Non-offending fathers and children’s risk in severe child maltreatment cases

This study examines the association between fathers and children’s risk in maltreatment cases where the father was not the maltreating parent. Although fathers play a significant role in children’s lives, the existing literature on the risk posed by fathers who are not the maltreatment perpetrator is limited. The study’s goals were threefold: (1) to describe differences in parent and child characteristics between families with resident biological fathers, non-resident biological fathers and resident non-biological fathers; (2) to examine whether resident biological fathers are associated with less or greater risk to a child; (3) to determine whether the association between risk to a child and a resident biological father, if found, persists even with controlled family and individual characteristics. The sample included 237 Israeli court cases in which the mother was adjudicated for child maltreatment. The cases were analyzed for a range of family and case characteristics. It was found that cases with resident biological fathers posed the greatest risk compared to single households and resident non-biological fathers, even though the fathers were not reported as the perpetrators of the maltreatment. The association was corroborated after controlling for family poverty, mental health, drug abuse, the child’s age and number of children in the family. The implications of the study’s findings identify a need for more inclusive social welfare practices and implementation of the family system approach when designing intervention plans. Future research directions are put forward. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.