Harsh Attitudes of Child Protection Workers…

Douglas, H., & Walsh, T. (2010). Mothers, Domestic Violence, and Child Protection Violence Against Women, 16 (5), 489-508 DOI: 10.1177/1077801210365887

This article, by Douglas and Walsh (2010), questions the lack of understanding that child protection workers have about ‘the dynamics of and issues related to domestic violence’ (p.489). Based on their research here in Australia, they make several key observations with respect to how child protection workers do their job:

 1. That child protection workers often assume that mothers have the primary care responsibility for children;

 2.That child protection workers often assume that mothers are responsible for any domestic violence in the home;

 3. That child protection workers typically hold mothers responsible for failing to protect their children from domestic violence;

 4. That child protection workers will commonly issue mothers with an ultimatum to either leave violent relationships or lose their children; and

 5. That child protection workers will commonly refuse to support mothers who are caught up in violent relationships (2010, pp.493-503).

The authors conclude that there is much pressure on ‘frontline’ child protection workers in terms of too many clients and not enough supervision (2010, p.503). They argue that the needs of ‘battered’ mothers and their children could be better served through ‘[a] more holistic approach to service delivery’ (2010, p.504). That is, by concurrently addressing housing, income support, emotional support, and other necessary assistance (2010, p.504). While the authors suggest that working with perpetrators is important, they lament the fact that little such work is undertaken (2010, p.495). The focus of child protection workers is disturbingly fixated on fixing defective mothers (2010, p.495).

Missing from this scenario is the answer to that critical question: how do we stop domestic violence from ever occurring…?