ABSTRACT
The goal of all social work and probation intervention where there is or has been abuse should be to help make women and children safe, including by confronting men. The evidence that local authority child care work was not traditionally directed towards that goal, especially for women, was presented in Chapter 3. There is also a legacy to overcome in marital counselling in both the voluntary and statutory sectors; one classic text, for example, because it totally lacks a gender power analysis in relation to men’s sexual violence, includes women’s suicide attempts under coercive techniques employed by one partner against the other, on a par with men imprisoning and raping their wives (Mattinson and Sinclair, 1979, pp.120-1). Indeed, in all work with couples and families, including family court welfare work undertaken by the probation service, issues of women’s safety have only belatedly and incompletely come to the fore. The growth of mediation between couples seeking a divorce could also reinforce power imbalances and dangers to women; even if all those disclosing assaults are successfully screened out, there are still risks for those not disclosing violence or experiencing other forms of abuse, as well as questions as to what is considered to constitute violence and who decides on this.
