Social work with violent men: What has changed

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Social work with violent menWhat has changed?

• Polly Baynes
• pollybaynes_at_yahoo.co.uk

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Background to the study

• Families known to SSD complex
• High levels of violence
• Failure to engage with men
• Failure to engage with violent men
• Invisible man/responsible woman

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The study

• 40 cases in one local authority
• Unrepresentative group of men
• Child protection files
• All registration categories
• Quantitative and qualitative analysis

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Quantitative questions

• Who are the men in vulnerable childrens lives?
• What is the level of violence in these families?
• Are social workers working with men?
• Are social workers working with violent men?

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The men

• 40 families, 63 men
• Less than a third were resident fathers

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Levels of violence

• Domestic violence most common trigger to meeting
• 42 men had recorded history of violence
• Violence to women, children, outside home, self

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Social work with men

• 60 of men had no contact with SW prior to
  meeting
• 48 invited to the meeting
• 32 attended the meeting
• Name and address of 22 of men was missing or
  incomplete
• No police checks recorded for a third of men

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Social work with violent men

• More contact with social workers
• More points in CP plans
• Assessment and treatment of violence part of
  plans
• Women still held responsible in majority of cases
• Impact of participation on process unclear

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Qualitative findings

• Text searched for prevailing themes in the ways
  families and professionals discussed and reported
  male violence

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Making sense of male violence

• Children
• Graphic description
• Severity debated
• Small sample

• Women
• Sanitised language
• Lack of detail
• Research cited
• Failure to protect
• Shared responsibility

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Responsible women

• Mother is working with the department and is
  remorseful about her actions
• Mother attracts abusive men due to her low
  self-esteem
• The Mothers emotional needs caused such
  intensity that disputes started

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• There were no concerns about the father being
  violent, but there were concerns about the mother
  and emotional abuse

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Responsible men

• I want him to sort him out
• She wanted her children more than anything
  elseit was him that was violent, not her
• Mother suffered the most appalling domestic
  violence for years from a bully of a man

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Invisible men

• Absent from the process
• Violence to women not described
• Male parenting un-assessed
• Little concept of male failure to protect
• Good father identity asserted

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• Despite fathers violence, suicide attempts and
  intimidation, he is still a good father
• Father is a good and caring father who stimulates
  the child and is protective to him
• Father is uncaring and horrible buthe will be
  alright with the baby and wants to bond

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Implications for practice

• Establish what men are involved
• Carry out basic checks
• Review level of engagement throughout
• Risks and benefits of participation
• Assess male parenting
• Recognise differences

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Violence to children

• slapping a baby, hitting a child with a belt,
  grabbing or pinning a child by the throat,
  threatening a child with a knife, throwing a
  child on the bed, punching a child in the face,
  throwing coffee over children, hitting a child
  and a baby, and a man who trod on a childs head.
  Children suffered injuries including bruising,
  chipped teeth, and a split lip.

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Violence to women

• assaults on women included slaps and punches to
  the face, smothering, strangling, banging her
  head against a concrete floor, being pulled
  downstairs by her hair, threats to kill and
  sexual assault. One man kicked the door in when
  refused entry. Those injuries to women that were
  described included bruising, a pierced lung and
  diaphragm, and loss of consciousness.

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Violence outside the home

• violence to a landlady, sexual assaults, death
  threats and fights with neighbours, slashing a
  person with a sword, slashing a mans face and
  violence to paramedics and the police. One man
  armed himself with a carving knife and was chased
  across fields by police dogs. Several of the men
  owned offensive weapons such as Samurai swords.
  Two men physically harmed animals.

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Violence to self

• Men inflicted violence on themselves by stabbing,
  cutting their face with a knife, setting fire to
  themselves and by suicide attempts including
  hanging.

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• Dale, P, Green, R et al (2005)What Really
  Happened?
• Daniel, B and Taylor, J (2001) Engaging with
  Fathers
• Messages from Research (1995)
• Reder, P and Duncan, S (1999) Lost Innocents
• Ryan, M (2000) Working with Fathers
• Scourfield, J (2003) Gender and Child Protection
• Stanley, J and Goddard, C (2002) In the Firing
  Line
• White, S (2003) The Social Worker as Moral Judge