Say Something. It’s Your Business: Say Something 1.Alberta context 2.What shelters do...

Say Something

It’s Your Business: Say Something

1. Alberta context

2. What shelters do

3. Risk/danger assessment

4. Impact on children

It’s Your Business:Alberta Council of Women’s Shelters

ACWS serves as the collective voice for 41 sheltering organizations through:• Networking and information sharing;• Acquiring adequate resources;• Undertaking policy and systems research in

order to influence social change that reduces and prevents domestic violence;

• Increasing public awareness of issues related to family violence;

• Providing professional development for Alberta’s sheltering movement.

It’s Your Business: Worldwide

• World Health Organization identifies intimate partner violence as a pandemic

• Amnesty International locates it as the key human rights issue impacting women and children around the globe

• The Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces says that family violence is “The most common form of violence against women worldwide . . . a key issue in its own right—comparable to war, hunger and disease.”

It’s Your Business: It knows no bounds

No matter what your race,

colour,

economic background,

education level or

faith.

“…gender inequality is doing such ravishing damage in the world it is almost incomprehensible… this is the most important issue facing our world today.”

- Stephen Lewis

It’s Your Business:Canada’s profile

• Women are 7x more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than by a stranger

• 21% of abused women were assaulted during pregnancy

• 1 million children will witness violence against their mother each year

It’s Your Business:Say Something

Taking Alberta’s Pulse

• Population Growth

• Housing

• Income Support

• Others?


Looking at Alberta’s women

It’s Your Business: Say Something Taking Alberta’s pulse

The impact of the boom on women

• 15% will return to relationship– 72% lack of affordable housing (26% in

2005)

• 30% lack of $

It’s Your Business: What it looks likePower and Control

• Often a pattern of violent & controlling behavior.

• May be physical, emotional, psychological and/or sexual in nature.

• Can include threats to harm children, other family members, pets, and property.

• Violence used to intimidate, humiliate, frighten victim to make her feel powerless.

• May be a single act or a number of acts.

It’s Your Business: What it looks likePower and Control

It’s Your Business:Where we work

• Alberta leads the provinces in domestic assault, homicide-suicide, stalking and is second in domestic homicide.

• From 2000 – 2006, over 170 homicides are conservatively estimated as domestic violence related. This represents about one third of all homicides in the province.

Say Something:Alberta’s shelters respond

• Over 13,000 women and children were resident in shelter;

• Over 25,000 women and children were turned away;

• Crisis calls to shelters have more than doubled over the past two years.

• 53% of women admitted into Alberta emergency shelters self-identify as Aboriginal (2005)

Prevention Prevention & &

EarlyEarlyInterventionIntervention

InterventionIntervention & &

Protection Protection

Subsequent Subsequent SupportSupport

CONTINUUM OF SERVICES AND SUPPORTS


Paradox: What are some of the truths about

woman abuse that defy common sense.

If you didn’t know from your own experience,

You would think the truth was false.

Bart Simpson: “Life is a paradox, you're

damned if you do and damned if you don't.”

Understanding the dynamics of abuse

It’s Your Business: Say Something about the Paradox

Paradox:

Assume: Men shouldn’t hit women.

But: She deserved it.


Paradox

Assume: If it’s minor abuse, she won’t

leave, but if it’s serious, for sure she

would leave.

But: The more severe the abuse, the

harder it is to leave.


Paradox:

Assume: that a woman who is abused

would recognize it immediately

But: Even when abuse is severe, a

woman may not see herself as abused


Paradox

Assume: that a woman who loves her

kids would get out of an abusive

relationship to protect them

But: Women stay in abusive

relationships to protect their children.


Paradox

Assume: that a woman who loves herkids would get out of an abusiverelationship to protect them

But: Women stay in abusiverelationships to protect their children.


Understanding that the system is only as strong as the weakest link

Risk Assessment, Safety Planning and Risk

Reduction in Domestic Violence Cases


“Prediction is very hard to do - especially if it is about the future” Yogi Berra

Danger assessment: Campbell, Jacquelyn. (1995).

Assessing dangerousness.

