Please allow me a moment of self-indulgence as I celebrate 5 years of this website, Holes in the Wall, ‘born’ in May 2011 out of a desire to make a contribution to the understanding of children’s violence to parents, known sometimes as parent abuse. As a present to myself I have ordered shiny new postcards to leave with people at conferences and events, explaining how ‘Holes’ came about and how you can be part of the community!
Filed under Discussion
I’m delighted to be able to give the link to the Doctoral Thesis, on adolescent to parent violence and abuse, submitted by Kerry Clarke last year at the University of Hertfordshire, which is now publicly available. The thesis can be accessed here. Kerry is writing from within the Clinical Psychology discipline, and there are some important points made about the dearth of discussion within this field of work, particularly given that such professionals are often ideally placed and trained to support families. Continue reading
Filed under Research
A few years ago the sorts of training opportunities available for practitioners and parents / carers (in the UK) around child to parent violence were confined to Local Authority organised days, a small number of agencies with developed expertise, and projects such as the Daphne RCPV work. Whether you could access anything easily was very dependent on where you were in the country – both in terms of accessibility and in having the costs covered. Models of work are varied and it was sometimes difficult to find training which reflected your own approach. In the last year there has definitely been an upsurge in training opportunities advertised – which is good news for those who want to know more, but it brings its own issues. Can you be sure the provider is qualified to deliver the training? Will you be properly equipped at the end to practise the skills – whether in your home or at work? Are the techniques and models promoted safe? Will the training be recognised by funders? Continue reading
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The research project to map specialist services for families experiencing violence and abuse from their children (Mapping Child to Parent Violence and Abuse Support Services in England and Wales, 2015) came to an end in December 2015. The funding was for a six month period only and we are pleased with the progress we made, though disappointed not to be able to do more. We will continue to add services as they are developed and we come across them.
I have blogged about this a number of times in the last year, most notably here and here.
The Final Report is now complete and can be viewed here. There is a shorter Executive Summary, which is available here.
Any comments will be gratefully received, as will contact details of additional services. Thank you!
Filed under Research
Watching the most recent series from Channel 5 about child to parent violence recently, Violent Child, Desperate Parents, I’ve been struck by the principle underlying the therapist, Mandy Saligari’s work: Be Curious.
Read or listen to the discussions around the programme, or follow particular communities on twitter, and you’ll be familiar with the common assumptions about what’s behind the abuse. Parents too soft, giving them everything they want, they just need boundaries, parents have given up, the parents don’t give a damn. Of course, they do give a damn which is why they are taking the almighty step of exposing their lives to general opprobrium via this popular medium, but that seems to be overlooked. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, TV
Family Of Woman Who Lost Her Life Plead With Lawmakers To Hear Parent Abuse Bill
By SASCHA CORDNER •
Some Florida lawmakers and advocates are pushing for a bill classifying the abuse of a parent as a form of domestic abuse. The measure stems from a woman who lost her life years ago.
Flowers is recalling the painful memory of the events that led to her sister, Rosemary Pate’s death. Pate’s son Everett was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder.
“She had suffered years of abuse from him,” she added. “Although he had been detained in the Department of Juvenile Justice, many times he was returned home to her where the abuse continued, although law enforcement were aware of the threats.”
And, Flowers says losing her sister like this has been tough on the whole family.
“My father has been through a lot,” she continued. “He got a call. Early one morning, my youngest sister and her husband went to his house to let him know that his grandchild had murdered his child. We have been through the ringer with this.”
Flowers just finished a bicycle ride from Orlando to Tallahassee in memory of her sister. Now, she’s advocating on behalf of a bill that she says would have helped.
“Myself and four cyclists have cycled to show how serious we are about getting a bill for police protections for parents and a bill that would begin intervening early for troubled children,” she concluded.
That bill Flowers is pushing for is sponsored by Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D-Orlando).
“We know that in Orange County we have a problem because we’ve studied it,” she said. “And, 426 children were arrested in 2012 for domestic violence, physically assaulting family members in their own homes. And, according to an article, elderly people are likely to be hurt by their children or other caretakers more than any other individual.”
And, Thompson says she’s saddened that even with a restraining order stating that Pate’s son had threatened her and she’d been afraid of him for years, the 51-year-old’s petition went nowhere.
“He had indicated that he would kill her two years earlier when he was 16,” Thompson added. “She said her petition to the judge had not really been acted upon because right now, in the law, regarding domestic abuse, the abuse of a parent is not included and so, this bill would correct that. And, it would include abuse of a parent as one of the forms of domestic abuse.”
The abuse may include aggravated abuse, exploitation of a parent’s assets, or emotional abuse of a parent by a biological child. The bill also requires the abuse of a parent be reported to the state abuse hotline.
And, Rep. Victor Torres (D-Orlando), the bill’s House sponsor, says the measure is needed.
“We need to make sure our parents are protected against abusive children,” he said. “The abuse tends to begin with verbal abuse, gradually progresses to property damage, breaking the walls, breaking down doors…ultimately, it becomes physical and that’s when you have the problems, that’s when you start seeing the aggression against the parents.”
So far, neither the Senate nor the House bill have had a hearing. But, both sponsors say they remain hopeful that if it dies this year, it will still be heard next session.
Filed under news reports
Estefania Lema has sent me the abstract and details of her PhD thesis looking at child to parent violence.
Child-to-parent violence as a process. Analysis of personal, family and contextual variables. Estefania Lema-Moreira, PhD, University of A Coruna, Spain
The frequency of child to parent violence is increasing; and at the same time scientific interest is growing, while important gaps in understanding remain. The general aim of this study was to obtain a deeper knowledge of child to parent violence. Qualitative research methods were used, based on grounded theory. Using unstructured interviews, we analysed the personal, familial and contextual aspects of a group of families, across the history of CPV; as well as material from the systemic family therapy sessions. The sample is composed of 8 cases, comprising 10 parents, 1 daughter and 5 therapists. In six of the eight cases, parents required intervention because of the levels of violence during their time in therapy. Continue reading
Filed under Research
Not a very snappy headline I’ll grant you but the alternative was too cheesey – “Keeping gender on the agenda”. Yeah, I know…..
While there are a small number of studies that have found little difference between the violence and abuse from young women and young men towards their parents, the general accumulation of research seems to point otherwise, and it is likely that this discrepancy can be accounted for by the type of survey, the type of data examined, the particular expression of violence or abuse, or the ages of the young people involved. Eddie Gallagher has a chapter on gender in his commentary on the literature regarding child to parent violence, and he confirms the experience of those involved in clinical practice or the legal world, as well as recent research in Oxford and Brighton, that boys are three or four more times as likely to be involved in CPV than are girls. This difference is most markedly shown as the age increases, and the level of violence worsens. This is not to deny that many girls and young women are extremely violent and abusive towards their parents; and Gallagher also suggests that their levels of violence may be increasing. Continue reading
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HOLES IN THE WALL 