1. Social work with violent men: What has changed?
Polly Baynes
Introduce self

2. 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
Key references at end of handouts
Some people suggest sws avoid violent men out of fear for own safety. SCR
Unclear if distinct phenomena

3. The study 40 cases in one local authority
Unrepresentative group of men
Child protection files
All registration categories
Quantitative and qualitative analysis
Limited findings, untypical local authority, esp ethnic mix
All files included regardless of whether male violence identified as key concern

4. Quantitative questions
Who are the men in vulnerable children’s lives?
What is the level of violence in these families?
Are social workers working with men?
Are social workers working with violent men?
Wanted to consider whether issues remained same. Has recent focus on domestic violence and fatherhood changed the levels of engagement?

5. The men 40 families, 63 men Less than a third were resident fathers
Files searched for birth fathers (whether or not they had contact), step parents, mother’s partners, peripheral men
21 families had more than one man involved, four in one family

6. Levels of violence Domestic violence most common trigger to meeting
42 men had recorded history of violence
Violence to women, children, outside home, self
Some examples of violence included in handouts

7. 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
May have been good reasons, but not given
By contrast every mother invited to cp meeting, 73% attended
Significant implication for risk assessment
Resident fathers highest rates of engagement
Absent fathers not contacted even though child at risk of LAC
Meeting did not challenge this lack of engagement in most cases

8. 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
Significant change from 1995
But women still asked to sign contracts, presented with ultimatums
Violent men concealed within no concerns category

9. Qualitative findings
Text searched for prevailing themes in the ways families and professionals discussed and reported male violence

10. 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
Although male violence was a common trigger to meeting, focus rapidly shifted to concerns about maternal care and protection. The identity pair of responsible woman/ invisible man still has considerable influence.

11. 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 Mother’s emotional needs caused such intensity that disputes started
Grabbed by the hair and strangled
No man characterised as choosing a vulnerable woman
He tried to suffocate her

12. There were no concerns about the father being violent, but there were concerns about the mother and emotional abuse
Theme also arose in small sample of men who were violent to children.Man had stamped on child’s head.Mother reported this to police

13. Responsible men I want him to sort him out
She wanted her children more than anything else…it was him that was violent, not her
Mother suffered the most appalling domestic violence for years from a bully of a man
Some women and professionals challenged this

14. 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

15. Despite father’s 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 but…he will be alright with the baby and wants to bond
We have got better at noticing male violence, can’t see beyond it to look at implications for parenting

16. 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

17. 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 child’s head. Children suffered injuries including bruising, chipped teeth, and a split lip’.

18. 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’.

19. Violence outside the home
‘violence to a landlady, sexual assaults, death threats and fights with neighbours, slashing a person with a sword, slashing a man’s 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’.

20. 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.

21. 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