Columnist Sandy Thompson: Violence, child abuse a natural link

Sandy Thompson

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 3:52 a.m.

Sandy Thompson is vice president/associate editor of the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4025 or e-mail at thompson@lasvegassun.com

A SPECIALIZED unit at Child Protective Services is making headway in changing the way we look at domestic violence with regard to children.

It's part of a national paradigm shift, says Fran Marshall of the Andre Agassi Foundation, which funds the unit through a federal grant.

In providing services to battered women (men are victims, too, but the vast majority are women), agencies traditionally have focused on the victim. Children's needs were rarely addressed in the context of domestic violence. Although statistics show that a man who abuses his wife is 1,500 times more likely to hit his children, Marshall says, domestic violence and child abuse were considered separate issues until recent years.

"What surprised me was people saw the role of a woman as a battered wife as separate from her role as a mother," Marshall says.

In some circles, especially the legal system, battered women are viewed as inadequate. They can't protect themselves, so how can they protect their children? Some lose custody of their children because of society's ingrained attitude that blames the victim for her sorry circumstances. Yes, there are battered women who seriously maltreat their children and some continue to stay in abusive relationships despite repeated attempts to help them leave. But many others want to change their circumstances for themselves and their children.

The Agassi Foundation, through a $1.9 million grant from the Violence Against Women Act, has been addressing these issues -- in line with a national trend to link domestic violence and child abuse concerns. The foundation helps fund the special unit at CPS, which teams up domestic violence advocates with child abuse investigators. Reports of abuse are screened for domestic violence components and then referred to the unit. Carol Stillian, manager of CPS, says there is a "high percentage of co-concurrence of domestic violence and child abuse." These cases are approached differently.

Marshall says the unit helps assess the impact of domestic violence on the ability of the mother to function, and identifies barriers to her staying in or leaving the abusive relationship.

The Agassi Foundation also funds a position at the women's emergency shelter, some apartments at the Women's Development Center, a prosecutor in the district attorney's office and two therapy positions at FACT (Family and Child Treatment). Marshall says the foundation is looking to partially fund a professor at the Boyd School of Law at UNLV to help domestic violence victims with legal issues.

The project is increasing awareness of the domestic violence-child abuse link, lessening the recidivism rate and sending more cases to the district attorney's office for potential prosecution. There also has been an increase in the number of batterers referred to treatment programs. Marshall says that with proper intervention, more victims and children are receiving services and cases are being closed more quickly. She credits the assistance of domestic violence advocates.

Proper assessment of cases and intervention are the key.

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges notes that some jurisdictions consider domestic violence as a serious risk to a child, which warrants opening a CPS case. Others rarely consider it a child protection risk. The failure to adequately assess the risks, according to the NCJFCJ, leads to arbitrary decisions on whether intervention is needed. Before children are taken from their homes, a full-scale assessment of the family's risks, strengths and protective factors should be conducted to determine if they can be helped through community services to break the cycle of violence.

The CPS unit and the Agassi Foundation program are working to better understand the family dynamics when there is domestic violence. They are working to respond more quickly to families' needs and to provide more community intervention and support services.

"It's a work in progress," Stillian says of the new approach.

It's also one that should better serve the needs of children and families.