Responding to intimate partner violence (IPV) in Ontario, Canada: A closer look at police involvement

Highlights

• Police in Ontario have a mandatory reporting policy for all domestic violence calls.

• This policy has resulted in exponential increase in child protection investigations.

• Differential response and coordinated risk assessment can reduce burden on families.

Abstract

Over the past 20 years, Ontario child welfare agencies have seen an exponential increase in referrals for exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) for children. Using a mixed methods approach, this paper examines the causes and consequences of the exponential increase in the incidence rates of IPV exposure between 1993 and 2013, providing important context for a maltreatment type that is not well understood in Ontario. The incidence of investigations related to IPV was derived and compared across cycles of the provincially representative Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013) and informational interviews were conducted with the primary referral source of IPV-related investigations, police departments, to understand the increase in referrals. Short term service dispositions were also compared across cycles. After the nearly two-fold increase of investigations for all maltreatment types in Ontario between 1998 and 2003, IPV investigations are the only type of maltreatment that continued to increase. In 2013, IPV was the most investigated and substantiated form of maltreatment, without a corresponding increase in the number of cases receiving ongoing services. The continued growth in the proportion of child welfare investigations for exposure to IPV that do not receive ongoing child protection services is a significant concern for Ontario. Intersystem collaboration between police, child welfare, and community services is needed to reduce repeated re-referrals and meet the needs of families experiencing IPV.