I’m really pleased to let you know that the reports for the Daphne RCPV project are finally completed, and these, along with related resources are now available on their website. These include conference presentations, CPV evaluation framework and tools, self-efficacy questionnaires, toolkits including those for Break4Change and NVR, and the RCPV films: “Defining CPV” and “Project Findings”. The website will be updated twice a year, so do check it out from time to time for new material. Some of these reports are also available in Spanish, Swedish and Bulgarian. Continue reading
Tag Archives: CPV
The Adoption Social: Listening to and supporting each other
One of the particular groups of people I follow on twitter has been the adoption community. Early on in my exploration of children’s violence to parents, and more especially after publication of the report Beyond the Adoption Order, I become aware that families living with children they had adopted were facing sometimes extreme levels of violence and that it often felt different to other forms of CPV. Often times it involved children as young as three or four, and could clearly be linked back to experiences of trauma: neglect, violence, abandonment, multiple placements, and the cutting of familial ties. These were children demonstrating anger, grief, frustration and most of all fear, and – as with all CPV – there was very little being offered in the way of support. A few tentative steps are now being taken in developing therapies and support packages for families, but one of the key things that has enabled people to keep caring, to keep going at all, has been the friendships, advice and care forged online. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
“Cases of children abusing their parents has soared by 60% in two years”
People have been much exercised over recent weeks by an apparent huge rise in the number of younger and younger children being involved in serious crime; and bundled in with this is the issue of these children’s violence and abuse towards their parents. Both the Daily Mail and Telegraph published items around this theme, and I saw the same story covered by the website Dad info.
What are we to make of this?
First, we must be cautious about the meaning we ascribe to crime statistics, as to any data. Crime figures have always been affected by reporting behaviour (of both victims and police), societal attitudes (some would like to attribute it to parents giving up their parenting responsibilities to the state), by targeted programmes, categorisation, and also – certainly in the past – by the practice of “manipulation”. The figures, too, come on the back of reported “very large reductions in serious youth violence” in the previous year, reported also by the Youth Justice Board, in January of this year; though there may be some localised variations in this. Scepticism is important, but we need to also acknowledge real changes society, such as an increase in the use of children by gang members seeking to evade the law themselves, or to the impact of different exclusion policies adopted as the picture of school governance changes across the country, which may act to drive up figures of real crime. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, news reports
A brighter future for families experiencing child to parent violence
Continuing a mini series of interviews about different projects around the country, I have been speaking with Sian Taylor at Wish for a Brighter Future in Bristol.
Wish for a Brighter Future (WISH) has been in operation since 2003, when a small group of Hartcliffe residents identified a need to provide domestic abuse support in their community. WISH worked for many years supporting men, women and children affected by domestic violence and abuse (DVA) within the local community before developing their parent abuse project. They found their understanding and experience of DVA were vital in making the transition from domestic to parent abuse support. While the original expectation was that the work would be with young people, delivering domestic abuse prevention work through education and group work support – and the funding* supported this plan – once the doors opened the organisation was inundated with referrals for parent abuse, and for the last year this has been the sole focus of the work. Continue reading
New Year, New Reading
I have recently been sent links to new and additional published articles in the field of adolescent to parent abuse; and have updated the Reading List page accordingly.
A paper by Caroline Miles and Rachel Condry, Adolescent to parent violence: the police response to parents reporting violence from their children, further develops the discussion arising from the findings of their three-year research project. This paper specifically examines police responses and suggests a way forward that offers support and restorative action for families. (Abstract here.)
Declan Coogan has a paper entitled Responding to Child-to-Parent Violence: Innovative Practices in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, in the Health and Social Work Journal, Special Issue: Child and Adolescent Health. (Abstract here) He considers obstacles in the recognition of, and response to, child to parent violence, and proposes the Non Violent Resistance Programme as a positive way forward.
Sally Donovan’s second book about the experiences of adoptive parenting, The Unofficial Guide, offers a further raw and powerful account of living with children traumatised by earlier life. She offers practical steps and guidance for parents, but the book is well worth reading for anyone involved in the adoption or CPV field.
I’ve also tidied up the links to the Family Lives / Parentline reports as I have been told they have been difficult to find on the website. Hopefully that is now improved.
Please do let me know about any other books or articles to add to the list. It is not exhaustive by any means, and certainly does not include early work, which I should get round to adding at some point!
In the meantime, Happy Reading!
Filed under publications
Wakefield CPV forum presentations now available
Last week’s child to parent abuse practitioners’ forum in Wakefield received very positive reviews from those who were able to attend. The event was an opportunity for practitioners to share good practice in the development and delivery of child-to-parent abuse services. It was also an opportunity to hear from academics and specialists about the latest developments in the field. For those who weren’t able to be there, the presentations are available online till the end of the month.
The tremendous increase in events such as this over the last year demonstrates the growing awareness of the issue, the range of responses around the country, and the determination to continue learning from each other. It is a great testament to the commitment and energy of all those involved.
Filed under conference report
Understanding parent abuse within a child protection framework
We hear a lot about the cross-over between domestic abuse and child to parent violence (CPV), but significantly less about how CPV is to be understood within a child abuse and protection framework. This is an area of work dear to my own heart, and one that has also been the focus of some research in the Netherlands. Recently Dutch researcher, Dr Remy Vink, was tweeting about a conference she had attended, and she kindly agreed to be interviewed about it for the blog.
Filed under conference report, Research
Leeds Practitioners’ Forum on Child-to-Parent Violence
I was very disappointed not to be able to attend the Practitioners’ Forum at Leeds University, but thrilled to present this review of the day from Dr Sam Lewis, which also gives links to all the presentations.
On 15th July a Practitioners’ Forum on Child-to-Parent Violence (CPV) was held in the School of Law at the University of Leeds. The event, which was organised by the University’s Centre for Criminal Justice Studies (CCJS), Leeds Youth Offending Services (YOS) and Wakefield Troubled Families Scheme, attracted over 100 delegates from different agencies and areas. Continue reading
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Daphne RCPV Conference in Galway
The recent conference in Galway, hosted by the National University of Ireland in Galway, was an opportunity to hear about progress on the RCPV project and to meet the participants from around Europe, to learn more about NVR, and to meet practitioners from Ireland in particular who are already engaged in work with families experiencing violence from their children. Continue reading
Filed under conference report