Newbury Park: Sage.

http://www.dangerassessment.com

• Used to assess the probability of lethality• Used as a basis to develop safety planning


Helpful in all phases of the justice system Make recommendations to other agencies and

service providers Inform courts regarding custody and access

decisions Warn third parties of potential dangers Limit perpetrator’s access to the victim and children

Why conduct a risk assessment?


Unemployment Access to Weapons Drugs/Alcohol Recent Separation Highly Controlling Perpetrator Threats of Homicide/Suicide Forced Sex Stepchild Serious Depression Prior History of Domestic Violence

High Risk Factors – Lethality


• Unique to femicide – suicide:– Partner suicide

threats – history of poor mental health

– Married– Somewhat higher

education levels (unemployment still a risk factor), more likely to be white

High Risk Factors – Lethality*• Significant

explanatory power for same femicide – suicide risk factors.– Partner access to

gun– Threats with a

weapon– Step child in the

home

*Intimate Partner Violence Risk Assessment: Implications for Women’s Safety , Dr. J Campbell


– The more info the better Information from the victim is the gold standard Criminal record check is important

– Perpetrators will minimize perpetration– Never underestimate victim’s perceptions

(Weisz, 2000; Gondolf, 2002) but often minimize victimization – therefore victim assessment of risk not enough if low

General Principals



Common Risk Markers - DRC 82% Actual or pending separation

73% Depression (or other mental health or psychiatric problems)

73% Prior history of domestic violence

55% Prior threats to commit suicide or attempts to suicide by perpetrator

55% Access to or possession of firearms

45% Obsessive behavior (including stalking the victim)

45% Controls most or all of victim’s daily activities

45% Excessive alcohol and/or drug use


Implications


– Engage women’s mothering concerns & skills (Henderson & Erikson ’97 ‘93; Humphreys ‘93; Sullivan et. al.‘00)

– If she says she’s going to leave, cannot leave face to face

– Importance of forced sex & stepchild variables – not on most risk assessment instruments

– Make sure she knows entire range of shelter services

– Be alert for depressed/suicidal batterer– Batterer intervention programs working with partners


• Suspect: Criminal Violence History

• Previous DV history • Complainant’s

Perception of Future Violence

• Complainant’s Perception of Personal Safety

• Alcohol/Drugs • Mental Illness• Suicidal Ideation• Current Status of the

Relationship

• Escalation in Abuse • Children Exposed: • Threats • Weapons and Access to

Weapons• Court Orders • Employment Instability • Forced Sex • Strangling, Choking or

Biting • Stalking

FIVR (Family Violence Investigation Report Guide)


75% of women resident in shelter are at

further or serious risk of assault or

homicide

What Alberta Shelters Are Seeing

Why She Stays: Internal & External Barriers to Leaving

Societal Attitudes

Low Minimum Wage/SFI

No Universal Day Care

No Affordable Housing

No Second Stage ShelterNo Legal Aid

Lack of Co-ordinated Community Response

Uninformed Service Providers

Cycle of Violence

“Learned Helplessness” (Seligman)

FearLove

Traumatization

Culture/Values Isolation

Needs of Children

Addictions

External Family

Depression

Loyalty

Low Self-Esteem

Carolyn Goard, M.A., C.Psych, YWCA Sheriff King Home

No Emergency Shelter Beds

Containing the Abusive Individual

Specialized Domestic Violence Court

Offender Specific Treatment

Adequate Financial Assistance

Breach for Noncompliance

Ongoing Probation Supervision

Risk Assessment – Re-assault

Jail

Probable Cause

All Institutions Hold Men

Accountable (eg. Health Care

Education)

Danger Assessment

Abusive IndividualHis Reality

1. I’m not doing anything wrong.

2. If I am, I won’t get caught.

3. If I do get caught, I’ll talk my way out of it.

4. If there are consequences, they’ll be light

His Agenda

1. To control external forces

2. To deny responsibility

3. To break containment

4. To bring the victim into the circle of containment, deflect his responsibility & blame the victim

Safe Visitation

Gary Gibbens, MA, YWCA Sheriff King HomeShelters

Coordinated Community Response

Child WelfarePolice

Victim Advocacy


Break time!


