Domestic Violence
Integration of Services Training Series
Themes for Today
Our focus is on achieving child safety, permanency,
and well-being by:
– Supporting survivors to keep themselves and their
children safe.
– Holding batterers accountable for their actions.
– Assisting all family members in recovery.
2
Objectives
• Summarize dynamics and common impacts on family
members.
• Review approaches to screening.
• Identify interventions that assist survivors in
providing safety for themselves and children.
• Identify and develop strategies to partner with the
survivor and community to hold batterers
accountable.
3
Agenda
1. Power and Control
1 hr
2. Dynamics and Impacts
2 hrs.
3. Screening
1.5 hrs.
4. Interventions
1.5 hr
Slide Show 1
Florida Criminal Definition of DV
"Domestic violence" means any assault, aggravated
assault, battery, aggravated battery, sexual assault,
sexual battery, stalking, aggravated stalking,
kidnapping, false imprisonment, or any criminal offense
resulting in physical injury or death of one family or
household member by another family or household
member.
- Ch. 741 F.S.
6
Definition of Family or Household Member
"Family or household member" means spouses, former
spouses, persons related by blood or marriage, persons
who are presently residing together as if a family or
who have resided together in the past as if a family, and
persons who are parents of a child in common
regardless of whether they have been married. With
the exception of persons who have a child in common,
the family or household members must be currently
residing or have in the past resided together in the
same single dwelling unit.
- Ch.741 F.S.
7
Family Violence Threatens Child
• Uses family or household member definition
from criminal statute.
• Builds on documentation from interviewing and
observations.
- Current and past incidents
- Information from children, caregivers, other
witnesses, and/or persons who know the family
well
• Documentation of a pattern of domestic violence
related incidents.
- DCF Allegation Matrix
8
Family Centered Practice Model
Role of Investigator/DCM
• IMPRESS upon the family the importance of child and
family safety.
• EDUCATE the family about the danger of witnessing
and experiencing domestic violence.
• ENGAGE with survivor and community partners to
increase:
– Self-esteem and self-efficacy
– Knowledge of dynamics and resources
– Ability to protect self and child(ren)
Role of Investigator/DCM
• ASSIST survivor with strengthening/building formal
and informal partnerships for achieving safety and
well-being.
• MOBILIZE child welfare system resources to support
safety planning and recovery.
• CREATE a context for change for the batterer.
Objectives for Session 2:
Dynamics and Impacts
• Summarize common impacts of DV on family
members and family dynamics.
• Summarize survivor efforts to protect the children.
• Work with all family members in a manner that
expresses empathy and hope for achieving mutually
agreed upon goals.
Characteristics of a Batterer
A “batterer” is someone who has a consistent pattern
of coercive control of an intimate partner. Coercive
control includes different forms of:
– Psychological abuse
– Intimidation
– An inflated sense of self-entitlement
– Physical or sexual abuse
13
The Perception that Abuse and Control are
Justified
• Behaviors to control increase over time.
• The batterer perceives his controlling behavior as
justified and therefore sees his partner’s reluctance
to be controlled as evidence of her mental instability,
volatility, or desire to control him.
- Bancroft and Silverman, 2002
14
Characteristics that are common…
The overarching attitudinal characteristic is
entitlement:
– The belief that one has special rights and privileges
without accompanying reciprocal responsibilities.
– The belief that violence can be justified against a
partner.
– The belief that family life should center around the
meeting of his needs.
15
What Entitlement Looks Like…
Entitlement in the context of “battering” is evident
through:
– Demands for physical and emotional caretaking.
– The perception that when needs or wants are not
met, the batterer has been wronged.
– The tendency to see oneself as being provoked to
violence.
16
Types of Entitlement
• High demand for service:
– Insistence that the batterer’s needs come first and
must be met.
• High level of control:
– Insistence on controlling even the most mundane
actions, decisions, expressions, behaviors, and
relationships of the partner.
Additional Characteristics
• Confusion of Love and Abuse:
– “My violence is a result of the
intensity of my love for my partner.
If I didn’t feel so deeply, I would not
get like that.”
• Externalization of Responsibility:
– “It’s not my fault.”
– Blaming the violence on stress,
substance abuse, issues from
childhood, intolerable emotional
state
18
Additional Characteristics
• Serial Battering:
– Batterers tend to
abuse more than one
woman over the
course of their adult
relationships.
