Domestic violence perpetrators do not only target survivors.  They also target the professionals & systems who want to want to help them. Many perpetrators, often using money, privilege and power,  leverage systems to amplify their control.  False allegations of substance abuse, mental health issues or child abuse are lodged with  social services and family courts, often to devastating effect.  Other behaviors include:

• Continuous litigation to exhaust the financial ability of survivors to resist
• The use of police  wellness checks to intimidate a survivor 
• The weaponization of survivor's mental health and addiction diagnoses, to gain control over children, even when those problems are the result of the perpetrator's abuse.

Survivors can feel trapped between perpetrators and  systems that are not savvy to these behaviors. The effects of system manipulation on the safety & wellbeing of adult and child survivors of domestic violence is often long term, financially devastating, and  harmful to child wellbeing and development. In some instances these system failures can cause MORE trauma than the initial abuse itself. 

In this episode, David & Ruth discuss how domestic violence perpetrators target practitioners in different systems, and why those systems are so vulnerable to these tactics.  They highlight the vulnerabilities of family court, criminal justice and child welfare.  They discuss how to recognize when a perpetrator is manipulating your system to harm a victim, and how  to  resist these manipulations.    

Now available! Mapping the Perpetrator’s Pattern: A Practitioner’s Tool for Improving Assessment, Intervention, and Outcomes The web-based Perpetrator Pattern Mapping Tool is a virtual practice tool for improving assessment, intervention, and outcomes through a perpetrator pattern-based approach. The tool allows practitioners to apply the Model’s critical concepts and principles to their current case load in real

Check out David Mandel's new book "Stop Blaming Mothers and Ignoring Fathers: How to transform the way we keep children safe from domestic violence."