Children Exposed to

Family Violence

It’s Your Business:

The true measure of a nation’s standing

is how well it attends to its

children.UNICEF, Innocenti Research

Centre, 2006.

It’s Our Business:Children Exposed to Family Violence realities

• Research demonstrates exposure to family violence negatively affects a child’s social, emotional, physiological and cognitive development.

• Terror: children can be hyper-vigilant and view their world as unpredictable, threatening and hostile.

It’s Our Business:Children Exposed to Family Violence realities

• Strong relationship between abuse, child neglect and child abuse

• 52% of sexually abused children also reported domestic violence in their home

• In Canada the rates of sexual offending are highest among males age 13-17, with the highest rate for 13 – 14 years olds (Statistics Canada, 2003)

• 63% had witnessed family violence during childhood (Ryan et al., 1996)

• Child maltreatment is most common in families where adult violence is frequent.

It’s Your Business:Canada’s children

• Children and youth are more at risk of physical and sexual assault than adults.

• Every 15 minutes, a child in Canada is assaulted by a family member.

• 1 million children will witness violence against their mother each year

• 3-5 children in every classroom witness violence in their homes

• 63% of adolescent sex offenders witnessed family violence during childhood (highest rates of sexual offending in males 13-17)

It’s Your Business:Canada’s Aboriginal children

• Aboriginal children living in homes with violence in remote and often under-serviced reserves could well be the most pressing and needful group at risk of crime and victimization.

• Family violence victims report 57% of Aboriginal children are exposed to family violence.

It’s Your Business:Child Abuse in Canada

A Girl in Canada• 0-9 physical assault• 9 – 13 sexual assault by

parent• 12 – 15 emotional

abuse• 14 – 15 sexual assault

by extended family• 16 and on, sexual

assault by spouse

A Boy in Canada

• 0-3 physical assault• 4-8 sexual assault by

parent and family• 8-11 emotional abuse• 9 – 14 physical assault

by family members• 15 and on, assault by

family and others

It’s Your Business:Risk factors contributing to delinquency

Individual Relationship Community Society

Prenatal •Substance abuse by mother•Poverty and teen pregnancy

Partner violence

Low community support for high risk mothers

Policies supportive of economic inequality

Childhood / adolescence

•Poor readiness to learn•Poor social skills, impulsivity, hyperactivity•Alcohol and drug abuse

•Low family income•Poor parenting•Parental violence•Child abuse•Low school attachment•Delinquent peers

•Low community resources for children and families•Quality/safety of neighborhood•High mobility•Low social cohesion

•Social exclusion•Policies regarding school expulsion•Norms supportive of violence

Holly Johnson, “A picture of crime in Canada,” HRSDC 2006.

It’s Your Business:Family violence costs

• The costs of violence against women are at least $4.2 billion. This includes costs associated with medical and criminal justice services, lost productivity, shelters and other services (Greaves et al 1995). About $200 million is spent on operating shelters for abused women annually (Statistics Canada 2003a).

• The economic cost of child abuse to victims and adult survivors is estimated to be $15 billion with $11 billion associated with lost earnings alone (Bowlus et el. 2003).

It’s Our Business: Say Something What is Exposure . . .

• Visual - as “eyewitness”

• Audio - hearing the violence

• Tool of Perpetrator - used in event

• Aftermath - the impact of violence

It’s Our Business: Say Something What is Exposure . . .

• When a child lives with violence against a woman, it is almost certain that other stressors and adversities will be present in the home

• The more types of abuse and the more severe, the higher the likelihood of problematic

The more frequent the IPV,

The more likely child abuse

It’s Your Business:Children Exposed to Family Violence

Children’s Role in the Family*• Imposed or assumed• More than one role• Strategy for coping• Continues outside of violence context• May lead to guilt, grief and other hurtful

emotions* Mothering After Domestic Violence, Dr. Linda Baker and Allison Cunningham

Caught in the Middle

It’s Your Business:Children Exposed to Family Violence

• Caretaker

• Mother’s confident

• Abuser’s ally

• Abuser’s pawn

• Perfect child

• Referee

• Scapegoat

Children’s Role in the Family*

* Mothering After Domestic Violence, Dr. Linda Baker and Allison Cunningham


Paradox

Assume: children’s behavior improves

after the abuser – the bad role model –

is out of the home

But: Difficulties and challenging

behaviors in children can get worse

once an abusive man is out of the

home.