Typology of Batterers
• 50% of batteres in research samples inflict low levels
of violence and psychological abuse.
• Batterers with strong pro-social connections
(employment, community involvement) and without
other criminal tendencies are thought to have the
best prospects for achieving long-term behavior
change.
20
Anti-social or Hyper-violent Batterers
• Have persistent behavioral problems
• Are generally violent, have criminal records that cite
multiple violent incidents
• Are more prone to engage in severe or threatening
dominance struggles with authority figures
• In exceptional circumstances this can result in
violence towards child welfare personnel or law
enforcement
21
Myth-Busting
1. Domestic violence and substance abuse:
– Most incidents occur without the use of alcohol.
– Roughly 80% of men who abuse alcohol do not beat
their partners.
2. Domestic violence and mental health problems:
– Men who are abusive do not have substantially
higher rates of psychopathology than men who do
not abuse.
– There is no particular personality disorder or mental
illness diagnosis shown consistently by men who
abuse.
22
Myth-Busting, continued
3. Men who abuse their partners have poor impulse
control:
– Abusive patterns reveal behaviors that require
forethought. “Battering” is seen as a pattern of
behaviors, rather than impulsive reactions.
– Further evidence of this can be seen in the rate at
which men who abuse can calm themselves when
the police arrive.
23
Myth Busting, Continued
“I think I could tell if he was an batterer….”
• Many batterers use systems such as the juvenile and
probate courts and the child protection system to punish
battered women through struggles for custody.
• Batterers are able to perform well under formal
observation.
24
The Range of Parenting Behaviors
of Batterers who engage in DV
• Children can be made into “accomplices”, siding
against the survivor.
• Batterers sometimes encourage children to
disrespect their mothers (psychological abuse) or to
assault them (physical abuse).
• Children are used to manipulate the survivor, reveal
safety plans or whereabouts, or to spy on the
survivor.
• Child visitation can be used to obtain access to
mothers.
25
The Range of Parenting Behaviors
of Batterers who engage in DV
• Batterers tend to vacillate between being
authoritarian and rigid to maintain control with an
intolerance for resistance or argument and
• Permissive or neglectful, either to curry favor with
children or because of pre-occupation with self.
• Children are at risk of abuse: 50% of men who
regularly abuse their partners also physically abuse
their children.
26
Batterers who engage in DV actively work to prevent
Partners from Effective Parenting
• Increased physical abuse and murder rates during
pregnancy.
• Direct interference:
– Keeping the mother from comforting or picking up the
child(ren)
– Contradiction and undermining the mother’s attempts
at limit setting and discipline
• Indirect Interference and Undermining:
– Harsh and frequent criticism of the survivor’s
parenting
– Directing an older child to be in charge of parenting,
implying that the survivor is incapable
27
Impact of Domestic Violence on Survivors
Slide show 2
28
Stages of Change: Survivors Living with DV
1. Denial: ‘It was an accident, it didn’t happen’
2. Guilt: ‘There is a problem, but I deserve it.’
3. Enlightenment: ‘I am not responsible, and I don’t
deserve this, but I want to work things out.’
4. Recovery: ‘This is not going to change. I need to make
a new life’.
- Adapted from L. Walker, The Battered Women’s Syndrome
29
Power and Control Video
Reasons Why She Stays…*
Susan G McGee.
*First, that is the wrong question…
1. *Why does the batterer
batter? Why does this
continue in our society?
2. Separation violence.
3. Psychological terror and
brainwashing (Stockholm Syndrome)
4. For the children: custody or
harm.
5. Isolation from support.
6. Some still love the batterer.
31
Reasons She Stays, continued
6. They believe counseling
will help.
7. Cannot get protection or
services.
8. Legal System failings.
9. Historically disempowered.
10. Cultural, moral, and
religious values.
32
Last, but not Least
They fear their children
will be killed.
33
Impact of DV on Children
Slide Show 3
Impact of DV on Children
• Daughters of batterers are 6.5 times more likely than
other girls to be the victims of incest.
• 63% of boys between the ages of 11 and 20 years of
age, who commit murder, commit murder against
their mother’s batterer.
• Sons of batterers are 1,000 times more likely to
commit domestic violence themselves.
35
Objectives for Session 3: Screening
• Assessing dangerousness.
• Gathering collateral information.
• Interviewing family members.
