Category Archives: news reports

by | May 28, 2014 · 10:51 am

“The family unit is supposed to be a safe place”

Mapping support for parents

News at last about the mapping project I have been talking about for ages!

A group of interested people is now meeting regularly to try to get his moving. We aim to produce some sort of directory of all the services across the country supporting families experiencing child to parent violence, by the end of the year. It is not clear at this point what form this will take or who will be able to access it initially, but this is huge progress. Between us we know of a considerable number of projects and services working with parent abuse across the country, but no doubt there are many we are missing. It would be great to make this as comprehensive as possible. If you know of services in your area, or indeed elsewhere, please do email me via the Contact page. Thanks. Continue reading →

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by | February 27, 2014 · 1:11 pm

Parent abuse, news around the world

Florida State Senator, Geraldine Thompson, announced a bill this week to give protection to parents experiencing violence and abuse from their children. If passed, it would become the nation’s first parent abuse law. The bill, SB-904, Abuse of a Parent, which has already been filed would define parent abuse, make it a reportable crime and allow for criminal penalties. Homer Hartage, former County Commissioner and founder of the Parent Abuse Action Coalition has campaigned for better protection with the family of Rosemary Pate who was killed by her son in 2013. There is increasing awareness that this is not a small problem. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, 1,645 parents in Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Lake counties were victimized by their children — physically or sexually — in 2012, the latest statistics available. There has some been concern aired that legislation and criminalisation will not better protect families on its own, but should be accompanied by therapeutic interventions such as treatment and counselling. You can read the news coverage here and here. Continue reading →

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by | February 17, 2014 · 12:01 pm

Parent Abuse Action Coalition moves for legislation in Florida

Please take the time to look at and support the work of Homer Hartage and colleagues, through the Hartage Youth Enrichment Foundation, in Florida, USA.

The Parent Abuse Action Coalition mission is the creation of a coordinated response from federal, state or local government to Parent Abuse similar to what currently exist for Elder Abuse regulations, to get legislation submitted in all 50 states and create responsive services for parents.

Hartage was very moved by the death of Rosemary Pate at the hands of her 19 year old son after years of abuse (more here and here) and is working to create support systems so that this need not happen again.

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by | January 28, 2014 · 4:07 pm

Why telling people they are bad parents is not the answer

When the issue of fining parents for allowing their children to arrive late to school, for persistent non-attendance, or for taking them on holiday in term-time comes up – as it does regularly – it arouses a whole mixture of emotions and responses, in me and in the public at large. Add to the mix the suggestion that ‘good citizen neighbours’ should be wading in, or that telling people they are bad parents will bring about the desired effect, and you’ve pressed enough of my buttons for me to go firing off at random in all directions!

Many of the issues were addressed admirably in the Guardian last week by Patrick Fagan here and by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett here. Continue reading →

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by | January 24, 2014 · 10:21 pm

“I promise you we’ll do some more investigation”

Following on from the fantastic UK media coverage of parent abuse in the second half of last year, the radio features and interviews have continued through January.

This week both Eddie Nestor, on his BBC Radio London Drive Time programme (01.21.50 – 01.26.26), and BBC Radio Oxford’s Phil Gayle with the Breakfast show (01.40.18 – 01.44.48) have brought children’s violence to parents to the attention of listeners. Continue reading →

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by | November 25, 2013 · 2:58 pm

Parent Abuse: the victim / perpetrator problem

When I speak with people about children’s violence to parents, the question of terminology regularly raises its head: How helpful is it to talk about ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ in cases of parent abuse? So this post has been in the making for some time, but was finally brought into being after I was sent a link to a piece in the Sheffield Star last week. It may be lacking a few references so please feel free to comment on this with links to relevant articles.

The news piece itself is very clear in identifying the 20 year old man as the perpetrator of violence, and the mother as the victim. We may agree or not that the judge overstepped the mark in his summing up; but read through to the comments stream and a dissenting voice emerges – as well as a reminder not to jump to conclusions without knowing all the circumstances. Continue reading →

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by | November 4, 2013 · 8:05 pm

Parent Abuse covered by the BBC

Following on from the Guardian article at the weekend, there has been coverage across radio and TV regarding the findings of the Oxford University research study into adolescent to parent violence. You can listen to an interview on the BBC Radio 4 PM programme here for the next week (about 50 minutes in). In it ‘Jane’ describes living in fear of her son after a violent assault with a knife, the guilt and shame experienced by parents in her situation, and the help she received from the Rosalie Ryrie Foundation in Wakefield. Her son spent one year living out of the home, but has now returned and with the help she receives she has been able to be more confident in the way she responds to his behaviour, walking away when necessary and establishing good boundaries – feeling safer, though not entirely safe still at this time. Rachel Condry, author of the study, and Joe Lettieri, of PAARS in Enfield, also appeared on the early evening BBC London News television programme, and the interview is to be shown again this evening in the late news programme.

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by | November 1, 2013 · 10:09 pm

That thing …

… When you do or think something and suddenly everyone else is doing the same? Well it’s been that sort of day!

Following the presentation of the key findings and recommendations on Thursday, Professor David Gadd of Manchester University received coverage across a number of radio stations for the From Boys to Men Project, which examined why some young men go on to become perpetrators of domestic abuse, and what can be done to prevent this. The research found strong correlations with past experience of domestic violence in the home, but David Gadd made it clear that this did not amount to causation. The authors of the research call for the development of preventative work in schools, with work on violence and abuse included in sex and relationship education. Continue reading →

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by | October 21, 2013 · 9:52 am

A growing problem in Ireland

This piece in the Irish Times dropped into my inbox over the weekend.

Declan Coogan addressed the Annual Work Conference in Dublin, hosted by the National Family Support Network, with details from his own work in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in NUI Galway, and as project leader in Ireland for the EU-funded project ‘Responding to Child to Parent Violence’. Reporting that this is the one of the fastest growing issues in calls to parent-support organisations such as Parent Line, he gave examples of children as young as eight terrifying and violently assaulting their parents. He also spoke about his programme of Non-Violent Resistance (NVR), which has been found to be helpful in work with families experiencing parent abuse.

You can read more about NVR in an earlier post on this site. Details of the international conference in Galway in June 2014 will be posted on my Events and Training page as soon as they become available.

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by | October 11, 2013 · 3:19 pm

Addressing parent abuse through Juvenile Family Courts in USA

This piece from the Orlando Sentinel on 4th October, reporting on responses to parent abuse following the death of Rosemary Pate at the hands of her son, has popped up a number of times in the last week, cross-posted in different places. It was good to see the topic of parent abuse getting a good airing after an earlier item appeared in the same paper in a couple of months ago (see my post of  24th August); and encouraging to see a call for early intervention to prevent abuse before it reaches this stage. Continue reading →

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