No abstract

This article analyses the links between the nature of child protection referrals and subsequent disposal, showing how mothers and fathers are subjected to markedly different investigative and intervention approaches. The bureaucratic mechanisms of child protection systems are examined to show how procedures impact on the social work process. Data obtained during the author's recent experience of child protection investigation referrals as a social worker in a small northern city is used to ill ustrate the inex orab le contraints of the system on social workers.

No abstract

This paper examines how feminist research and theorizing about domestic violence has been taken up in a condensed and selected way by professionals, leading to the promotion of ‘challenging’ men as the dominant intervention. The limitations of such interventions are discussed, particularly the ineffectiveness of group work programmes based on ‘challenging’, the ways in which such interventions serve to oppress women further, and the failure to provide appropriate services for women who are violent. The author illustrates her argument with case examples from her practice with men and women who both experience violence and are violent, offering an alternative approach which builds safety through cooperation and partnership.

Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages .