what is really interesting, is that rather than find ways and means of helping alleged violent perpetrators to deal with issues, and to find ways and means of dealing with their allegedly violent behaviour.

Basically the only thing that some people want to do is to lock them up and throw away the keys (figuratively speaking).

Like for example if someones violent behaviour is linked to drug and alcohol use, then if they stop abusing alcohol and drugs, the violent behaviour, usually disappears.

Searching,
I can't find the link now, but over a number of years there were 11 murders of children in NSW carried out by their fathers. There were also 7 murders of children carried out by mothers.

However the training carried out by feminists, many of whom are harbored by universities, now means that many people normally think of violence in a family as something that is only carried out by fathers.

Articles such as this one by a university feminist that gives only part of the story perpetuate the myth that fathers are violent, but such discrimination is allowed to continue by the university system.

Vanna, do you know how many SIDS or cot deaths there are each year? If the Kathleen Folbigg case is anything to go by, a great number of these could be instances of infanticide. So your figure of 7 children murdered by their mother could be a significant understatement of reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Folbigg

And what about this Keli Lane and the baby that disappeared off the face of the earth. She concealed her pregnancies from everyone and then claims shortly after the birth of her baby Tegan she handed her over to the father. Didn't even know the last name of the father. The father was not the bloke she was in a relationship with. Though this isn't the only version of what she said took place.

The mother in the Robins & Ruddock custody case gave different accounts on the state of arousal of the father.

I tell you what, of all the women in the world, there are a lot liars amongst them so why should a court accept any uncorroborated from them?

vanna the most authoritative source I know of is the NSW Child Death Review Team reports. http://kids.nsw.gov.au/kids/resources/publications/childdeathreview.cfm

In particular the document http://kids.nsw.gov.au/uploads/documents/NSW-CDRT-10-Year-Study1.pdf gives findings over a number of years.
In the fatal assault category

Description of the deaths
• Over the period 1996–2005, 136 (2.0%) of the 6,879 children and young people whose deaths were registered in NSW died as a result of assault.
o Twenty-five per cent of fatal assaults occurred in the context of teenage altercations (teen killings) – nearly 50 per cent of these involved drugs or alcohol.
• The likelihood of fatal assault was associated with age, sex, Aboriginal identity, and socioeconomic background:
o Infants to 4 year olds as a group were nearly twice as likely to die as a result of assault as were those aged 14–17 years, while those aged 5–13 years were only a third as likely as were those 14–17 years.
•Infant deaths related to assault appear to peak when they are between 150 and 210 days old.
o Aboriginal children and young people were three and a half times more likely to die as a result of assault than were non-Aboriginal children and young people.
o Those living in relatively high socioeconomic areas were only 52 per cent as likely to die as a result of assault as those living in relatively low socioeconomic areas.
o Males were 1.4 times more likely to die as a result of assault than were females.

Also see the companion document http://www.kids.nsw.gov.au/uploads/documents/fatalassault2008.pdf

I’d like to see an interim report covering the period since the changes made during Howard period. If there is a case that the changes have increased the risk to children it's reasonable to assume that part of the increased risk would be reflected in an increased number of fatal assaults of children.
I’ll do a basic summary from CDRT reports over recent years. Whilst fatal assault of children is the extreme end of child abuse I’d expect to see some reflection in the figures if the shared care changes have been as dire as some would have us believe.

R0bert

Part 1
I’ve tried to get a feel for the trends in fatal assault of children mentioned in the NSW CDRT reports over recent years. Thankfully the numbers are low enough that it’s not overly reliable but I certainly did not find anything to suggest that increased shared care has created any sort of increase in fatal assault of children. It may take a few posts to get the extracts up. For reference I’ve taken the quotes from the fatal assault sections of the full annual reports and tried to concentrate on familial relationships (where they are specified).

One comment heading a demographic chart is worth keeping in mind. “This analysis is descriptive only and caution is needed in interpreting the results. The demographic factors are rarely independent and this description does not consider their possible connections.”
2003 - Seventeen children and young people died as a result of assault in this reporting period. These children died in 15 separate incidents. Two incidents involved the deaths of siblings. In two incidents the perpetrator of the fatal assault also died.
2004 – A total of 8 fatal assault deaths (unable to copy and not much detail)
2005 - The deaths of eight children were consistent with the non-accidental injury category. The perpetrators were all known to the victims and included: the child’s stepfather or a person in a relationship with the child’s mother (3), the child’s biological father (2), the child’s biological mother (2) and another
person known but unrelated to the child (1).
2006 - In all nine of the incidents involving children under 15 years old, the perpetrator was known to the child. The perpetrator was the child’s biological father in three incidents, biological mother in three incidents and the mother’s partner in two incidents. The other matter remains under investigation. In the incident involving the 15-17 year old, the relationship between the young person and the perpetrator was unknown

R0bert

Part 2
2007 - Six of the assaults occurred in the context of familial relationships: that is, where the injuries were inflicted by parents, spouses, domestic partners or other family members. One death occurred in the context of mental illness, with the young person being killed by an elder sister who was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time. Two children died in the context of family breakdown, in a murder suicide incident. The perpetrator took her own life soon after killing her children.

2008 - . Of the 12 assaults, 10 occurred in the context of familial relationships: that is, where the injuries were inflicted by parents, spouses, domestic partners or other family members. Six of these children died in the context of family breakdown. Two were murder-suicide incidents. In one of these cases, the perpetrator killed himself and his three children due to relationship and health issues. In the second case, the perpetrator killed himself and his daughter because his wife was in the process of divorcing him. In a third incident relating to family breakdown, the perpetrator killed her two children and attempted suicide as she believed that her husband did not love her or her children.
The other four assaults that occurred in the context of familial relationships were incidents of nonaccidental injury. In one case, the perpetrator killed his wife and stepdaughter. He had previously threatened to kill them and had been violent to his wife in the past. In another incident, a child was killed by his mother’s boyfriend. He had been drinking during the night of the murder and had been in several altercations before arriving home. The perpetrator had no prior criminal history. A further two children were killed by their grandfather while left in his care. The perpetrator also killed his wife. The reason for this triple murder is not known.

2009 - The assaults of four children occurred in the context of familial relationships. (This piece is long and I'm not sure if the followup post can happen today. )

R0bert