Reflexivity in moral decision-making: assessing and managing child abuse and domestic violence

Many countries are reporting increases in domestic violence and child abuse rates and intensity during the Covid-19 pandemic. This pervasive, complex, and sensitive issue requires careful responses from child welfare organisations. Signs of abuse – often hidden and open to interpretation - can be difficult to detect and assess, and processes rely on the personal judgement of social workers and professionals. Acknowledgement of the complexities of abuse has led to attempts at reorganising the field and reducing uncertainties of practice through the provision of standardised assessments, guidelines and instruments, a trend also observed in the Netherlands. Concurrently, there is a recognition of the importance of professionals’ personal judgement and the need for reflexive practice and use of different knowledges, such as intuition. There is an opportunity for guidelines to support reflection and intuition as part of ‘good care’ practice, but we have found that on the ground, professionals fear malpractice accusations. By conducting in-depth interviews with professionals and observations of their multi-disciplinary discussions, this paper explores how good reflexivity can be achieved in highly charged moral settings at the intersection of the multiple marginalizations of domestic violence and child abuse. We particularly focus on how professionals navigate complexities, and what the role is of regulatory infrastructures, including guidelines and protocols in framing their interaction with the child welfare system