Power with and Power Over: How Domestic Violence Advocates Manage their Roles as Mandated Reporters

Domestic violence (DV) advocates aim to restore survivors’ choice and control, a process that involves sharing power with survivors, to the extent possible. At the same time, as mandated reporters, they are legally required to observe, evaluate, and potentially report survivors’ parenting to the Department of Children and Families (DCF), an activity that involves exerting enormous power over survivors. Although research has long documented the tension between systems that support DV survivor-mothers and systems that support children, almost no research has explored how advocates think about and manage on a daily basis these perhaps contradictory roles. This study aimed to fill this gap. Using a qualitative, focus-group methodology, we conducted six focus groups with advocates across four programs. Findings demonstrate that advocates perceive profound tension between their role as facilitators of empowerment and their obligations as mandated reporters, especially given their (advocates’) general distrust of DCF. They use myriad strategies to manage the resultant conflict, including inward facing strategies, designed to manage their own biases and see survivors in context; survivor-facing strategies, designed to name, share, and use their power in every way possible within the systemic constraints they face; and system-facing strategies that balance cooperation with DCF and continued advocacy for survivor-mothers. Despite their thoughtful and strategic efforts to minimize “power-over” dynamics, however, advocates report that navigating this tension often exacts an emotional toll on them, causes irreparable damage to their advocacy relationships, and harm survivors. A number of actionable recommendations follow, including the need to establish opportunities for survivors to talk with each other, outside the earshot of staff, about their parenting challenges.