Initial In-Home Safety Assessment
• The parent, caregiver or household member(s) have
a history of violence or display current violent
behaviors (e.g. battery, domestic violence,
intimidation) AND the child may be in danger of
harm as a result.
• There is a pattern of continuing, escalating and/or
increasing frequency of incidents, either reported or
unreported (e.g. child discloses ongoing abuse or
chronic in-home violence for which no abuse or law
enforcement reports were made).
Family Assessment
• Emerging Dangers
– Are danger-related risk dynamics (substance abuse,
violence, domestic violence…) escalating in intensity
or frequency?
• Relationships/Domestic Violence Factors
– Has a history free of being a victim of domestic abuse
– Has a history free of perpetrating domestic abuse
– Has a history free of physical, and/or emotional
aggression towards others
– Balance of power with other household members
does not impact ability to protect a child
Ongoing Dangerousness Assessment
Dangerousness
The demonstrated
capacity to
continue inflicting
severe violence.
Ongoing Dangerousness Assessment
39
Assessing Dangerousness
Access
to a
weapon
Binging or
Chronic
Substance
Abuse
Severe &
Irrational
Jealousy
Danger
Recent
Instability
(Job loss or
Separation)
Severe
isolation
Threats to
Injure or
punish if
she leaves
Severe &
persistent
monitoring &
stalking
Factors that predict continuing violence
• Violent crimes and previous violations of protection
orders.
• Motor vehicle violations involving alcohol
intoxication/arrests due to substance abuse.
• Severe violence with spouses or children.
• Having attended a BIP that was not followed up on
by cessation of violence.
• History of suicidality or of suicidal ideation.
41
Gathering Information
OTHER
COLLATERAL
INTERVIEWS
FAMILY INTERVIEWS
Survivor
Batterer
Children
Other Household Members
Extended Family Members
EXISTING RECORDS
Criminal Records
Police “Call-outs”
Injunction History
Past CPS Reports and Summaries
Past Service Records, Evaluations
42
Family Centered Approach
• Increase
– Recognition of family strengths
– Reflection on actions
– Sense of responsibility
– Positive change
• Reduce
– Denial
– Minimization
Introduction to Interviewing Family Members
1. Assume that any family may be experiencing
domestic violence, no matter how individuals
present or seem to you.
–
Similar rates of domestic violence occur in all types
of locations, cities, suburbs, and rural areas.
–
Women of all races are about equally vulnerable to
violence with an intimate partner.
- Bureau of Justice, 1995
44
Introduction to Interviewing, continued
2. Interview each family member separately, even if
you begin with a joint interview.
3. Explain that your role is to assist parents in
attaining safety within the family.
4. Routinely give information that will connect
survivors to local DV Services.
Make this a part of your regular practice with all parents.
45
The Family Story Process
1. Engage: Build a bridge of strengths.
2. Appreciate and Align: Learn the family vision and try
to find common ground for partnering.
3. Develop Discrepancy: Find ways that the individual
already wants or has tried to change and build on it.
4. Support Efficacy: Use strengths to give people hope.
46
Interviewing batterers
• Do not reveal information that would endanger the
survivor.
• Start with the batterer’s wishes for the family and for
his relationships, building on strengths.
• Continuously assess your own safety during the
interview.
47
Sample Questions to Batterers
• When do you think the family has ‘worked’ the best?
• If you could magically make the family situation
better, what would you change?
• What are some changes you would like to see in
others in the family?
• What are some changes you have considered
making?
• What, if anything, have you already tried?
48
“But what if he tries to use excuses
like a bad childhood?”
• Seeing the link between trauma and battering does
not excuse the behavior, but may be a basis for
treatment to begin.
• Choosing competent providers who understand
trauma and domestic violence will keep the batterer
accountable clinically.
• Violence and abuse often beget violence and abuse.
That’s why the cycle must end.
49
Interviewing Survivors, Assumptions
• The survivor is focused on survival and safety, too.
• The survivor has considered and likely attempted to
leave in the past, and her/his actions are based on
what she thinks is realistic and safest.
• There’s probably more violence than what we know.
• The survivor is the best hope for children in terms of
maintaining a strong relationship while getting to
safety.
50
Interviewing Survivors, continued
• How it looks to the outside:
– “She is choosing her man over her children.”
