on practice.

Artwork by Harry Venning
Artwork by Harry Venning

This was also reflected in the 2018 Wiley prizes for the best papers published in Child Abuse Review, which were announced at the BASPCAN congress in April:

 

  1. First Prize – Beyond the Physical Incident Model: How Children Living with Domestic Violence are Harmed By and Resist Regimes of Coercive Control by Emma Katz (Liverpool Hope University) – Published in Volume 25 Issue 1 (2016)

 

  1. Second Prize – The Prevalence of Child Maltreatment across the Globe: Review of a Series of Meta‐Analyses by Marije Stoltenborgh, Marian J. Bakermans‐Kranenburg, Lenneke R.A. Alink and Marinus H. van IJzendoorn (Leiden University) – Published in Volume 24 Issue 1 (2015)

 

  1. Third Prize – Risk and Protective Factors for Physical and Emotional Abuse Victimisation amongst Vulnerable Children in South Africa by Franziska Meinck (University of Oxford), Lucie D. Cluver (University of Oxford, and University of Cape Town), Mark E. Boyes (University of Oxford), Lodrick D. Ndhlovu (Tintswalo Hospital) – Published in Volume 24 Issue 3 (2015).

 

All three of these papers are freely available online for the next year, as are all our editorials and many other papers, so do take a look.

All this could only have been achieved through the hard work of our editorial team, Diane Heath, our editorial manager, the publishing team at Wiley, and, of course, our authors, reviewers and readers. Thank you all.

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All you need is love (plus a good evidence base, a healthy dose of scepticism, and patience and perseverance in working with families!)

All you need is love?

Our latest issue of Child Abuse Review, now available online, explores some of the dilemmas in working with violent fathers and their families. Positive affirmation and support is a central part of such work, but is it really all that is needed? Can violent men really change?

In our first paper for this issue Timothy Broady and colleagues report on an evaluation of a men’s domestic violence intervention programme, using a qualitative analysis of interviews with 21 participants (Broady et al., 2017). Perhaps the most striking finding of this research was the universal expression, by these fathers, of love for their children, and how that was ‘motivating them to stop using violence and to develop positive relationships with all family members’. Broady and his colleagues suggest that ‘the frustrations reported at not having contact with their children emerged as a particularly powerful experience that could be harnessed to encourage men to acknowledge the severity of their behaviour and to find alternative ways of relating to family members.’

 

It is not sufficient to put all the responsibility for keeping their children safe on mothers who themselves are victims of the violence and controlling behaviour perpetrated by their partners. If we are going to bring about any meaningful change in families affected by domestic violence, the perpetrators of that violence need to take responsibility for their attitudes and behaviours, and to take genuine steps towards changing not just the violent behaviours themselves, but also the deeper attitudes of power and control which underlie those behaviours.

 

Picking up on these findings, it seems imperative that intervention programmes seek to understand and work with what motivates violent perpetrators to change. If their love for their children can help motivate change, that must surely be a good thing. However, it is essential that practitioners, while showing compassion and a supportive attitude to their clients, are not naïve about the challenges involved. Change does not happen overnight, and the manipulative, controlling attitudes of many perpetrators of domestic violence mean that a degree of scepticism is important, along with patience and perseverance in working with these men.

As with so much of our safeguarding practice, we need to hold on to the hope that children’s lives can be better.  We need to maintain high expectations of parents in their care of their children; provide them with the support that will enable them to meet those high expectations; and keep our focus on the child, so that we are prepared to challenge and act when those expectations are not met.

 

Balancing support and scrutiny

The difficulties in achieving a balance between support and scrutiny are brought into a different perspective in a paper by Louise Caffrey (2017), specifically in the context of volunteers working in supported child contact centres. Caffrey’s research is an excellent example of how systems methodology can help get beneath the surface of individual behaviours to understand the context, values, and organisational systems which may underlie those behaviours. Pertinently, she found that while the volunteers were aware that child safety and protection were everyone’s business, and were knowledgeable about their responsibilities to refer child protection concerns and how to do so, there were other emphases that could ‘stand in tension with their safeguarding commitments’. In particular, she found that workers emphasised a need to provide a welcoming service, to be non-judgemental, and to be neutral. Indeed, practices such as listening in on conversations, recording observations, or finding out about the background case histories, which were felt to jeopardise the aim of creating a welcoming environment, or that could be perceived as biased or judgemental, were actively avoided or viewed negatively by these workers.

