Children and Domestic Violence

  • Serious child abuse is suggestive of serious partner abuse. Abuse of the partner is a predictor for child abuse.
  • Children may be injured during an abusive episode if they get in the way.
  • When the abuser is male, children's injuries are often serious (Bergman, 1986.)
  • Half of all child abductions occur in domestic violence cases (Grief & Hegar, 1992.)
  • Girls with battered mothers are 15 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other girls. (Bowker, Arbitel and McFerron, 1988.
  • Some abusers intentionally injure the children in order to threaten or control the victim.

 

Children are seriously affected by witnessing parental abuse.

 

  • Children may be traumatized by fear for their mothers.
  • Children may be traumatized by inability to protect the mother.
  • Children may blame themselves for not preventing the violence.
  • Children often carry anger about the abuse into adulthood. The anger may cause dysfunction in them as adolescents and adults.
  • Children may blame themselves for causing the violence.
  • The mother's injuries interfere with care-giving responsibilities.
  • Girls who witness maternal abuse often become victims as adults (Hotaling, etc. 1986.)
  • Boys who witness abuse by their fathers are more likely to abuse their partners as adolescents and adults. Sons of the most violent fathers may have a rate of wife beating 1,000 greater than other sons (Stark & Flitcraft, l985.)
  • One in three children who witness the abuse of their mothers demonstrate significant behavioral and emotional problems (Jaffee, et al., 1990.)
  • At adolescence, children who have witnessed abuse may begin to abuse the victim as well as the adult abuser.
  • Presence of a teen male in the home is a lethality indicator as they may kill the abuser to protect the victim parent.

Children who call police for help or who intervene are at high risk for retaliation by the abuser. Children and mothers in a domestic violence situation are in danger while the criminal investigation and prosecution is going forward. Mothers and children must be protected.

Children can benefit from intervention by the justice system and treatment programs to diminish the negative effects of seeing their mothers abused (Giles-Sims 1985)

The Most Effective Way to Protect Children Is to Remove the Abuser from the Home rather than the Child and Mother.