Paradox

Assume: children recognize their

mother as a victim and their father as

the cause of abuse

But: Children can blame their mothers

as much mo more than they blame

their fathers.

It’s Your Business:Protective Factors

• Secure attachment of the child to adult family member;

• High levels of paternal care during childhood;

• Lack of associating with delinquent or substance-abusing peers;

• A warm and supportive relationship with a non-offending parent; and

• A lack of abuse-related stress.WHO, Preventing Child Maltreatment, p. 16

It’s Our Business :Enhancement Act

A child is found to be “in need of intervention” if “there are reasonable and probable grounds that the survival, security or development of the child is endangered…”

Say something:Custody and Access/Parenting Orders

• The proportion of dependents awarded to the wife has declined steadily since 1988, when custody of 75.8% of dependents was awarded to the wife only.

• Under a joint custody arrangement, dependents do not necessarily spend equal amounts of their time with each parent.

• Custody granted through court proceedings in about 3 in 10 Divorces

Say something :False Accusations

• “More than one-third of maltreatmentinvestigations are unsubstantiated, but only 4% of all cases are considered to be intentionally fabricated".

• Fathers are FOUR times more likely than mothers to intentionally fabricate allegations of abuse or neglect.

Child Abuse and Neglect 29 (2005) 1333-1345), Nico Trocmé and Nicholas Balab

It’s Our Business: Ask the right questions

Not “Why does she stay?”

but

“What enables her to leave?”

and

“Why does he get away with it?”

Say something:A case in point: children’s health

Children resident in shelter:• Scored significantly lower in physical health

status than other children in the same age range, region and social strata

• Had more diagnosable health problems than provincial norms

• Were more absent from school than the national average

Judee Onyskiw, “Health and Use of Health Services of CEFV”, (2002).

Say something:Key issues in providing education

• Engaging the child: they need to stay connected to their education

• Engaging the moms: supporting moms and schools to connect

• Transportation: funding for buses or taxis is needed

• Safety: collaboration between the shelter and school

• Documents: transferring children between local schools or across provincial borders

Say Something:Breaking the silence

Women talk with:

Tell women about shelters:

Effectiveness

73%: someone close to them

32%: friend or family member

53% not helpful

30%:doctor or nurse

4%: doctor or nurse

44% not helpful

22%: lawyers 18% police 40% not helpful

12 %: clergy 19% counsellor 48% clergy not helpful

Statistics Canada, 2005 YWCA, Effective Practices

Say something:ACWS response: public awareness

• Media campaigns• Specialist campaigns on

Children Exposed to Family Violence

• Silent Witness

• Public awareness• November Family

Violence Prevention Month

• Breakfast with the Guys• Standing Together

It’s Your Business:Keys to healthy child development

Canada identifies:

• Adequate income for families with children;

• Effective parenting within strong and cohesive families;

• Supportive and inclusive communities.

A Canada Fit for Children, p. 8

ACWS and/or member shelters:

• Seek improvements in social assistance

• Provide parenting support

• Leaders in implementing community collaboration and building safer communities

Say Something:What we’ve learned

The role of women’s emergency and second stage shelters in protecting children from family violence cannot be overstated. Because of their interventions, many children have found safe haven.

So much more needs to be done!

Say something:ACWS response: looking ahead

ACWS will host the first ever World Conference on Women’s Shelters in autumn 2008

• This developed from attendance at the Inter-American conference in Mexico City (2006)

• A key theme in the World Conference will be CEFV, with a focus on child trafficking

Mark your calendars and watch our webpage: www.acws.ca

320, 10310 Jasper AvenueEdmonton AB T5J 2W4

P: (780) 456-7000 F: (780) [email protected] www.acws.ca

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.acws.ca/

Say Something. It’s Your Business: Say Something 1.Alberta context 2.What shelters do...

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