 

‘You have to dance, not wrestle’

That was how one midwife described how she approached addressing child protection concerns with vulnerable pregnant women in a study from New South Wales by Louise Everitt, Caroline Homer and Jennifer Fenwick (Everitt et al., 2016). In a qualitative interview study, the authors identified four core themes that reflected some of the complexities of working with women and their unborn babies. Central to all of these was the dilemma caused by a partnership model of care, when potential child protection concerns are identified. The statutory power carried by community services could be seen as daunting by these midwives, and a potential threat to their relationship with their clients. Indeed, what comes across strongly in reading this report, is the emphasis these midwives place on maintaining a relationship with the mothers with whom they are working, and to do everything possible to support these mothers and enable them to take their babies home and care for them safely. One key aspect of this was the emphasis on being open and honest with these mothers, not going behind their backs, but providing them with support to try and change. Once again, this study highlights just how challenging such work can be, requiring perseverance, time and energy to achieve a good outcome.

 

Along with these studies of working with parents, other papers in this issue explore the impact of neglect and abuse on young people’s resilience and psychosocial adaptation, including a paper from Extremadura in Spain reporting on young people placed in residential care because of neglect (Moreno-Manso et al., 2017), and one from Jeff Moore, Christine Thornton and Mary Hughes (2017) reporting on a study with 22 Irish emigrant survivors of institutional abuse. In contrast, Duncan Helm (2017) reports on a thought-provoking ethnographic study of a social work team in Scotland. Helm identified high levels of case knowledge, along with exploration, curiosity and hypothesis generation, without the need to necessarily identify solutions. Practitioners were able to share knowledge and resources that supported critical thinking. However, He also identified an absence of challenging dialogue and dialectic debate. Helm’s findings emphasise the importance of both physical and emotional ‘secure space’ for practitioners, but highlights the need to promote ‘working team cultures which facilitate challenging yet supportive dialogue as an aid to sense-making’.

 

Love, challenge, patience and perseverance

Despite John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s assertion, in 1967, that ‘all you need is love’, the research reported in this issue of Child Abuse Review suggest that this is not the whole picture. ‘Love’, expressed in these papers as affection, empathy, compassion and support, for parents, children and young people, and colleagues, is a crucial component of safeguarding practice. Love of their children may indeed be a strong motivator for violent fathers, or vulnerable mothers, but expressions of love, by themselves, do not guarantee a child’s safety, and need to be accompanied by genuine and sustained changes in attitudes and behaviours that clearly promote the child’s needs. For practitioners, empathy and support towards the parents with whom they are working need to be balanced with professional curiosity and challenge, and attitudes of patience and perseverance in working with these families.

For those affected by abuse or neglect, compassion and understanding is clearly needed from those to whom they turn for support; that compassion and understanding needs to be grounded in empowering approaches of sharing control and helping the individual to build resilience.

 

 

Child Abuse Review Issue 26:5

Table of Contents

All You Need is Love (Plus a Good Evidence Base, a Healthy Dose of Scepticism, and Patience and Perseverance in Working with Families!) (pages 323–327)

Peter Sidebotham

 
‘I Miss My Little One A Lot’: How Father Love Motivates Change in Men Who Have Used Violence (pages 328–338)

Timothy R. Broady, Rebecca Gray, Irene Gaffney and Pamela Lewis

 
The Importance of Perceived Organisational Goals: A Systems Thinking Approach to Understanding Child Safeguarding in the Context of Domestic Abuse (pages 339–350)

Louise Caffrey

 
Working with Vulnerable Pregnant Women Who Are At Risk of Having their Babies Removed by the Child Protection Agency in New South Wales, Australia (pages 351–363)

Louise Everitt, Caroline Homer and Jennifer Fenwick

 

