After a Report of Domestic Violence, Social Services Will Be Required to Assess Risks to Children in These Families.
Domestic violence is never limited to a single victim. It destroys the lives of entire families, and the most vulnerable witnesses and hidden victims often become children. In today’s reality, a child often remains in the shadow of the adult victim, which creates additional opportunities for the abuser to exert pressure or physical harm on the most vulnerable family members.
The Verkhovna Rada is taking a step to overcome the "invisibility" of children in domestic violence cases. Bill No. 15418 proposes a new approach to protecting victims. The document obliges support services to assess the level of danger not only for the person who sought help but also for every child living in the domestic violence environment. This step can significantly change the response system, making it more comprehensive and focused on preventing tragedies, not just their consequences.
The bill proposes to revise paragraph 2-1 of part one of Article 14 of the current Law "On Prevention and Counteraction to Domestic Violence" in a new edition. The main change concerns expanding the powers of general and specialised victim support services.
According to the draft, these services will be required to carry out: "risk assessment threatening the victim with simultaneous determination of risks to each child living with the victim".
This means that the assessment of the likelihood of repeated violence, severe consequences, or even death must now be conducted separately for each family member. The state is moving from general monitoring of the situation to a detailed analysis of the safety of each child individually.
Why is this needed now?
Legislation defines risk assessment as the evaluation of the likelihood of continued violence or fatal consequences for the victim.
However, in practice, a situation arose where support services, focusing on protecting the adult victim, for example, the mother, could ignore specific threats to children living in the same premises.
The current law does not contain a direct requirement for mandatory risk assessment specifically for the child, which can lead to additional threats from the abuser. A child who witnesses violence is automatically considered a victim, but without a formal risk assessment for them, it is difficult to develop an effective safety plan.
The need to regulate the issue of risk assessment for each child is a logical continuation of the strategy of digitalisation and improving the effectiveness of social services, where every citizen must be "visible" to the legal system.
The project is based on the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine and the specialised Law "On Prevention and Counteraction to Domestic Violence." An important aspect for lawyers and public administrators is that the implementation of these changes does not require additional expenses from the State Budget. This makes the reform maximally realistic for implementation in a short time, as it concerns the redistribution of powers and changes in the protocols of already existing services.
Despite the obvious benefits, any change in the social-legal sphere carries certain risks. Assessing danger to a child requires specific psychological and pedagogical knowledge. There is a possibility that service workers without proper training may conduct such assessments formally.
The assessment procedure can be stressful for the child. It is necessary to clearly develop a methodology so that the assessment itself does not become a repeated trauma.
Legal recognition that the threat to a child is an integral part of any act of domestic violence against a family member will contribute to the real protection of the child’s interests.
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