Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2021-11
Contradictions and Their Consequences: How Competing Policy Mandates Facilitate Use of a Punitive Framework in Domestic Violence–Child Maltreatment Cases
Research shows child welfare cases involving caregiver domestic violence (DV) continue to produce punitive consequences for non-abusive adult victims. This occurs despite the adoption of a supportive policy framework that emphasizes perpetrator responsibility for DV-related harm to children. Risk assessment procedures have been implicated in punitive outcomes, but we know little about how they shape child welfare workers’ decision-making practice. Focusing on a state with a supportive policy framework, this paper uses grounded theory to examine how policy contradictions, procedural directives around risk assessment, and informal interventions produce punitive consequences for adult victims of DV and unmitigated risk to children. Data include state policy and procedural documents and interviews with child welfare workers describing decision-making in their most recent completed case and most recent case involving DV. Findings point to the need for active alignment of policies and procedures, greater integration of knowledge across practice areas, renewed commitments to differential response, and greater inclusion of DV specialists in child welfare settings.
BairdC.WagnerD. (2000). The relative validity of actuarial and consensus based risk assessment systems. Children and Youth Services Review, 22, 839–871. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0190-7409(00)00122-5
2.
Bair-MerrittM. H.BlackstoneM.FeudtnerC. (2006). Physical health outcomes of childhood exposure to intimate partner violence: A systematic review. Pediatrics, 117(2), e278–e290. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-1473
3.
BanksD.LandsverkJ.WangK. (2008). Changing policy and practice in the child welfare system through collaborative efforts to identify and respond effectively to family violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 23(7), 903–932. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260508314693
4.
BoskE. A. (2018). What counts? Quantification, worker judgment, and divergence in child welfare decision making. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 42(2), 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/23303131.2017.1422068
5.
BoskE. A. (2019). Iron cage or paper cage? The interplay of worker characteristics and organizational policy in shaping unequal responses to a standardized decision-making tool. Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spz028
6.
BoskE. A.FeelyM. (2020). The goldilocks problem: Tensions between actuarially based and clinical judgement in child welfare decision-making. Social Problems. Forthcoming.
7.
CampbellC. A.HowardD.RayfordB. S.GordonD. M. (2015). Fathers matter: Involving and engaging fathers in the child welfare system process. Children and Youth Services Review, 53, 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.020
8.
CarlsonJ.VoithL.BrownJ. C.HolmesM. (2019). Viewing children’s exposure to intimate partner violence through a developmental, social-ecological, and survivor lens: The current state of the field, challenges, and future directions. Violence Against Women, 25(1), 6–28. https://doi.org/0.1177/1077801218816187
9.
CharmazK. (2014). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis (2nd ed.). Sage.
10.
CooheyC. (2007). What criteria do child protective services investigators use to substantiate exposure to domestic violence?Child Welfare, 86(4), 93–122.
11.
CreswellJ. W.PothC. N. (2018). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). Sage.
12.
CrossT. P.MathewsB.TonmyrL.ScottD.OuimetC. (2012). Child welfare policy and practice on children’s exposure to domestic violence. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36(3), 210–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.11.004
13.
CuiM.UenoK.GordonM.FinchamF. D. (2013). The continuation of intimate partner violence from adolescence to young adulthood. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(2), 300–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12016
14.
DunlapJ. A. (2004). Judging Nicholson: An assessment of Nicholson v. Scoppetta. Denver University Law Review, 82(4), 671–689.
15.
EdlesonJ. L. (1998). Responsible mothers and invisible men: Child protection in the case of adult domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13(2), 294–298. https://doi.org/10.1177/088626098013002010
16.
EdlesonJ. L.Gassman-PinesJ.HillM. B. (2006). Defining child exposure to domestic violence as neglect: Minnesota’s difficult experience. Social Work, 51(2), 167–174. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/51.2.167
17.
EdlesonJ. L.ShinN.ArmendarizK. K. J. (2008). Measuring children’s exposure to domestic violence: The development and testing of the Child Exposure to Domestic Violence (CEDV) Scale. Children and Youth Services Review, 30(5), 502–521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.11.006
18.
EmersonR.FretzR.ShawL. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press.
19.
EnglishD. J.EdlesonJ. L.HerrickM. E. (2005). Domestic violence in one state’s child protective caseload: A study of differential case dispositions and outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(11), 1183–1201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2005.04.004
FongV. C.HawesD.AllenJ. L. (2019). A systematic review of risk and protective factors for externalizing problems in children exposed to intimate partner violence. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 20(2), 149–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017692383
22.
FriendC.ShlonskyA.LambertL. (2008). From evolving discourses to new practice approaches in domestic violence and child protective services. Children and Youth Services Review, 30(6), 689–698. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2008.01.006
23.