Psychosocial Adaptation of Young Victims of Physical Neglect (pages 364–374)

Juan Manuel Moreno-Manso, Mª Elena García-Baamonde, Eloísa Guerrero-Barona, Macarena Blázquez-Alonso, José Manuel Pozueco-Romero and Mª José Godoy-Merin

 

On the Road to Resilience: The Help-Seeking Experiences of Irish Emigrant Survivors of Institutional Abuse (pages 375–387)

Jeff Moore, Christine Thornton and Mary Hughes

 
Can I Have A Word? Social Worker Interaction and Sense-Making (pages 388–398)

Duncan Helm

 

 

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International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Today, 25th November, has been designated by the UN as an international day for the elimination of violence against women.

 

“Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation, public health pandemic and serious obstacle to sustainable development. It imposes large-scale costs on families, communities and economies. The world cannot afford to pay this price.” — Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General

 

In my work in the field of child abuse, I have increasingly become aware of the huge tragedy of violence against women, the awful scars it causes to the women themselves, and to their children. It is also a scar across the whole of humanity – something Elaine Storkey has explored in her powerful book, Scars Across Humanity. We must do more to stop it.

 

Violence against women harms their children too.

In the three years from April 2011 to March 2014, Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England carried out a total of 293 Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) (1). Each one of these concerned a child or children who had died or been seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect. In a review of these SCRs, we found that in 54% of cases, there was documented evidence of domestic violence in the parents’ relationship. This included 70 children who had died within a context of domestic violence in the family.

It is now abundantly clear from research that living with domestic abuse is always harmful to children. This was emphasised in a recent special issue of the journal Child Abuse Review (2). At its extreme, this may result in the death of a child, the risks for which may continue even after separation. However, far more children continue to live in households where domestic violence is a part of ‘normal’ family life. The myth that because the children are in a different room and so don’t witness any actual violence, they aren’t harmed by it, has been very clearly shown to be a myth. Children pick up on the stress their parents feel; they experience the fear and terror when their mother is being hit or shouted at; they suffer from the controlling, threatening behaviour, the isolation and intimidation that are imposed on their mothers (for the reality is that, in most of these cases, it is the mother who is the victim).

Over the past few years, there has been huge progress in how we as a society, and as child welfare professionals, recognise and respond to domestic violence, including a growing recognition of the impact on children of living with domestic violence. However, there is still much to do. In our research we identified the importance of police, health and social care professionals carefully considering the needs of children in a family whenever there is evidence of domestic violence; of recognising that domestic violence should not be seen solely in terms of violent incidents, but also within the context of ongoing coercive control and the impact of this on the parent and children; and that controlling behaviour may continue to pose risks to mothers and children, even following separation.

By recognising these risks, and taking action to protect women and children from domestic violence, perhaps we could prevent some of those 70 deaths and many more of the cases of serious harm and children and women living in fear.

 

The full research report, Pathways to harm, pathways to protection, is freely available for download from Research in Practice: http://seriouscasereviews.rip.org.uk

The special issue of Child Abuse Review is available via the BASPCAN website: http://www.baspcan.org.uk/child-abuse-review/

 

 

 

 

  1. Sidebotham P, Brandon M, Bailey S, Belderson P, Dodsworth J, Garstang J, et al. Pathways to harm, pathways to protection: a triennial analysis of serious case reviews 2011 to 2014. London: Department for Education; 2016.
  2. Humphreys C, Bradbury-Jones C. Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Children: Focus, Response and Intervention. Child Abuse Review. 2015;24(4):231-4.

 

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Evidence-informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

This Friday, 18th November, we are celebrating 25 years of the journal Child Abuse Review with a special anniversary conference in Birmingham.

To mark the occasion, we have launched a virtual issue of Child Abuse Review which is freely available to download from the journal website:

Child Abuse Review

Evidence-informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

In this virtual issue we have pulled together a selection of papers from across the 25 years of the journal’s publication within the four conference themes of neglect, child sexual exploitation, domestic violence, and research into practice. We include papers by each of our four keynote speakers, as well as papers by several of the other free-paper authors who are speaking at the conference.

