Australian report documented a strong relationship between family violence and child neglect and abuse
Partner violence has been consistently found to be linked with child neglect and abuse.
In Australia, the government has responded to a report documenting high levels of family violence in child protection cases.
Among the children involved in this review, the vast majority -more than 80 per cent- were subject to family violence for years with minimal intervention, and around 70 per cent of these children were found to have suffered serious neglect that sadly took place for years. Mark Collis, who is ACT’s executive director for children, youth and families, revealed that,
“family violence, drug and alcohol use, and mental illness account for over 90 per cent of the variables that lead to child protection.”
Dr Collis has expressed enthusiasm for a promising new system which would facilitate case workers to track markers of cumulative harm, since no single event might reach a threshold of severe violence, but if you take the child’s whole life story and put that in context you might see an accumulation of traumatizing child abuse and neglect.
The protection of society’s most vulnerable members is of utmost importance. However, Mr Collis admitted how challenging it is to balance and prevent deep trauma to children when being removed from their parent and the harm of being exposed to violence.
