Pathways of Children Reported for Domestic and Family Violence to Australian Child Protection

ABSTRACT

Child protection systems often contend with domestic and family violence (DFV) as a maltreatment concern, yet few large-scale studies have explored how child protection services (CPS) systems respond to DFV compared with other concerns. Secondary longitudinal analysis of administrative data from three Australian State CPS systems finds that the number of DFV reports increased faster than notifications for other concerns, and children reported for DFV also tended to be reported for emotional and physical abuse. Children reported for DFV were slightly less likely to transition from report to formal child maltreatment investigation. Overall, system responses to maltreatment concerns appear to be similar across concern types despite substantial differences in their aetiologies and options for effective interventions.

IMPLICATIONS

• Future CPS policy and practice development should involve consideration of the specific aetiologies and service needs of each type of maltreatment concern, and the CPS response should reflect these differences.

• Information about the specific service response (e.g., intervention type, quality, and extent of services) should be collected and used to inform improvements in the CPS system.

• Data linkages between systems should be strongly considered in order to monitor and improve multisystem service responses to DFV.

儿童保护体系将家庭暴力视为一种虐待而每每与之冲突。不过，比起其他虐待，还很少有大型研究涉及儿童保护服务体系如何应对家庭暴力的。根据对来自三个澳大利亚州儿童保护体系的管理资料所做的二手、历时分析，儿童家暴的数量比其虐待增长要快，儿童遭受的家暴多为情感的和身体的。儿童家暴不大可能从报道变为正式的虐童调查。总而言之，对虐待关注的系统反应，各类虐待相去不远，但起因和干预手段上则大相径庭。

KEYWORDS:

• Child Protection
• Domestic Violence
• Family Violence
• Intimate Partner Violence
• Child Maltreatment
• Child Abuse

Acknowledgments

The researchers gratefully acknowledge the financial and other support it has received from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) towards this research and, through it, the Australian Government and Australian state and territory governments. The findings and views reported in this paper are those of the authors and cannot be attributed to ANROWS or to the Australian Government, or any Australian state or territory government. We would like to thank the following government agencies for their participation in this grant and for their contribution of data on this portion of the project: New South Wales Department of Family and Community Services; Victoria Department of Health and Human Services; and Western Australia Department of Communities, Child Protection and Family Support. We all appreciate your commitment to improving child protection services through the better use of evidence.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Aron Shlonsky http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8096-726X

Additional information

Funding

The researchers gratefully acknowledge the financial and other support it has received from Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) towards this research and, through it, the Australian Government and Australian state and territory governments.