Understanding and responding to family violence risks to children: Evidence-based risk assessment for children and the importance of gender
| Author | Marie Segrave,JaneMaree Maher,Jude McCulloch,Kate Fitz-Gibbon |
| Date | 01 March 2019 |
| Published date | 01 March 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865818760378 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Understanding and
responding to family
violence risks to children:
Evidence-based risk
assessment for children and
the importance of gender
Kate Fitz-Gibbon , JaneMaree Maher,
Jude McCulloch and Marie Segrave
Monash University, Australia
Abstract
This article responds to recent calls to better understand and respond to family violence
risks to children. Drawing on the findings of a wider research project on family violence risk
which engaged with over 1000 members of Victoria’s family violence system through a
survey, focus groups and in-depth interviews, this article examines practitioners’ views on
current practices and future needs for reform to improve family violence risk assessment
practices for children. The findings have implications both nationally and internationally, given
the dearth of evidence-based family violence risks assessment tools. Key findings reinforce
the importance of interagency collaboration and a shared responsibility for children impacted
by family violence across services and the importance of specialised training in this area.
Caution, however, is raised about ongoing patterns of blame for mothers affected by family
violence: we conclude that the need to address children’s risk in family violence is critical but
ongoing attention to how gendered patterns structure family violence and social responses is
also essential.
Keywords
Child victims, family violence, family violence risk assessment, gender, risk management
Date received: 24 August 2017; accepted: 29 January 2018
Corresponding author:
Kate Fitz-Gibbon, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Clayton 3800,
Australia.
Email: kate.fitzgibbon@monash.edu
Australian & New Zealand Journal of
Criminology
2019, Vol. 52(1) 23–40
!The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865818760378
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In February 2014, the ‘premeditated’ killing of 11-year-old Luke Batty by his father
shone national attention on the impact and risk of family violence for children in
Australia (Gray, 2015, p. 1). At the time of his death, multiple agencies in Victoria’s
integrated family violence and criminal justice systems were alive to the dangers facing
Luke and his mother, Rosemary Batty. Careful to note that no organisation, ‘singularly
or in combination’, directly contributed to the death of Luke Batty, the 2015 Coronial
Inquest found that there was ‘no validated risk assessment tool’ to predict the likelihood
of filicide. Documenting the series of ‘missed opportunities’ to intervene in the case
(Le Grand, 2015), the Inquest Findings made a series of recommendations to improve
risk assessment, coordinated risk management and safety planning to ensure family
violence risks to a child are identified, shared and responded to more effectively
(Gray, 2015, pp. 3–4).
In the three years since Luke Batty’s death, reports and action plans at the state and
national level have recognised the severity of family violence impacts on children (see
inter alia Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Advisory Panel, 2016; Special
Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland, 2015; Victorian Royal
Commission into Family Violence (RCFV), 2016). Numerous national and internation-
al studies have highlighted the extent of violence in the family lives of children
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005; RCFV, 2016). Increasingly, research has attended
to children as direct victims of family violence, but also the impact of children’s expo-
sure to domestic violence (see inter alia Humphreys, 2008; Powell & Murray, 2008;
Richards, 2011; Stanley & Humphreys, 2017). In Australia, the Personal Safety
Survey found that of all women who had experienced partner violence and had children
in their care (n ¼11,800 women), 59% reported that the children had witnessed violence
(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005). However, despite acknowledgement of the
extent and harms of family violence on children alongside the need for specialised
responses and early intervention, there continues to be limited service responses directed
specifically at children, and the evidence base on understanding family violence risks to
children remains critically underdeveloped.
Most recently, the RCFV (2016) findings highlighted the need to focus attention on
child victims of family violence. The first recommendation made by the Commission
stated that the current risk assessment and management framework in Victoria should
be reviewed and redeveloped, in part aimed at enhancing child risk assessment process-
es. Taking that recommendation as our focus, this article examines the need to better
understand and respond to family violence risks to children and how this may be best
achieved. It draws on the findings of a wider research project which engaged with over
1000 members of Victoria’s family violence system. The findings provide unique insight
into practitioners’ views on current practices and future needs for reform to improve
family violence risk assessment practices for children. While the data here are Victorian,
an examination of family violence risk assessment practices for children is pertinent for
all Australian state and territory jurisdictions currently reviewing and/or developing
new family violence risk assessment and management practices.
This article is structured into four parts. In part one we outline current family vio-
lence risk assessment practice for children internationally and nationally with a focus on
the Victorian context. Part two provides an overview of the research on which this
article draws. Part three acknowledges other research which has stressed the importance
24 Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 52(1)
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