Family Violence Perpetuated by Adolescents

Adolescent family violence in the home A/Prof Kate Fitz-Gibbon (kate.fitzgibbon@monash.edu) Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre

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Presentation overview • Acknowledgements • Experiences of adolescent violence in the home (AVITH) • Reporting barriers • Police responses, including the use of protection orders • Recent policy and practice reforms

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What do we know about AVITH? • In VIC, at least 1 in 10 police callouts for DFV involve AVITH

• Gendered nature (~3/4 young people using AVITH are male) • AVITH is different from adult DFV/ IPV • • • •

Increasing evidence that CJS is not the answer Limited help-seeking opportunities for parents Police/ crisis responses as last resort Families often have prior contact with child protection, child and youth mental health, school wellbeing staff, adult related DFV services, Family Law • Often missed opportunities for early intervention

Existing evidence around overlap of childhood exposure and adult use of DFV suggests link between childhood exposure and AFV

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Study of adolescent family violence in Victoria (Australia) 6 focus groups with 24 service providers & justice professionals

14 in-depth interviews with experts & health practitioners

120 anonymous survey responses for participants who had experienced adolescent family violence

including 81 mothers 4

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Key Findings: the nature of adolescent family violence • Adolescent family violence (AFV) describes violence perpetrated by young people against family members, including parents, siblings, carers and other members of the family.

• A range of different strategies used to control, coerce and threaten family members that create harm: physical violence, property damage, verbal abuse, coercive and controlling behaviours, and financial abuse.

• Physical violence was often used to achieve broader goals eg. to change the household rules, to avoid household tasks, or to extract money from a parent.

• Verbal abuse and coercive behaviours were used in many incidents to establish power and control over a parent and/or sibling.

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Key Findings: identifying victimisation & understanding gender • Early stages of victimisation were often fraught with concerns over what distinguishes ‘normal’ adolescent tantrums from behaviours that constitute abuse.

• For some parents the violence became part of their everyday lives. Described daily life as walking on ‘eggshells’ and ‘warzone’ • Types of violence committed was influenced by gender: • girls more commonly using verbal violence and property damage as mechanisms for control, • male adolescents were more commonly reported using physical violence.

• These patterns appeared to hold true across mother victimisation and sibling victimisation, with the note that some siblings in our survey described sexualised verbal abuse and property damage.

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What we learnt about young people who use AFV: Age • Many respondents included information about the age of onset when describing their experiences of AFV • The responses were extremely varied, with some respondents describing violence used by children as young as 6 years old at onset and others describing being victimised by adolescents upward of 18 years old.

• Practitioners described the most common age of adolescents using family violence presenting to them as generally between 15 and 17 years.

• The age at which adolescents begin using violence within the home was often linked to physical development and growth of the adolescent, particularly for young men.

• Practitioners described working with younger children – aged 10 to 12 – where the AFV has not yet progressed to physical violence but is exhibiting itself as problematic behaviours

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The complex needs of young people who use AFV • Practitioners described the co-occurrence of issues such as ASD or Asperger’s with a range of other challenging factors, and the difficulties of satisfactorily ensuring the safety of all involved in these situations.

• Of the 120 survey responses, 22 participants (18%) mentioned ADHD, ASD, Asperger’s Syndrome or a combination of these.

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Intergenerational violence • Experiences of intergenerational violence were detailed in survey responses where respondents, primarily mothers, described histories of IPV witnessed by the child and later incidents of violence committed by that same child.

• Family members were cautious in suggesting a link between the two but they did detail intergenerational experiences of violence in describing AFV

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Key findings: experiences of shame and fear of stigma • Both service providers and parents identified that shame, stigma and blame are central to experiences of AFV and key barriers to help seeking.

• Not unique to parents, siblings also described being drawn into a web of shame and silence.

• Service providers emphasised that blaming parents was inappropriate and only worsened the situation.

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7/11/2021

Key findings: A reluctance to engage police as primary responders • Parents often did not report dangerous behaviour to the police – if they did it was a ‘last resort’ in response to an immediate safety concern.

• Consistent acknowledgement of the risks of criminalisation • Victoria Police have four options when responding to AFV: 1.

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Issue an informal or formal warning to the adolescent Make a referral to a FV service or to Child Protection Take out a family violence intervention order against the young person Charge the young person with a criminal offence.

• Mixed experiences when participants did engage the police revealing the need for consistent police training and understanding of AFV 11 11

The use of protection/intervention orders • In all bar two (Queensland and Tasmania) Australian jurisdictions, legislation exists that permits parents and siblings to apply for and/or be issued a family violence protection order against an adolescent using violence.

• In jurisdictions covering parents and siblings in their legislation, there are large disparities in requirements or restrictions for issuing protection orders against child respondents.

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The use of protection/intervention orders in Victoria • In Victoria, data from the Melbourne Children’s Court reveal that between July 2013 and June 2018, there were 6527 original applications made for a family violence protection order where the respondent was 17 years or younger.

• This includes: • • • •

4539 cases involving a male adolescent (12–17 years old) 1931 cases involving a female adolescent (12–17 years old) 57 cases, the respondent was aged 10 or 11 years old.

In 46% (3029) of cases, the affected family member was the female parent or step-parent of the adolescent.

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The use of protection/intervention orders in Victoria Findings from our Victorian research with mothers experiencing AFV: • Mixed experiences with the civil protection order system in cases of AFV • For many participants, protection orders were only considered out of ‘desperation’, when all other options had been exhausted • For many, the days following or subsequent court appearance involved seeking to have the order withdrawn and/or failing to report breaches of the order conditions.

• But for those mothers experiencing ongoing physical violence, a protection order had been an effective response, as it stopped the violence and ensured the safety of the victim as well as other family members

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Challenges for policy and practice • The critical difficulty in responding appropriately to AFV appears to be balancing children’s best interests with the safety needs of their parents and siblings.

• IPV responses are largely not appropriate for addressing AFV. • Challenges associated with applying legal interventions designed for adults to a context of violence that is perpetrated by a child, and often against a primary caregiver whose main incentive in wanting to end the violence is likely to be reunification and ongoing safety of all members of the family.

• The need for tailored whole of family responses.

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Thank you very much

Associate Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre https://www.monash.edu/arts/gender-and-family-violence (@MonashGFV) 16

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