Having worked for several years in child protective services (CPS), I was often assigned to cases in which domestic violence played a central role and I was called to assess the potential risk to the children. Many of the cases involved relationships where the male partner was younger than the female partner, and the couple’s marital status was identified as boyfriend/girlfriend in most of those cases.

Interestingly, I noticed certain patterns surfacing from relationships in which the male partner was significantly younger than the female partner. In this essay, I will describe these observations and provide ideas on how to best approach them. But before I begin, it is important to point out that second-guessing after the fact on how an investigation could have been best approached is a lot easier than actually sifting through complicated information at the time the investigation is conducted. The difficult task of investigating allegations of child abuse in which domestic violence is a co-occurring factor becomes even more complicated when all parties involved refuse to provide information because of fear or other unknown factors.

Looking back, risk factors that may have indicated the presence of domestic violence (thus, sometimes changing the outcome from inconclusive to substantiated) in those relationships appear to fall within several parameters: For example:

• An average of a 10-year age differential, the male partner being younger than the female partner.
• He was usually in his 20’s
• They were boyfriend/girlfriend – whether living together or in different addresses.
• History of drug/alcohol abuse by either one or both partners.

Additionally, risk factors that may have indicated that child abuse had indeed occurred (e.g., when the only allegation was child neglect/emotional abuse due to witnessing the alleged domestic violence) includes the above mentioned factors and:

• The children being 5 years old or younger.
• The children living with the couple had a different biological father.
• Or, the couple having children in common but also having additional children living in the home whose biological father was not the boyfriend.

The highest risk was for the children whose biological father was different from the mother’s boyfriend. If the couple had biological children in common, the risk factors for the children in common appeared to diminish considerably.The risk remained higher among the children whose biological father was different from the current male partner, but to a lesser extent, in terms of severity (e.g., physical abuse), than when the couple did not have children in common living with them and the children living in the home were not biologically related to the boyfriend. In other words, the children who had no blood ties to the mother’s boyfriend were at highest risk of physical abuse by the boyfriend.

CPS agencies have at their disposal databases that can be studied and analyzed for these types of patterns so that a scientifically confirmed and useful correlation can be obtained. Such patterns/outcomes could then be evaluated to see whether additional risk factors may need to be added to the Risk and Safety Protocol forms, which if used appropriately, can aid the CPS worker in deciding whether additional safeguards are necessary to protect the safety and wellbeing of the children, and to help the potential adult female victim (who, by the way, could be exposing the children to abusive situations). The benefit of such work is obvious: The more tools available, the better equipped CPS workers can be to make accurate decisions.

The proposed additional risk factors to help identify the potential for domestic violence and child abuse, and the severity of both could then be summarized in the Risk and Safety Assessment form in a manner similar to this:

*The Likert-like scale would be used to calculate deviations from the main question (e.g., 10 years difference rated lower than 13-years difference, or after having positively established the 10-year rule, a 22-year-old male would be rated higher than a 29-yer-old male in terms of risk factors (studies have demonstrated a negative correlation between age and domestic violence). Moreover, history of alcohol/drug abuse by both partners would be rated with a higher risk factor for both domestic violence and child abuse than history of alcohol/drug abuse by just one partner.

**CPS studies have concluded that children younger than 5 years old are at significantly higher risk for abuse. Likewise, CPS studies have also concluded that in general, the mother’s boyfriend is more likely than the children’s father to cause harm to the children. Consequently, if the Likert-like scale totals identified under "DV Markers" reach a certain pre-cutoff number (previously set based on data research analysis), each of the questions that relate to possible child abuse would then be rated with a higher risk factor number.

***If the children’s biological father was different than the current partner, the children appeared to be at a higher risk for abuse, including physical abuse.

It is important to emphasize that the above-mentioned information is only a generalization and even if all the variables are met, it does not mean that abuse is certainly occurring, whether domestic violence and/or child abuse. A combination of tools, including the investigating worker’s clinical skills must be used to safely conclude whether or not domestic violence and/or child abuse has been occurring. Having said that, this proposed Risk and Safety Assessment tool would place the highest risk for child abuse when 1) The children’s biological father is different from the mother’s current partner, and 2) the couple’s marital status is identified as boyfriend/girlfriend, and 3) The children are five years old or younger, and 4) The male partner is about ten years younger than the female partner and younger than 30 years old, and 5) there is a history of drug/alcohol abuse by either one or both partners.

To conclude, investigating allegations of child abuse in which domestic violence is being alleged as the reason for the abuse (neglect/emotional abuse) is difficult to sort out, as many seasoned workers may agree, especially when there is a complete denial of the violence and there is no physical evidence to substantiate otherwise. Therefore, having additional tools available becomes vital.

Written by Julio Reyna, Psy.D.
Therapist-Psychologist.com General Manager

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This is a PDF file This study is indexed by The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). ICPSR is part of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. ICPSR is the world's largest archive of digital social science data.

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