This thoughtful and practical text will be critically important for all social workers, probation officers, psychologists, police and other professionals involved with decision making concerning parental capacity to protect. It also makes a significant contribution to the literature on protecting children from sexual abuse.
Stuart Allardyce, Childrens Service Manager, Barnardos and Chair, NOTA Scotland
Written by an experienced practitioner, this practical guide combines theory and useful models to assist those faced with the difficult task of assessing mothers of sexual abused children and partners of offenders. This difficult area of practice has long suffered from an absence of practical literature and Assessment and Intervention with Mothers and Partners Following Child Sexual Abuse: Empowering to Protect is therefore to be welcomed.
Marcus Erooga, Independent Child Safeguarding Consultant
Jenny Still responds to some of the key questions posed by practitioners working with partners of sex offenders Did they know? Why did their child not tell them? Why do some not believe their childs allegations? Are they safe? What will help? She provides a format for assessment and intervention with practical advice on how to enhance partners understanding of risk in order to help them protect their children and meet the childs recovery needs. Importantly it also helps practitioners identify where protection cannot be provided and where alternative care and intervention is required. This book is an essential resource for all those involved in assessment, intervention, case management and supervision.
Robert Tucker, Independent Social Work Consultant, RGT Training and Consultancy
Jenny states My aim throughout the book is to provide a basic grounding in understanding sex offenders and to weave that knowledge much more into our understanding of mothers and partners. For me the book does exactly that. It deals with what can be some potentially emotive issues with great care, whilst ensuring that the practitioner has a clear understanding of why things should be done in the way Jenny suggests. The work is based on theory but it is also firmly based on Jennys excellent knowledge and understanding of the subject area. All in all it weaves theory with the knowledge and skills required to achieve the aims and objectives of the intervention, while illustrating practice application. The book is a must-read for all those who are involved in this area of work as well as those who assess children and families in other situations.
Trevor Evans, Registered Social Worker, Consultant Trainer and Associate Lecturer, The Open University
First published in 2016
by Jessica Kingsley Publishers
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Copyright Jenny Still 2016
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 78592 020 2
eISBN 978 1 78450 266 9
Assessment and Intervention with Mothers and Partners Following Child Sexual Abuse
Empowering to Protect
Jenny Still
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust for providing me with a work/study scholarship to the USA in the late 1980s, which provided me with my first opportunity to specialise in working with child sexual abuse. I would like to thank all of the colleagues with whom I worked for over twenty years at the Lucy Faithfull Foundation in the UK, who have added to my knowledge and understanding of child sexual abuse from such a broad range of perspectives. I would especially like to thank Hilary Eldridge, who helped me to make the transition from working with children and families to working with sex offenders; who not only added to my knowledge and clinical expertise but with whom I also had the pleasure of devising and running so many training programmes for other professionals in the child protection and criminal justice systems. Special thanks also to Rob Tucker for the work we did together on children and families and for keeping me so grounded in my understanding of children and young people.
Thanks also to David Still for his patience and practical support while I was writing this book.
Thanks to Steve Jones and the team at Jessica Kingsley Publishers for a wonderful combination of efficiency and friendliness in the process of publishing this book.
Finally, enormous thanks to the inimitable Trevor Evans, Associate Lecturer and Social Work Programme Tutor for the Open University in Wales and formerly training manager for Merthyr Tydfil Social Services and Consultant/Trainer for the British Association for Adoption and Fostering in Wales, for his long-distance nagging to continue with this book at a time when I was beginning to flag and for his continuing encouragement, humour, support and belief in the project, as well as for being my toughest critic.Thank you so much.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Background to the book
My aim in writing this book is to present a new approach to understanding, assessing and working with women who are caught up in situations of child sexual abuse by an adult male in a family or similar situation: the mothers of children or young people who have been sexually abused and/or the partners of men who are suspected of such abuse, or of men who are known as sex offenders to the authorities. It is based on research and empirical evidence as well as on my clinical experience in working with both children and families and with sex offenders and paedophiles.
Having worked in child sexual abuse with children and families for many years, I accepted an offer to help set up a clinic working with sex offenders as part of a small multi-disciplinary team for two reasons. The first was the fact that, at that time, whilst the needs of children were being recognised, the need to do something about the cause of the problem the offender was in its infancy. Seeing more and more children and young people being referred for sexual abuse led me to want to do something about the cause of the problem. Fortunately, research and clinical practice related to sex offending have developed immeasurably since that time. The second reason for agreeing to work with perpetrators was that I found myself looking for a greater understanding of the responses I was seeing in the children, mothers, partners and families with whom I was working, beyond what was then available in the relevant literature. We all have times when we are working by the book using established knowledge and methods yet we are left wondering what am I doing wrong? and why is it not working? My hypothesis was that a better understanding of sexual perpetrators would help. My hypothesis was borne out more than I had hoped. Every day of working with sex offenders seemed to produce a eureka moment when I would think now I understand why that particular child/mother/partner acted or reacted in that way. This led to a continuation on my part in joint work with social workers in sessions with children, mothers and families, putting this knowledge of sex offenders to practical use.
