Woman Abuse & Allegations of
Child Abuse or Neglect
Randy Magen, Ph.D.; Kathryn Conroy, D.S.W.
Adapted and updated from Practice & Research, Fall 1994.
The recognition of child abuse as a modern social problem occurred in the
1960s, while the acknowledgment of the problem of woman abuse emerged in
the 1970s. For the most part, social activists, social scientists, and
social workers have focused on either the problem of child abuse or the
problem of woman abuse. Very little research or direct practice has centered
on the coexistence of the problems.
The literature on family violence illustrates what Martin (1983) calls,
"an interesting division of labor." Men are described as perpetrators
of woman abuse while women traditionally are viewed as responsible for
child abuse. While clear evidence exists that a significant proportion
of abusive parents are male (Martin, 1983), mothers often are treated as
complicit in allowing children to be abused or to witness their own abuse
(Stark & Flitcraft, 1988).
The separate research traditions have failed to recognize that their focus
often is on the same family member, the mother. Child abuse literature's
focus on the mother as the abuser and the spouse abuse literature's examination
of the woman as the survivor has resulted in sets of separate studies purporting
to explain the behavior of the same person. The focus of the collaborative
study with the New York City Child Welfare Administration is on the intersection
of child abuse and woman abuse within families.
Prevalence: A variety of research methods examine the extent of
coexistence of child abuse and woman abuse. These approaches have included
case studies, surveys of clinical populations, large-scale random population
samples and cross-national comparisons. Studies from the field of child
abuse are consistent in finding a relationship between woman abuse and
child abuse. They are found to coexist even though the studies involved
different populations, settings and methodologies. But estimates of the
degree to which child abuse and woman abuse coexist vary from 11% of families
reported for child maltreatment (Daro & Cohn, 1988) to 45% (Stark &
Flitcraft, 1988).
Literature from the field of woman abuse provides further evidence of coexistence.
An early study on the experience of battered women found that 37% had abused
children while 54% of batterers had been abusive (Gayford, 1975). Fifty-six
percent of Giles-Sims' (1985) sample of battered women recounted using
violence against their children. These women reported that 63% of their
abusive partners had engaged in child abuse. Significant in Giles-Sims'
study was that abuse toward the child was six times more frequent from
abusive men than from battered women.
Straus and his colleagues (e.g., Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980)
are the only investigators who have conducted studies focused on the coexistence
of woman abuse and child abuse in non -clinical samples. Their national
surveys show that in families where women are subjected to violence, child
abuse is double that of families with no violence. When woman abuse becomes
more severe and more frequent, the rate of child abuse also seems to double.
Services To Victims: Some argue (e.g., Straus, 1983) that services
to battered women should be separated from assistance to abused children.
Cummings and Mooney (1988) point out, however, that child protective service
workers and battered women's advocates both ". . . share an interest
in stopping the violence, their perspectives and approaches are frequently
in conflict." Child protective service agencies typically adopt a
family-centered approach and follow the principle of working "in the
best interests of the child." Battered women's advocates adopt a woman-centered
approach and follow the goal of empowering women. In spite of the commonalties
of these two kinds of abuse, risk indices for child abuse do not screen
parents for the presence of woman abuse (Nelson, 1984) and services to
battered women often are developed without considering the needs of children
(McKay, 1994). This traditional division of services may not be the most
effective means of intervention.
New York City Initiatives: The death of Aliza Izquierdo captured the headlines
for several days in the Spring of 1996. The failure of caseworkers and
supervisors, the mental condition of the mother, and the unanswered pleas
by Aliza's relatives were all factors which lead to this tragedy. Less
apparent to the casual observer was the fact that Aliza's mother was a
battered woman. This fact, which in no way negates her role in Aliza's
death, is a factor in over 71% of the child fatalities in New York City
(Task Force on Family Violence, 1993).
Abused women in New York City are assisted through the Crisis Intervention
Services of the Human Resources Administration and abused children are
assisted through the Child Welfare Administration.
