Abstract

Child protection and family workers can complete training without learning about how to work with domestic abuse perpetrators - but intervening at an early stage can make a real difference to increasing family safety.

This concise book equips practitioners with the knowledge and techniques they need to make the most of limited client contact with perpetrators. It outlines how to briefly assess perpetrators, how to prepare them for a perpetrator programme, and describes a range of interventions that can be used to reduce the risk they represent in the meantime. Drawing on approaches from motivational work, anger management, CBT and feminist models, but written in practical and easy to follow language, the book provides guidance for carrying out interviews and assessing risk, how to use safety plans, signals and time outs, understanding the impact of abuse on victims, how to analyse incidents of abuse and how to make an effective referral.

This reliable guide is a useful reference for any child protection worker wanting to make the most of the valuable opportunity they have to engage with domestic violence perpetrators.

This is a key text for any frontline child protection worker. It will help them to pro-actively engage with the perpetrator, briefly assess them and consider low-risk interventions. It highlights the challenge of developing a working neutral relationship with the perpetrator and offers guidance on how best to achieve this. The questionnaires and checklists are extremely useful to use as tools during direct sessions with the perpetrator, in particular the story boards. Importantly, this book does not lose sight of the child at the heart of the situation. Overall this should be seen as an essential read for social workers and practitioners from other settings to develop their learning and understanding of domestic violence.
Ann Marie Symonds, Social Worker, Care and Court Planning, Staffordshire County Council and Lee Pardy-Mclaughlin, Principal Child and Family Social Worker, Staffordshire County Council
Kate Iwi is Young People's Service Delivery Manager for RESPECT, UK. As well as working with perpetrators of domestic violence both individually and in groups, Kate has facilitated fathering groups, linked women's support groups and undertaken therapeutic work with children. Chris Newman is a practice supervisor and consultant to organisations working with perpetrators of domestic violence. Chris worked as a research psychologist before moving on to specialise in risk assessment, violence prevention and parenting work with those who have used violence in the family. Kate and Chris also run their own training company, Partner Abuse Consultancy and Training.