• How it looks to the survivor:
– “I am making sacrifices to keep my family together
and keep my children as safe from harm as I am
capable.”
51
Bear in Mind…
• As afraid as the survivor may
be of losing her children, she
may be more concerned that
she will be killed, leaving her
children unprotected.
• We cannot know how many
ways the batterer has
threatened and brainwashed
the survivor and children.
52
Bear in Mind…
• It is inappropriate to pressure or threaten abused
women into providing information. By using
coercion, the interviewer is unwittingly competing
with the batterer, whose capacity to coerce is
greater.
• Good case practice involves acceptance of the
victim’s limits on disclosure and reliance on
information from collateral sources.
Sample Questions to Survivors:
• When do you think the family has ‘worked’ the best?
• If you could magically make the family situation
better, what would you change?
• What are some changes you would like to see in
others in the family?
• What are some changes you have considered
making?
• What, if anything, have you already tried?
54
Sample Questions for Survivors, Continued
• What are some of the ways you have tried to keep
your children safe?
• When you have felt the most able to keep yourself
and your children safe, what was happening?
• When do you think your children would say they feel
most safe? How can you increase their sense of
safety?
• What do you think it would take to make things
better?
• What, if anything, do you think others can do to help
you get there?
55
Questions that can be asked of children
• What has your (mother/father) done to make you
feel safe in your home?
• What are some of the things that give you a warning
feeling that (the batterer) is going to begin to hurt
someone?
• If I was watching a movie of what happened (one
incident, usually), what would I see?
• How would your (mother/father) describe what
happens in your home when things get difficult?
56
Objectives for Session 4: Interventions
• Work in the context of a
coordinated community
response.
• Create effective safety
and recovery plans.
57
Coordinated Community Response
Create effective partnerships:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Survivor
Batterer
PI/DCM/CWLS
Law Enforcement
Probation/Parole
DV Advocates
Substance Abuse Professional(s)
Mental Health Professional(s)
School/Day Care
Safety and Recovery Planning
• Partnerships result in plans that may include:
– Strategies for holding batterer accountable
– Steps for achieving increased safety and control
regardless of survivor decisions to stay or leave
– Recovery supports for survivors and children
• Plans may also include:
– Legal and other options for removal of batterer
– Options for placement of children
• Visits with non-offending parent and siblings
– Conditions needed for children’s visits with batterer
– Substance abuse interventions
What Works? Services for Batterers
• The most effective time for intervention with
batterers is between arrest and adjudication.
– Individuals who have been arrested for DV re-offend
at a rate of 67% between arrest and adjudication.
– That rate goes down to 34% for those who enter or
participate in treatment between arrest and
adjudication.
60
Service Options for Batterers
• Batterer Intervention Program
(BIP)
– most common intervention
• Substance abuse treatment
programs.
• Parenting programs.
• Individual counseling.
Batterer Intervention Program (BIP)
Batterer Intervention Programs are
– Designed for men who have been arrested or would
be arrested if known, for DV.
– Include educational classes and/or treatment groups.
– May also include counseling or case management.
– Are linked to justice and accountability systems.
– Must consider survivor safety implications throughout
treatment.
62
Florida Batterer Intervention Program (BIP)
Chapter 741.325 (8) F.S., specifies that BIP is set up and
authorized to address the use of Intimate Partner
Violence for the purpose of exercising power and
control …over the other.
The chapter further states that:
– It will endanger victims if courts and other referral agencies
refer family and household members who are not perpetrators
of the type of domestic violence encompassed by these
standards.
– Accordingly, the court and others who make referrals should
refer perpetrators only to programming that appropriately
addresses the violence committed.
63
BIP Assessment
• Used to assess an individual’s appropriateness for
participation in BIP.
• Does not assess whether or not DV has occurred.
• Findings may include identification and assessment of
conditions that would keep the individual from
benefitting from BIP, including:
–
–
–
–
mental illness
substance abuse
criminal record of violence
‘mental deficiency’
• The law limits BIP suitability to those adjudicated for DV.
- 65H-2.008 Assessment Requirements for participation in a BIP
64
What Makes for Change in Batterers?
• Fear of incarceration is
shown to be more
effective than empathy
for the survivor at
inducing batterers to
refrain from violence.
• These men may respond
more positively to
approaches designed to
elicit empathy for
children.
