Professional Documents
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Exploring Family Violence
Exploring Family Violence
Child Abuse
PREVENTION
NATIONAL CHILD PROTECTION CLEARINGHOUSE ISSUES PAPER PUBLISHED BY THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF FAMILY STUDIES NO. 13 WINTER 2000
Until recently, few studies had examined the context under Yet the extent of such coercive forces impacting on children
which child sexual abuse occurs, and the extent to which is possibly far greater than what would be expected from
force, violence or coercion is used to produce a child’s taking only the overt signs of domestic violence into account.
acquiescence, mainly because of the common assumption First, many child protection workers failed to determine
that child sexual abuse is generally non-violent, and the use whether even overt verbal and physical domestic violence
of force infrequent (Plummer 1981; West 1981; Goddard was occurring in the family (Tomison 1994; 1999). For exam-
1996). Three Australian studies, Goddard (1981), Goddard ple, in Tomison’s (1994; 1999) study, 19 per cent of child
and Hiller (1993) and Tomison (1994; 1999) that have exam- sexual abuse cases (24 of 124) also involved the child being
ined the possibility of a relationship between child sexual physically abused; 17 per cent of these cases (4 of 24) were
abuse and domestic violence are described. reported to be occurring in families not identified by pro-
fessionals as violent. This would seem to provide support
Goddard (1981) compared the level of domestic violence in
for the contention that workers were taking a conservative
59 cases of child abuse (physical or sexual abuse) admitted
approach to identifying family violence.
to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital in 1980, with a
matched sample of 36 non-abused children admitted at the Second, the measure of the extent of coercion and/or male
same time. Using mothers’ reports of physical violence domination in the family that Goddard and Hiller (1993) and
between the child’s current caregivers, he reported that Tomison (1994; 1999) employed does not take into account
physical assaults between the adults (some incidents and/or the effects of the less overt forms of aggression that can exist
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