Evidencing better child protection practice: why representations of domestic violence matter

Abstract

Lawyers and child protection workers are actively engaged in the process of constructing and representing domestic violence and risk through the processes of collecting, documenting and presenting evidence. These processes frequently reflect the application of dominant gendered stereotypes commonly perpetuated within patriarchal societies through institutional practices. Such practices commonly include: constructing mothers who parent in the context of domestic violence as failing to protect their children, rendering invisible domestically violent men by collecting limited evidence about their perpetration patterns and fathering practices and decontextualising survivors’ mental distress and/or problematic substance misuse. Drawing on feminist theory and using the example of legal practice in the Queensland statutory child welfare department, this Comment argues that hegemonic gendered representations frequently disadvantage women mothering in the context of domestic violence. The Comment illuminates how domestic violence informed capacity-building activities catalysed practice improvements particularly in relation to how evidence is collected, documented and presented.