Key facts on child contact and domestic violence
Is domestic violence dangerous?
In a recent study 180 women were asked why they had left their violent partner:
- 60% had left their partners because they were afraid they would be killed
- 54% had left because they realised the abuse was affecting their children
- 25% had left because they feared for their children's lives. (Humphreys & Thiara (2002 ), Routes to Safety, Bristol : Women's Aid Federation of England .)
Are children at risk too?
The key messages in 'Making an Impact', a training pack launched by the Department of Health in 1998, are that:
- professionals working with children should be aware that domestic violence is an important indicator of risk of harm to children
- research studies show the damaging effects of domestic violence on children
- children are frequently abused by the same perpetrator as their mother. (Hester, Pearson & Harwin (1998) Making an Impact; London: Barnardo's in association with the Department of Health.)
Is there a risk of abuse continuing after separation?
The 1996 British Crime Survey (Research Finding No. 86) noted with regard to domestic assault: "For women, risks were particularly high for those who were separated from a spouse."
From April 2000 to June 2001 there were 30,314 offences under the Protection from Harassment Act 1996 in London alone (Metropolitan Police Statistics). The British Crime Survey 1998 states that about a third of stalking incidents are perpetrated by someone who was previously in an intimate relationship with the victim.
Women are at greatest risk of homicide at the point of separation or after leaving a violent partner. (Unfortunately this is exactly when the perpetrator is likely to apply for contact with the child. (Wilson & Daly (1992) Homicide; New York: Aldine de Gruyter.)
Do the family courts take domestic violence seriously?
According to the Association of Chief Officers of Probation, domestic violence is involved in almost 50% of cases where a Section 7 court welfare report is ordered - about 16,000 cases per annum (ACOP's response to the government consultation on Contact between Children and Violent Parents, 1999).
Despite this, the Judicial Statistics for England and Wales show a significant increase in the number of contact orders granted and an alarming decrease in the number of cases where contact is refused:
- 1999: Contact orders granted 41,862, contact orders refused 1,752
- 2000: Contact orders granted 46,070, contact orders refused 1,276
- 2001: Contact orders granted 55,030, contact orders refused 713
Do the courts ensure that contact arrangements are safe?
In 1999 a survey of 130 abused parents found that 76% of the 148 children who were ordered by the courts to have contact with their estranged parent were said to have been abused in the following ways as a result of contact visits:
- 10% were sexually abused during contact
- 15% were physically assaulted
- 26% were abducted or involved in an abduction attempt
- 36% were neglected during contact
- 62% suffered emotional harm.
Most of these children were under the age of 5. (Radford, Sayer & AMICA (1999) Unreasonable Fears? Bristol : Women's Aid Federation of England ).
In 2001 a survey involving 127 refuge organisations found that contact orders are even being granted to parents convicted of offences against children and to parents whose behaviour caused children to be placed on the Child Protection Register. In some of these cases unsupervised contact was granted or visits were ordered to take place at contact centres which had no facilities for supervision. (Saunders (2001) Making Contact Worse? Bristol ; Women's Aid Federation of England .)
There is an acute shortage of facilities for supervised contact. Only 12% of contact centres in England provide individual supervision for high risk cases. (Furniss, C. (1998) Family Contact Centre:The Position in England, Wales & Scotland Leeds University.)
The Government is investigating the deaths of 19 children who have been killed in recent years as a result of contact arrangements in England and Wales . They want to find out whether the family justice system was involved in these cases.
Why does the Children Act 1989 not provide adequate protection for children?
The Children Act does not require the courts to ensure that contact orders are safe for children with violent parents, and the meaning of the Act has been distorted by the following case-law precedents:
- In Re O (Contact: Imposition of Conditions)[1995] the Appeal Court set a very strong presumption of contact by ruling that contact is "almost always in the child's interest".
- In Re H and R (Child Sexual Abuse)[1995] the House of Lords ruled that a higher standard of proof should be required in family law cases involving more serious allegations. This ruling makes it very hard to protect a child who has been physically or sexually abused, because it is notoriously difficult to prove child abuse, particularly child sexual abuse, in a court of law.
The Government recently tried to tackle this issue by introducing Good Practice Guidelines and extending the definition of harm in the Children Act 1989, but unfortunately these measures do not overrule these damaging case-law precedents. Orders for unsupervised contact are still being granted to violent parents and in several recent cases residence orders have been granted to abusers.
Women's Aid is calling on the Government to set up an independent enquiry into cases where residence orders have been used to enforce contact and also cases where contact orders have been granted to Schedule 1 offenders or parents whose behaviour caused children to be placed on the Child Protection Register. We are also calling for an urgent amendment to the Children Act 1989 to ensure that contact and residence orders are safe for children.
Hilary Saunders
Children's Officer
January 2003