Intimate Partner Woman Abuse in Alberta's Child Protection Policy and the Impact on Abused Mothers and their Children

The increased attention to children’s exposure to intimate partner violence has prompted child protection services (CPS) across the globe to make changes to their policies, including amending existing child maltreatment legislation and developing organizational policies in an attempt to protect children. Despite the well-intentioned nature of these efforts, they have been criticized for producing negative unintended consequences such as re-victimizing battered women, ignoring abusive men, and failing to protect children. To date, few studies have assessed the impact of these policy changes, especially from the standpoint of abused mothers. This article presents the results of a recent qualitative study that examined Alberta’s CPS policy and its impact on 13 abused mothers. Most of the women considered the involvement to be unhelpful, intrusive, and punitive. Many experienced tremendous feelings of grief and loss and felt that they had lost their identity as mothers, especially after their children were apprehended. Almost all of the women discussed experiencing greater levels of stress and anxiety, which frequently resulted in serious physical and mental health problems. Finally, the women reported that child protection involvement, most notably, apprehension of their children, had a damaging impact to their children

The Power to Name: Conceptualizing Domestic Violence as Violence Against Women

Since the early 1970s, feminist researchers and advocates have identified violence against wives or female partners as a serious and pervasive social issue, resulting in changes to housing, social services, and legal reforms. Recently, some family violence researchers, sociologists, and men’s activists have challenged feminist claims that women are the primary victims of intimate partner violence; citing numerous studies that suggest men are frequently victims of violence by their female intimate partners and arguing that, because of symmetrical prevalence rates found in numerous studies, violence occurring within intimate relationships represents “mutual combat” and should be conceptualized as gender-neutral. Feminist researchers and women activists oppose gender-neutral conceptualizations and argue that violence is indeed gendered; and issues of context, meaning, and consequences should be examined before making claims of gender symmetry. They contend that the issue should be gender specific and should be viewed as “violence against women”, instead of more gender-neutral conceptualizations as “domestic violence” or “spousal abuse’. Not surprisingly, a heated debated has erupted among researchers, policymakers, and community activists about the gendered nature of intimate partner violence. Specifically, the debate centers on the rate of women’s use of violence against their intimate partners and the degree of harm inflicted by women. This debate about the gendered nature of intimate partner violence will be examined. I conclude by suggesting that a feminist and gender-specific theoretical framework is most useful in understanding heterosexual intimate partner violence

Domestic violence and child welfare policy: an examination of Alberta's child welfare legislation and the impact on child welfare practice

Bibliography: p. 116-124

The construction of intimate partner woman abuse in Alberta's child protection policy and the impact on abused mothers and their children

Bibliography: p. 246-285Although women are most frequently the direct victims of intimate partner violence, there is growing evidence that children exposed to intimate partner woman abuse may also be affected. The increased attention to children's exposure has prompted child protection authorities to make changes to their policies, in an attempt to protect children. Despite the well-intentioned nature of these efforts, they have been criticized for producing negative consequences, such as, re-victimizing battered women, ignoring abusive men, and failing to protect children. Few studies have assessed the impact of these policy changes, especially from the standpoint of abused mothers. This study explores how children's exposure to intimate partner woman abuse has been represented within Alberta child protection policy and the impact on abused mothers and their children. An extensive review of government documents on family violence and children's exposure reveals that Alberta represents children's exposure in problematic ways, including considering all children who witness iolence as suffering eriou and long-lasting harm. Additionally, the Alberta government represents intimate partner woman abuse within a degendered discourse of family violence, in which structural factors are ignored. The study also examines the consequences of such policy representations on mothers and their children through in-depth interviews with 13 mothers who had contact with child protection because of their abuse by intimate partners. Most of the women considered the involvement to be unhelpful, intrusive, and punitive, as they were often treated as bad mothers who could not protect their children. Many experienced tremendous feelings of grief and loss and felt that they had lost their identity as mothers, especially after their children were apprehended. Participants experienced significant levels of stress and anxiety, which frequently resulted in serious health problem . Finally, the women reported that child protection involvement, most notably, the apprehension of their children, had a damaging impact on their children. To conclude the study, I offer an alternative representation that takes a narrower view of children' s exposure as well a a gendered view of intimate partner violence. It is hoped that this alternative representation offer a more useful way of understanding children's exposure to intimate partner woman abuse without punishing women for the behaviours of violent men

"Where Have All the Women Gone?" Woman Abuse and Canadian Social Policy

Being abused by an intimate partner is a disturbing reality for many Canadian women. While woman abuse was once deemed a serious social problem, policymakers are increasingly conceptualizing the problem from a degendered perspective, with men seen as equally likely to be victims and the family targeted as the major focus for intervention. Policymakers have also recently turned their attention to children exposed to woman abuse, often with detrimental effects to abused mothers. This discussion paper h~ghlights three characteristics of adopting a degendered and family/child-centred approach in government policymaking with respect to intimate partner violence agalnst women: 1. The portrayal of tnen as equally victimized by intimate partner violence is, in part, a consequence of research that fails to take into account the context of the abuse and ignores the asymmetrical power imbalance between women and men in families. 2. Utilizing degendered terms (e.g., family violence and domestic abuse) for policies and programs, obscures the fact that women tend to be overwhelmingly the primary victims. 3. Recent attention to children's exposure to violence in the home has overshadowed women's victimization. We argue that policymakers should adopt a gendered analysis when developing solutions to address intimate partner violence, and that the focus on the potential impacts on children witness~ng the abuse of their mothers not be used to the detriment of women's interests and well-being. Social policy must protect children as well as their mothers. Le fait d'&tre abusee par un partenaire intime est une rCalitC perturbante pour beaucoup de femmes canadiennes. Alors que la violence contre les femmes etait autrefois perpe comme un problkme social grave, les responsables des orientations politiques c~nce~tual i sednet plus en plus le probleme dans une perspective qui fait abstraction des genres; les hommes sont perqus comme Cgalement 5 risque d'&tre victimes et la famille est ciblCe comme l'essentiel de l'intervention. Les responsables de l'orientation des politiques se sont aussi prCoccupCs r6cemment des enfants exposCs la violence des femmes souvent au dCtriment des mPres abuskes. Ce document de travail met en relief trois caractCristiques de Padoption d'une mCthode qui fait abstraction des genres et qui est centree sur les enfants pour l'klaboration des politiques du gouvernement ii 1'Cgard de la violence des partenaires intimes contre les femrnes : 1. La description des hommes, comme Ctant Cgalement victimes de la violence des partenaires intimes, est en partie la consequence d'une recherche qui ne tient pas compte du contexte de la violence et ignore le dCsCquilibre du pouvoir asymktrique dans les familles entre les femmes et les hommes. 2. L'utilisation de terrnes qui font abstraction des genres (par ex. : la violence familiale et au foyer) pour les politiques et les programmes a obscurci le fait que les femmes tendent ii Etre les victinles principales 5 une majorit6 Ccrasante. 3. L'attention rCcente portCe B l'exposition des enfants B la violence chez eux a CclipsC la victimisation des femmes. Nous soutenons que les responsables de l'orientation des politiques devraient adopter une analyse qui tient compte des genres quand ils Claborent des solutions traitant de la violence contre un partenaire intime. Nous soutenons aussi que les rCpercussions potentielles sur les enfants qui ont 6tC tCmoins de violence contre leur mPre ne devraient pas Etre utilisCes au dCtriment des femmes et de leur bien- Etre. La politique sociale doit tout aussi bien protCger les m6res que les enfants