Domestic Violence in Child Welfare Preventative Services: Results From an Intake Screening Questionnaire

• NCJ Number: 195568
• Author(s): Randy H. Magen; Kathryn Conroy; Alisa Del Tufo
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 27 pages
• Sale Source: University of Alaska-Anchorage
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Paper presented at the 5th International Family Violence Research Conference, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, June 30, 1997.

Annotation

This document presents results from a domestic violence questionnaire regarding child welfare prevention service agencies.

Abstract

Programs designed to assist families where children have been identified as being at risk of maltreatment are known as preventive services. These are usually voluntary not-for-profit, long-term, community-based or specialized programs. The delivery of services in child welfare and services to battered women has been compounded by different philosophies and values placed on different outcomes. Battered women’s advocates adopt a woman-centered approach with the goal of empowering women. Child welfare workers adopt a child-centered approach following the principle of working in the best interests of the child. This is translated into an assessment of who can keep the child safe, which is difficult because the mother’s own safety has typically not been assessed. In this type of casework the battered woman can become caught between the batterer and the child welfare worker. The purpose of the questionnaire was to provide caseworkers with a tool to screen for the presence of domestic violence and to collect useful information about domestic violence in preventive service settings. Seven preventive service agencies from three of New York’s five Boroughs agreed to participate in the first year of the project; compliance was 58 percent. In the second year, nine additional agencies joined the project, which expanded the coverage to all five of New York City’s Boroughs; compliance was 22 percent. Results showed that the intake questionnaire led to almost a 300 percent increase in the number of women identified as having been battered. Many child welfare caseworkers did not ask about domestic violence and clients did not tell. Once workers were trained to ask the questions they uncovered the violence and were able to deal with it. Client feedback revealed women’s universal acceptance towards being asked the question -- they liked being asked. Many women felt that having been asked the question about being battered, they felt better able to protect themselves and their children. The increased identification of domestic violence led to the development of new services for battered women in several of these agencies. 3 tables, 1 note, appendix, 22 references