Over the 25 years of the journal, we have seen an increasing emphasis on evidence-informed practice: ‘the application of appropriate evidence, combined with the experience of the practitioner and their responsiveness to the current context’ (Sidebotham, 2013). Equally important is the emphasis on research being informed by and relevant to practice.

 

Neglect

Neglect is one of the most prevalent and most challenging forms of child maltreatment. Our keynote speaker, Marian Brandon, is well known for her work on Serious Case Reviews, and has given a lot of thought to the role of neglect in child fatality and serious injury (Brandon, Bailey, Belderson, & Larsson, 2014). She points out that while neglect is rarely the direct cause of a child maltreatment fatality, it is a contributory factor in a much larger proportion of cases, and we need a more nuanced understanding of the different forms of neglect and their potential impact on the child. Given all that we know about the prevalence and impact of neglect, it is perhaps surprising that this topic is relatively under-represented in published research. One of our other conference speakers, Katherine Kloppen, undertook a systematic review of prevalence studies of child maltreatment in Nordic countries and found only one study reporting on the prevalence of neglect (Kloppen, Mæhle, Kvello, Haugland, & Breivik, 2015). Within Child Abuse Review, we have been able to publish a number of original research articles focusing specifically on neglect, including our 2014 special issue, from which we would particularly highlight the papers by Elaine Farmer, another conference speaker: (Farmer & Lutman, 2014).

 

Child Sexual Exploitation

Child sexual exploitation (CSE) has come to prominence more recently, although it is clearly not a new phenomenon, as was pointed out by Nina Biehal, another conference speaker, in her 1999 paper on the risks associated with going missing from substitute care (Biehal & Wade, 1999) and in a highly cited review of CSE by Elaine Chase and June Statham (Chase & Statham, 2005). Our conference keynote speaker on this theme, Jenny Pearce, has been a leading advocate for appropriate responses to dealing with the issues raised by sexual exploitation, as highlighted in an early discussion paper (J. Pearce, 2006) and a more recent review of how Safeguarding Children Boards work to protect children from sexual exploitation (J. J. Pearce, 2014).

 

Domestic Violence

Our awareness of the impact of domestic violence on children has similarly grown over the years, and it is now much more clearly recognised as always being harmful to children. Part of this has involved the recognition that children are harmed even if they are not directly involved in the violence, and that the ongoing context of coercive control may be as damaging to children (if not more so) as any physical incidents. In a landmark paper published earlier this year, Emma Katz explores these issues and considers how we as practitioners can respond more appropriately (Katz, 2016). Preventing and responding to domestic violence presents huge challenges to practitioners, particularly where children are involved. In a systematic review available online through our Early View function, William Turner and colleagues searched for evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to improve the response of professionals (Turner et al., 2015). They found good evidence of training interventions improving knowledge, attitudes and clinical competence, but less evidence around system level interventions. One of the biggest challenges in this area is how to work with fathers, and this is an issue which Stephanie Holt, our keynote conference speaker, has specifically explored in her research (Holt, 2015).

 

Research into Practice

Our fourth topic of research into practice is addressed by one of the former editors of Child Abuse Review, Kevin Browne. Kevin has been a leading advocate for child protection services, particularly in Eastern Europe, and his paper comparing institutional care and international adoption between Romania and Lithuania is published online through Early View (Chou & Browne, 2016). Translating research into practice isn’t always easy and the paper by Helen Buckley and colleagues exploring the factors that may influence practitioner uptake of research is well worth reading (Buckley, Tonmyr, Lewig, & Jack, 2013). They highlight particular ways in which practitioners can both access and use research evidence to inform their practice, and get involved in further study and research, thus promoting the full circle of evidence-informed practice and practice-informed research.

