Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence

  • Between 3.3 and 10 million children are exposed to intimate partner violence each year in the United States. [Carlson, B. E. (1984). Children's observations of inter-parental violence. A. R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered women and their families (pp. 147- 167). New York: Springer. Among a nationally representative sample of American men and women. Paper presented at the Ross Roundtab1e on "Children and Violence:' Washington. D.C.]
  • As many as half a million children may be encountered by police during domestic violence arrests each year in the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (November 2000).. Safe from the start - taking action on children exposed to violence. (Publication- #NCJ182789) Washington, DC: U .S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.]
  • Up to 70 percent of children in homes where intimate partner violence exists are physically abused as well. The home can be a dangerous place. [Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (November, 2000.) Safe from the start - taking action on children exposed to violence. (Publication #NCJ182789) Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.]
  • Domestic violence has been shown to occur disproportionately in homes with children under five years of age. (Taylor, L. Zuckerman, B., Harik, V., &: Groves, B.. (1994). Witnessing violence by young children and their mothers. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 15 (2), 120 - 123.)
  • Although many adults believe that they have protected their children from exposure to domestic violence, 80 to 90 percent of children in those homes can give detailed descriptions of the violence experienced in their families. Doyne, S., Bowermaster, J., &: Meloy, R., (1999). Custody disputes involving domestic violence: Making children's needs a priority. Juvenile & Family Court Journal, 50, (2), Jaffe, P., Wolfe, D., &: Kaye Wilson, S. (1990). Children of battered women. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.]
  • Studies show that 25 percent of domestic homicides are witnessed by the children of the victim. [Doyne,5., Bowermaster, J. & Meloy, R. (1999). Custody disputes involving domestic violence: Making children's needs a priority. Juvenile &' Family Court Journal, 50 (2). Jaffe, P., Wo]fe, D., & Kaye Wilson, 5. (1990). Children of battered women. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.]
  • Findings from 29 articles reviewed indicated that children who witness domestic violence are at risk for maladaptive responses in one or more of the following areas of functioning: (a) behavioral, (b) emotional, (c) social, (d) cognitive, and (e) physical. [Kolbo, J., Blakely, E., & Engleman, D. (1996). Children who witness domestic violence: A review of empirical literature. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 11 (2), 281-293.]
  • The impact of exposure to domestic violence and child abuse can continue throughout life unless safety and interventions are provided. Up to 80 percent of adolescents who have grown up in violent homes are at risk for recreating the abusive relationships they observed in the family of origin. Sudermann M., Jaffe, P .G. & Hastings, E. (1995). Violence Prevention Programs in Secondary (High) Shools. In E. Peled, P., Jaffe &; J. Edleson (Eds.) Ending the Cycle of Violence: Community Responses to Children of Battered Women. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.]
  • Witnessing violence as a child is also associated with adult reports of depression, trauma-related symptoms and low self-esteem among women, and trauma-related symptoms among men. [Silvern, L., Karyl, J., Waelde, L., Hodges, W.F., Starek, J., Heidt, E. & Min, Kyung. (1995). Retrospective reports of parental partner abuse: Relationships to depression, trauma symptoms and self-esteem among college students. Journal of Family Violence, 10, 177- 202]
  • Being abused or neglected as a child increases the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 60 percent and of arrest for a violent crime as an adult by 40 percent. (Update on the Cycle of Violence, National Institutes of Justice, 2001)
  • Fifty three percent of family abducted children were abducted by their biological fathers; 25 percent by their biological mother. (Children Abducted by Family Members: National estimates and Characteristics, 2002).
  • According to estimates from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 691,710 nonfatal violent victimizations were reportedly committed by current or former spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends of victims during 2001. (Intimate Partner Violence, 1993 – 2001, published 2003). More than half of all murder-suicides are domestic violence related.
  • Tennessee ranked worse than 38 other states with a child death rate of 30 per 100,000 compared to a national rate of 28 per 100,000 (Kids Count: State of the Child in Tennessee, 2001.) 83 percent of child abuse cases involve “someone living in the home.”
  • Between 1980 & 1994, fists and feet killed 55% of parental murdered children below age 5 (OJJDP). Hands, fists, and feet killed 47% of the murdered children between 1980 and l994 (OJJDP).