In April 1993 the Task Force on Family Violence published, " Behind
Closed Doors: The City's Response to Family Violence." Subsequently,
several members of the New York City Interagency Task Force on Domestic
Violence joined with faculty affiliates of the Center for the Study of
Social Work Practice to form a Program Work Group. With cooperation from
the Child Welfare Administration, the Group developed a 15-item interview
protocol to identify and serve battered women. The protocol was implemented
in one service zone in Manhattan on a pilot basis to test effectiveness
and examine questions about coexistence of child abuse/neglect and violence
against women. The Center was invited to lead research development and
evaluation.
The Research: This pilot study was described in the Fall 1994 issue.
Its primary objective was to describe the incidence and characteristics
of cases in which domestic violence and child abuse were found to coexist
as well as the actions taken in those cases. It sought to identify beneficial
outcomes of the protocol, effectiveness and any obstacles to implementation.
A volunteer sample of Child Welfare Administration staff, responsible for
protocol implementation, were interviewed. Case data from child protective
service caseworkers and supervisors, which documents the process and outcome
of all child abuse and neglect investigations, also were collected. The
earlier issue of Practice & Research reported on the efforts
of these faculty to develop and implement a battered woman screening and
assessment tool for child protective service workers. Details of that study
can be found on the Center’s Web site which is linked to the project’s
battered women and their children site.
Results of the pilot study were used to design the current study. Through
a grant from the Department of Health and Human Resources, Administration
for Children and Families and matching funds from the Center, two affiliate
faculty are engaged in a project to train NewYork City child protective
service workers about domestic violence. Assistant Dean Kathryn Conroy
and Assistant Professor Randy Magen developed an innovative training curriculum.
This training focuses on building empathy for battered women, and helps
workers understand the batterer and the effects of woman abuse on children.
Once workers understand the perspective of the battered woman they are
taught how to assess and intervene.
A systematic evaluation is part of the development and implementation of
the training curriculum. Preliminary analysis of the first 100 workers
trained indicates that worker attitudes do change--they are more sympathetic
toward battered woman, are less likely to believe that woman abuse is justified,
and are more likely to believe that women do not cause the abuse to occur.
The follow-up data, which is still being collected, will be analyzed to
see if the training leads to changes in worker behavior toward battered
women. This project is one of five funded in various locations in the United
States. It reflects the increased attention now being given to the co-existence
of woman abuse in child welfare settings.
Co-investigators: Randy Magen, Ph.D.; Kathryn Conroy, D.S.W.; Collaborators
Peg Hess, Ph.D. and Barbara Simon, Ph.D. (CUSSW). The pilot study was conducted
in collaboration with the New York City Child Welfare Administration. The
current study is being conducted in collaboration with the New York City
Agency for Children's Services.
References
Cummings, N., & Mooney, A. (1988). Child protective workers and
battered women's advocates: A strategy for family violence intervention.
Response, 11 (2), 4-9.
Daro, D., & Cohn, A.H. (1988). Child maltreatment evaluation efforts:
What have we learned? In G. T. Hotaling, D. Finkelhor, J .T. Kirkpatrick,
& M. A. Straus (Eds.), Coping with family violence: Research and
policy perspectives (pp. 275- 287). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Gayford, J.J. (1975). Wife battering: A preliminary survey of 100 cases.
Brit. Ed J, 25, 194-197.
Gills-Sims, J. (1985). A longitudinal study of battered children of battered
wives. Family Relations, 34 (2), 205- 210.
Martin, J. (1983). Maternal and paternal abuse of children: Theoretical
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& M. A. Straus (Eds.), in The dark side of families: Current family
violence research (pp. 293-304). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
McKay, M. M. (1994). The link between domestic violence and child abuse:
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Nelson, K. G. (1984). The innocent bystander: The child as unintended victim
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Stark, E., & Flitcraft, A. (1988). Women and children at risk: A feminist
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Straus, M. A. (1983). Ordinary violence, child abuse and wife-beating:
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& M. A. Straus (Eds.), in The dark side of families: Current family
violence research (pp. 213-234). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Straus, M. A., Gelles, R.J., & Steinmetz, S. K. (1980). Behind closed
doors: Violence in the American family. New York: Doubleday/Anchor.
Task Force on Family Violence. (1993). Behind closed doors: The city's
response to family violence. New York: Office of New York Manhattan
Borough President.