 

You can access all the papers from the 25th anniversary virtual issue by clicking on the link below:

Child Abuse Review 25th anniversary virtual issue

 

Content of the Child Abuse Review 25th Anniversary Virtual Issue

Neglect

The Role of Neglect in Child Fatality and Serious Injury
(Volume 23, Issue 4, 2014)
Marian Brandon, Sue Bailey, Pippa Belderson and Birgit Larsson

Prevalence of Intrafamilial Child Maltreatment in the Nordic countries: A Review
(Volume 24, Issue 1, 2015)
Kathrine Kloppen, Magne Mæhle, Øyvind Kvello, Siren Haugland and Kyrre Breivik

Working Effectively with Neglected Children and Their Families – What Needs To Change?
(Volume 23, Issue 4, 2014)
Elaine Farmer and Eleanor Lutman


Child Sexual Exploitation

Taking a Chance? The Risks Associated with Going Missing from Substitute Care
(Volume 8, Issue 6, 1999)
Nina Biehal and Jim Wade

Commercial and sexual exploitation of children and young people in the UK—a review
(Volume 14, Issue 1, 2005)
Elaine Chase and June Statham

Who needs to be involved in safeguarding sexually exploited young people?
(Volume 15, Issue 5, 2006)
Jenny Pearce

‘What’s Going On’ to Safeguard Children and Young People from Child Sexual Exploitation: A Review of Local Safeguarding Children Boards’ Work to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation
(Volume 23, Issue 3, 2014)
Jenny J. Pearce


Domestic Violence

Beyond the Physical Incident Model: How Children Living with Domestic Violence are Harmed By and Resist Regimes of Coercive Control
(Volume 25, Issue 1, 2016)
Emma Katz

Interventions to Improve the Response of Professionals to Children Exposed to Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Systematic Review
Early View: First Published 29 June 2015
William Turner, Jonathan Broad, Jessica Drinkwater, Adam Firth, Marianne Hester, Nicky Stanley, Eszter Szilassy and Gene Feder

Post-separation Fathering and Domestic Abuse: Challenges and Contradictions
(Volume 24, Issue 3, 2015)
Stephanie Holt


Research into Practice

The Relationship over Time between International Adoption and Institutional Care in Romania and Lithuania
Early View: First Published 14 July 2015
Shihning Chou and Kevin D. Browne

Factors Influencing the Uptake of Research Evidence in Child Welfare: A Synthesis of Findings from Australia, Canada and Ireland
(Volume 23, Issue 1, 2014)
Helen Buckley, Lil Tonmyr, Kerry Lewig and Susan Jack

 

 

 

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Evidence – Informed Practice, Practice – Informed Research

Celebrating 25 years of BASPCAN’s Journal

‘Child Abuse Review’

Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham

Friday 18 November 2016

 

 

25th anniversary issue 1 coverAs one of the editors of Child Abuse Review, I would really like to invite you to join us on the 18th November in Birmingham for our 25th Anniversary conference. It promises to be an exciting and challenging programme, with some great guest speakers and inspiring free papers.

 

 

 

 

The day will include:

An optional pre-conference breakfast meeting for delegates on how to get published in Child Abuse Review

 

An opening plenary session setting the theme, with four parallel sessions on the themes:

  • Child Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse
  • Domestic Violence and Parenting Issues
  • Translating Research into Practice
  • Neglect

Each parallel session will include a keynote lecture, a number of short presentations from submitted abstracts, and a plenary discussion.

Interactive poster presentations will be held at morning coffee and lunchtime. The posters will be up for viewing all day from 9am until 4.30pm

A closing plenary and celebration of 25 years of Child Abuse Review.

 

Book online at http://www.baspcan.org.uk/booking.php

 

To see the full programme, click here

4-page-programme-25th-anniversary-flier

 

 

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Continuity and change in child protection: challenges in research and practice

 

I am pleased to announce that the latest issue of Child Abuse Review is now published and available online. Six research papers and a freely accessible editorial focus on continuity and change in child protection.

Last year’s special issue on domestic abuse and safeguarding children generated an unprecedented number of submissions to the journal. This emphasises just how crucial the issue is for children’s safety and wellbeing. In their editorial for that issue, Cathy Humphreys and Caroline Bradbury-Jones identified seven key principles in relation to safeguarding and domestic abuse, relating to focus, response and intervention (Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones 2015). In this issue of Child Abuse Review we pick up on those, with two papers exploring interventions with violent fathers, drawing on Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones’ assertion that risk assessment and risk management of the perpetrator should be a focus of intervention.

