Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

Is concern justified? Problems of definition and prevalence 43As with other parental problems, no systematic research into the associationbetween problem drinking or drug misuse and child abuse exists. Further work isrequired to test whether there are links between parental problem drinking and drugmisuse, and particular forms of child maltreatment.Prevalence of domestic violence: generalpopulation studiesThere are serious problems in accurately identifying the prevalence of domesticviolence. The scale of the problem is likely to be greater than official statistics suggestbecause people are reluctant to reveal domestic violence and hesitant about seekinghelp. Dominy and Radford’s (1996) study of 484 female victims of domesticviolence found only one in three had previously told anyone of their experiences,a figure which reflects earlier findings by Dobash and Dobash (1980). The mostrecent crime survey found 7% of women and 4% of men reported having been thevictims of domestic violence in the preceding year; more than one in four women inEngland and Wales had been affected by domestic violence since the age of 16 years(Flately et al 2010). Reported incidents of domestic violence are on the decline.Following a peak in reporting in 1996, reports of domestic violence have fallen bytwo thirds (Kershaw et al. 2008).The most common type of reported abuse is eithernon-physical (63%); that is emotional or financial abuse, or abuse through the useof physical force (61%). Women are more likely than men to experience all formsof intimate violence (Kershaw et al. 2008). Nonetheless, ‘there are 120,000 victimsin any year who are at high risk of being killed or seriously injured as a result of domesticabuse; 69% of high risk victims have children’ (Munro 2011, p.26, paragraph 2.20).Research indicates there are strong links between intimate-partner violence andboth ‘drinking in the event’ and ‘problem drinking’ (Finney 2004). Research usinga self-completion questionnaire found 32% of victims of domestic violence saidtheir attacker had been drinking. Drug taking is less likely to be an issue in domesticviolence than alcohol but, where it is, drug misuse is more likely to be related tochronic victimisation. Where women had been subjected to chronic domesticviolence, 8% said their assailant was under the influence of drugs (Mirrlees-Blackand Byron 1999). There is considerable debate over whether there is a causal linkbetween alcohol misuse and domestic violence. While it is recognised that alcoholconsumption makes it more likely to predict violence or aggression, it should notbe used to excuse such behaviour. People who are violent and aggressive will usuallybehave in these ways whether or not they consume alcohol (Galvani 2004).The reluctance to report domestic violence makes it difficult to estimate thenumber of children living in violent households. Recent data suggest of the 11 millionchildren in England, 200,000 live in households where there is a known risk ofdomestic violence or violence (Lord Laming 2009). Women’s Aid offers women andchildren a safe refuge as well as non-residential support. During 2005/6 a total of131,245 women and 95,960 children were supported by domestic violence services(Women’s Aid 2008).