65
Recidivism based on Treatment Modality
• Babcock et al. used multiple studies to do a ‘Meta-study’
comparing treatment for batterers used data following
batterers for a minimum of two years.
• The general recidivism rate for batterers without treatment is
estimated at 65%.
• Batterers who have participated in treatment, including:
– Batterer Intervention
– Anger Management
– Couples Counseling
– Individual Counseling
• Improved the recidivism rate by lowering the reported rate to
60% within 2 years, as reported by both police and ‘victims’.
- Babcock, J. et al
66
Co-occurring Factors and Domestic Violence
• While drugs and alcohol do not cause DV, they can
make it more lethal. An estimated 25% to 50% of
batterers also have substance abuse issues.
• Survivors may develop somatic or physical symptoms
and depression as a result of the numbing and
coping response to Battered Woman Syndrome.
• One study found that survivors have 16 times the
rate of alcohol abuse as non-battered women.
67
Filing A Chapter 39 Injunction
Section 39.504, Florida Statutes, provides that at any
time after the initiation of a child protective
investigation, the department, a law enforcement
officer, the state attorney, or other responsible person,
may motion the court to issue an injunction to prevent
any act of child abuse or violence, not limited to
domestic violence. The primary purpose of the
injunction is to protect and promote the best interests
of the child, while taking the preservation of the child's
immediate family into consideration.
When A Chapter 39 Injunction Should Be
Considered…
• If the parent or caregiver is a victim of violence
themselves, they may be fearful that leaving the offender
will be more dangerous than staying.
• The Chapter 39 injunction provides a resource to protect
the child from abuse or violence by taking allowing the
Department or another party to initiate the action in the
eyes of the offender.
• Examples for when it may be appropriate to seek a
Chapter 39 injunction include but are not limited to:
– Removing an offending parent, caregiver, paramour, or
person from the home to protect the child
– Returning a child to a non-offending parent
Collaboration with CWLS
• The Children’s Legal Services Attorney is responsible
for drafting the petition for the injunction using the
specific case facts and supporting documentation
provided by the child protective investigator and/or
case manager.
• A court may issue an injunction if reasonable cause
exists. Reasonable cause exists when there is
evidence of child abuse or there is a likelihood of
such abuse occurring based upon a recent overt act
or failure to act.
The DCM Role in Getting Families to Safety
• It is important to remember that you may be the key
to getting the survivor and children to safety and that
their fears are real.
• Despite the best assessment, DV can quickly turn
fatal.
• Building a trusting relationship with survivors and
other community partners will help you to help the
survivor further protect herself and her family.
71
Interventions to Support Survivors
• DV programs and shelter
• Group work (self-help and provider led)
• Individual counseling
– Trauma
– Grief and loss
– Role recovery
• Substance abuse treatment
• Supports for education, employability, and
self-efficacy
• TANF program exceptions for DV Survivors
72
Florida Domestic Violence Centers
• Information and referral
• Counseling
• Emergency shelter (24 hrs. or more)
• Hotline (24 hrs. a day, 7 days a week)
• Child assessments (for those in shelter more
than 72 hrs.)
• Case management
• Community education
• Other local resources
73
Domestic Violence Advocate, Privileged
• All center staff are required to have 30 hours of
training to become privileged.
• Primary purpose is to give advice, counseling and/or
assistance to victims of domestic violence.
• Conversations between domestic violence advocate
and victim are confidential if they relate to incident
that victim is seeking assistance for.
• DV Advocate can ask survivor to sign a release of
information.
74
Creating Context for Children’s Healing
• Sense of physical and emotional safety in current
surroundings.
• Structure, limits and predictability.
• Strong bond to non-battering parent.
• Not to feel responsible for care of adults.
• Contact with battering parent as appropriate.
• Strong bond to siblings.
Interventions to Support Children
• Shelter (with survivor whenever safe to do so)
• Get to Safety (normalization when possible)
• Counseling (group, individual depending on age and
responses to DV)
• Supported and safe contact with survivor if
placement away from parents is necessary.
76
Stages of Change: Survivors Living with DV
1. Denial: ‘It was an accident, it didn’t happen’
2. Guilt: ‘There is a problem, but I deserve it.’
3. Enlightenment: ‘I am not responsible, and I don’t
deserve this, but I want to work things out.’
4. Recovery: ‘This is not going to change. I need to make
a new life’.
- Adapted from L. Walker, The Battered Women’s Syndrome