 

To reduce the prevalence and impact of domestic violence, we need to engage both with those affected by it (the women and children) and with the perpetrators

 

We include two papers which consider some specific vulnerable situations for young people: those who run away or go missing from home; and those who are involved in gang membership. They present some challenging and perhaps surprising results. We include an analysis of national data on under 5 mortality rates in the former Soviet Union, and a nationwide survey of teams providing medical evaluations for possible sexual abuse in the USA.

 

Young people consistently cited family difficulties as the main issue influencing their decision to run away from home, including difficulties in parental that management of their child’s behaviour, and significant family stresses. They also identified problems at school and the young person’s own emotional health as key underlying factors.

 

Young people who go missing want to be heard, to be treated with respect, to be able to exercise autonomy, and to feel that someone cares (Taylor, Bradbury-Jones et al. 2014).

 

Read the full editorial here.

 

List of Contents

Gray      “I’m working towards getting back together”: Client accounts of motivation related to relationship status in men’s behaviour change programmes in New South Wales, Australia

McConnell and Taylor Evaluating programmes for violent fathers: challenges and ethical review

Hill ‘No-one runs away for no reason’ Understanding safeguarding issues when children and young people go missing from home

Cepeda et al Childhood Trauma among Mexican-American Gang Members and Delinquent Youth: A Comparative Exploratory Study

Pritchard and Mirza Under-fives Child Mortality and Child-Abuse-Related-Deaths in the former USSR: Is there an under-reporting of abuse related deaths?

Greeley et al A Nationwide Survey of Peer-Review Practices on Child Maltreatment Teams

 

Book reviews: Critical Perspectives on Child Sexual Exploitation and Related Trafficking edited by M. Melrose and J. Pearce; Child Maltreatment and High Risk Families by J. Taylor and A. Lazenbatt; Safeguarding and Protecting children, Young People and families: A Guide for Nurses and Midwives by Gill Watson and Sandra Rodwell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Humphreys, C. and C. Bradbury-Jones (2015). “Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding Children: Focus, Response and Intervention.” Child Abuse Review 24(4): 231-234.

Taylor, J., C. Bradbury-Jones, H. Hunter, K. Sanford, T. Rahilly and N. Ibrahim (2014). “Young People’s Experiences of Going Missing From Care: A Qualitative Investigation using Peer Researchers.” Child Abuse Review 23(6): 387-401.

 

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Evidence-Informed Practice, Practice-informed Research

Every day in the UK, thousands of children are living with the reality of child abuse or neglect. A huge amount of positive work goes on throughout the country, with professionals working alongside children and their parents to offer support and protection, and to mitigate against the devastating short- and long-term impact of abuse.

 

All too often, however, professionals get blamed when things go wrong: on the one hand, being criticised for failing to act to protect vulnerable children; while on the other, being accused of interfering unnecessarily in family life. It is essential, therefore, that the work we do to protect children and support families is informed by high-quality research, and applied by skilled professionals working within appropriate guidelines.

 

Evidence-informed practice is one of the hallmarks of authoritative child protection, a concept I have explored in an editorial for Child Abuse Review.

 

Evidence-informed practice is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence, integrated with relevant expertise and an understanding of the context, to guide decision making in relation to individual cases.

Sidebotham, 2009, based on Sackett, 1996

 

 

Equally important, the research we undertake into child maltreatment and child protection needs to be informed and driven by practice: by the needs of children and families and through listening carefully to them and to practitioners.

 

Child Abuse Review 25th Anniversary Conference

So, with that in mind, I am particularly excited about a conference we are holding in Birmingham later this year.

We have five exceptional key-note speakers, and are anticipating a wide range of high-quality free papers.

The deadline for abstract submission is 30th June, so get your abstract in quickly.

Further details and an abstract submission form can be found on the BASPCAN home page.

