Literature Review: Better Outcomes for Children and Young People Experiencing Domestic Abuse - Directions for Good Practice

Listen

Footnotes

  1. The England and Wales estimate that 29% of women experience domestic abuse at some points in their lives (Coleman et al., 2007) more closely resembles international prevalence statistics, as does the one robust local prevalence study in Scotland (general sample of 951 women) where a third of women had experienced domestic abuse at some point in their lives (Donaldson and Marshall, 2005).
  2. The Canadian prevalence survey (Statistics Canada, 2005) suggests that men and women call the police when abuse is severe and that the different proportion of men and women reporting violence reflects the differences in severity.
  3. 'Significant harm' is often used in a legal context to denote a threshold of harm which requires statutory intervention. It is recognised that this is not a clearly defined concept, but it is used in literature to denote a high level of seriousness and concern.
  4. Hart proposes that 1)manipulation 2)decoration and 3)tokenism are the first three rungs of the ladder and are not participation which starts at 4)children assigned but informed, 5)children consulted and informed, 6)adult initiated: shared decisions with children, 7)child-initiated: shared decisions with adults, with the pinnacle 8)child-initiated and directed. There are various critiques of this but Borland et al. 2001 argue that it is useful in relation to clarifying the extent as to which children have a say.
  5. Prof Nicky Stanley is funded by the NSPCC and Professor Cathy Humphreys is funded by the Australian Research Council to explore these complex issues
  6. 'Child protection workers' is terminology used to refer to workers with a statutory brief to intervene in cases of child abuse even if they may also carry a broader remit of work in the children and families area.
  7. Such as security improvements on offer through Edinburgh's 'Safe as Houses' Pilot as part of the Scottish Government's Innovation Fund in avoiding homelessness (evaluation forthcoming 2008).
  8. Initial evaluation (Robinson 2004) reports positive responses from women and children to the children's service and makes recommendations for improvement, since then it has been further developed.
  9. Such as published evaluations of Glasgow's Domestic Abuse Court and ASSIST, the Working with Men Project and forthcoming evaluations of the North Lanarkshire MARAC, Edinburgh 'Safe as Houses', Tayside Multiple and Complex Need Project: substance misuse and domestic abuse, Children's Services -Women's Aid Fund national evaluation.
  10. See the Prevention Chapter of this review
  11. Hereafter referred to as the National Strategy.
  12. Hereafter referred to as the Prevention Strategy.
  13. The public health model ordinarily includes a third (tertiary) level of intervention. In the Prevention Strategy, activities categorised as tertiary (treatment and rehabilitation) have been integrated into the secondary level which would usually solely focus on populations identified as 'at risk'.
  14. 'Children' is used here in its legal form; to describe people under 18 years of age; this is for brevity and simplicity. It includes children and young people.
  15. The term 'dating' violence is used to refer to violence in intimate relationships between young people, rather than adults. In most other respects it does not differ from domestic abuse.
  16. The 'cycle of violence' is also known as the intergenerational transmission of violence.
  17. Victimized women who do not leave violent men, and the question 'why doesn't she leave' is frequently heard (Mullender, 1996; Hague and Malos, 1998), are pathologized through, for example, the idea of learned helplessness (Walker, 1979) which arguably is the 'female' position in the 'cycle of violence' theory since women's conduct is viewed as the corollary of childhood abuse.
  18. Agency is used here to describe the capacity of people to take action and influence events.
  19. Not all children attend school and attention needs to be paid to children excluded from school whether this be self-determined or imposed.
  20. See http://www.neighboursfriendsandfamilies.on.ca for more information.
  21. For information on the White Ribbon Campaign in Canada see http://www.whiteribbon.ca. In the UK see http://www.womankind.org.uk/white-ribbon-campaign.html and http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk
  22. More information is available at www.endabuse.org.
  23. See http://www.australiasaysno.gov.au/index.htm.
  24. See http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/YourCommunity/CommunityServices/16daysofaction.htm.
  25. UK examples include www.thehideout.org.uk (Women's Aid Federation of England) and www.freefromfear.org.uk (Birmingham and Solihull Women's Aid) which are aimed specifically at children living with domestic abuse and www.respect4us.org.uk (WOMANKIND Worldwide), an interactive website providing information to challenge violence against women.
  26. See http:// www.equalityrules.ca and http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/owd/english/dvap/dvap_video.htm .
  27. Educationalist is used here to denote a professional who has knowledge and experience of education and schooling.
  28. Experiential learning is defined as a 'direct encounter with the phenomena being studied rather than merely thinking about the encounter' (Borzak, 1981:9 quoted in Brookfield, 1983).
  29. See http://www.healthy-respect.com for more information.
  30. More information is available at http://www.swova.org.
  31. With thanks to Mike Gibson for his contributions to this section.
  32. For more information see http://www.curriculumforexcellencescotland.gov.uk/index.asp
  33. See http://www.restorativejusticescotland.org.uk/schools.htm for more information.
  34. Sex and Relationship Education
  35. Religious and Moral Education

Page updated: Monday, August 04, 2008