FuscoR. A. (2013). “It’s hard enough to deal with all the abuse issues”: Child welfare workers’ experiences with intimate partner violence on their caseloads. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(12), 1946–1953. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.09.020
24.
HambyS.FinkelhorD.TurnerH.OrmrodR. (2010). The overlap of witnessing partner violence with child maltreatment and other victimizations in a nationally representative survey of youth. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34, 734–741. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2010.03.001
25.
HardestyM. (2015). Epistemological binds and ethical dilemmas in frontline child welfare practice. Social Service Review, 89(3), 455–498. https://doi.org/10.1086/682880
26.
HenryC. (2018). Exposure to domestic violence as abuse and neglect: Constructions of child maltreatment in daily practice. Child Abuse & Neglect, 86, 79–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.08.018
27.
HirschmanD.BoskE. A. (2019). Standardizing biases: Selection devices and the quantification of race. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649219844797
28.
HughesJ.ChauS. (2013). Making complex decisions: Child protection workers’ practices and interventions with families experiencing intimate partner violence. Children and Youth Services Review, 35(4), 611–617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.01.003
29.
JanczewskiC. E. (2015). The influence of differential response on decision-making in child protective service agencies. Child Abuse & Neglect, 39, 50–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.06.006
30.
JenneyA.MishnaF.AlaggiaR.ScottK. (2014). Doing the right thing? (Re) considering risk assessment and safety planning in child protection work with domestic violence cases. Children and Youth Services Review, 47, 92–101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.07.015
31.
JuanS. C.WashingtonH. M.KurlychekM. C. (2020). Breaking the intergenerational cycle: Partner violence, child–parent attachment, and children’s aggressive behaviors. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 35(5–6), 1158–1181. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517692996
32.
KennedyD. (2013). From collaboration to consolidation: Developing a more expansive model for responding to family violence. Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender, 20(1), 1–31.
33.
Langenderfer-MagruderL.AlvenL.WilkeD. J.SpinelliC. (2019). “Getting everyone on the same page:” Child welfare workers’ collaboration challenges on cases involving intimate partner violence. Journal of Family Violence, 34(1), 21–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-0002-4
34.
LawsonJ. (2019). Domestic violence as child maltreatment: Differential risks and outcomes among cases referred to child welfare agencies for domestic violence exposure. Children and Youth Services Review, 98, 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.12.017
35.
MagenR. H. (1999). In the best interests of battered women: Reconceptualizing allegations of failure to protect. Child Maltreatment, 4(2), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559599004002005
36.
McTavishJ. R.MacGregorJ. C.WathenC. N.MacMillanH. L. (2016). Children’s exposure to intimate partner violence: An overview. International Review of Psychiatry, 28(5), 504–518. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540261.2016.1205001
37.
MessingJ. T.ThallerJ. (2013). The average predictive validity of intimate partner violence risk assessment instruments. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 28(7), 1537–1558. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260512468250
38.
MessingJ. T.ThallerJ. (2015). Intimate partner violence risk assessment: A primer for social workers. British Journal of Social Work, 45, 1804–1820. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcu012
39.
MolesK. (2008). Bridging the divide between child welfare and domestic violence services: Deconstructing the change process. Children and Youth Services Review, 30(6), 674–688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2008.01.007
40.
MoylanC. A.HerrenkohlT. I.SousaC.TajimaE. A.HerrenkohlR. C.RussoM. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of Family Violence, 25(1), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-009-9269-9
41.
SaldanaJ. (2013). The coding manual for qualitative researchers (2nd ed.). Sage.
42.
SchwalbeC. (2008). Strengthening the integration of actuarial risk assessment with clinical judgment in an evidence based practice framework. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 1458–1464. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.11.021
43.
SternbergK. J.BaradaranL. P.AbbottC. B.LambM. E.GutermanE. (2006). Type of violence, age, and gender differences in the effects of family violence on children’s behavior problems: A mega-analysis. Developmental Review, 26(1), 89–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2005.12.001
44.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). SAGE.
45.
TiyyaguraG.ChristianC.BergerR.LindbergD. (2018). Occult abusive injuries in children brought for care after intimate partner violence: An exploratory study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 79, 136–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.02.003
46.
VictorB. G.HenryC.GilbertT. T.RyanJ. P.PerronB. E. (2019). Child protective service referrals involving exposure to domestic violence: Prevalence, associated maltreatment types, and likelihood of formal case openings. Child Maltreatment, 24(3) 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559519843605
47.
VuN. L.JourilesE. N.McDonaldR.RosenfieldD. (2016). Children’s exposure to intimate partner violence: A meta-analysis of longitudinal associations with child adjustment problems. Clinical Psychology Review, 46, 25–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.04.003
48.
WuS.WyantD. C.FraserM. W. (2016). Author guidelines for manuscripts reporting on qualitative research. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 7(2), 405–425. https://doi.org/10.1086/685816
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