 

  

Friday 18 November 2016

Royal Angus Hotel, Birmingham

 

Join authors and editors past and present for this special one-day conference to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Child Abuse Review

 

The day will include:

  • Optional pre-conference breakfast meeting for delegates on how to get published in Child Abuse Review
  • Opening plenary session setting the theme
  • Two parallel sessions in the morning and two in the afternoon on the following themes:
    • Child Sexual Exploitation
    • Neglect
    • Domestic violence
    • Translating research into practice
    • Each parallel session will include one invited keynote lecture, a number of short presentations from submitted abstracts, and a plenary discussion.
  • A closing plenary and celebration of 25 years of Child Abuse Review.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Nicky Stanley, University of Central Lancashire

Professor Marian Brandon, University of East Anglia

Professor Jenny Pearce, University of Bedfordshire

Dr Stephanie Holt, Trinity College, Dublin

Professor Kevin Browne, Nottingham University

 

Find out more:

Visit the BASPCAN website for the full programme, speaker updates and booking information – www.baspcan.org.uk

 

BASPCAN, 17 PRIORY STREET, YORK, YO1 6ET – TEL: 01904 613605 – conferences@baspcan.org.uk

Book online at http://www.baspcan.org.uk/booking.php

Registered Charity No. 279119

 

You can sign up for free contents alerts for Child Abuse Review at the journal home page

 

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If I saw Mum was upset… Children’s experiences of coercive control

 

‘If I saw Mum was upset I’d give her a cuddle or something like that, try and make her feel happy.’ (Bob, aged 12)

The Archers –

a ‘contemporary drama in a rural setting’ – is apparently the world’s longest-running radio soap opera.

Recently it has barged its way into our national consciousness with the unfolding storyline of the increasingly controlling behaviour of one of the main characters, Rob Titchener, towards his new wife, Helen. The narrative appears to have captured something of the reality of coercive and controlling behaviour that many women (and also fewer, though still many, men) in our society suffer as a daily, lived experience.

It is a reality that I am coming across increasingly in the Serious Case Reviews I have been studying as part of a Department for Education-funded project to explore the lessons that can be learned nationally from serious and fatal child maltreatment. Out of 175 case reviews where a child has died or been seriously harmed through abuse or neglect, 94 (54%) have had evidence of domestic violence within the parents’ relationships. I suspect the reality may be even higher.

And, sadly, that doesn’t capture the far greater numbers of children living with the fear and intimidation of ongoing domestic violence (both physical and through other coercive behaviours).

 

Beyond the physical incident model

In our January issue of Child Abuse Review, we published an important paper by Emma Katz from Liverpool Hope University: Beyond the physical incident model: How children living with domestic violence are harmed by and resist regimes of coercive control. Dr Katz interviewed 15 mothers and 15 children who had managed to separate from perpetrators of domestic violence.

 

‘Lots of times when Mum was giving me attention he’d tell her to go over to him so she’d have to leave me to play by myself.’ (Shannon, aged 10)

 

The responses to her interviews demonstrated how, even in the absence of specific incidents of physical violence, these children and young people experienced horrific lives which were dominated by the coercive, controlling behaviour of the perpetrators, including:

  • Control of the women’s and children’s time, movement and activities within the home
  • Preventing mothers spending time with their children
  • Limiting the children’s ability just to be children
  • Isolating mothers and children from their families, friends and sources of support
  • Restricting what mothers could spend their money on

 

‘[Because of the perpetrator’s/father’s control] I just didn’t go out, so then the children didn’t go out. It was just school and home. So they missed out on days out, family trips, socialising with people. And they’ve missed out on knowing what healthy relationships are about in other families because children don’t make as many friendships if you can’t mix with other mums.’ (Marie, mother)

 

However, in spite of the extremely negative impacts on these children, Dr Katz also found examples of remarkable resilience: of children and their mothers finding ways to support and sustain each other, and ultimately to escape from the entrapment that had been built around them.

In her paper, Dr Katz argues that we need to move beyond models based on specific incidents of physical violence, to be aware of the daily lived reality of many of these mothers and children, and to seek ways to recognise and support their attempts to build resilience and break free.

You can read and download Dr Katz’s report for free from the Child Abuse Review website.