Children and Domestic Violence

1. More than half of the children whose mothers are battered are likely to be physically abused themselves.

• In families where woman battering occurs, the rate of child abuse or serious neglect is 1500% higher than the national average. Research indicates that woman abuse in a family may be the single most important risk factor for child maltreatment.
• When mothers are battered, the father is about three times more likely to be the children’s abuser than in families where woman battering does not occur.
• Older children may be harmed while trying to protect their mothers.
• Children in homes where domestic violence occurs may “indirectly” receive injuries. They may be hurt when household items are thrown or weapons are used. Infants may be injured if being held by their mother when the abuser strikes out.
• Men who batter often use the children to control the behavior of their female partners. For example, an abuser may threaten to harm the children to stop his partner from leaving him.
• Children who witness domestic violence are 24 times more likely to be sexually assualted.

2. Whether or not the children are physically abused, they often suffer emotional and psychological trauma from living in homes where their fathers abuse their mothers.

• Although children may not observe the violence, they almost always are aware that it is occurring
• Children who witness domestic violence are 6 times more likely to commit suicide.

3. Even babies are known to be affected by domestic violence.

• Battering can disrupt children’s eating and sleeping patterns, and make them suffer from inadequate rest and nutrition.
• The stress of domestic violence may cause children to revert to behaviors such as thumb-sucking, nail-biting, and bed-wetting.
• Children whose mothers are abused are denied the kind of home life that fosters healthy development. These children more frequently have stress-related physical ailments, like headaches, ulcers, and rashes.
• Children from violent homes often experience depression, anxiety, fear, and guilt. These children live in constant fear of injury to their mothers and themselves. They may feel guilty about loving or hating the abuser, blame themselves for causing the violence, or feel utterly helpless about being able to stop the violence.
• Domestic violence may prevent children from concentrating on or doing homework. These children frequently have problems performing in school and may be held back.
• Children from violent homes may be overly aggressive and difficult to control. Or they may be unusually passive and withdrawn.
• Men who batter often keep their partners and children from having contact with other family and friends. Lack of interaction with others outside the home makes it difficult for these children to get along with peers and adults. Frequent changes in residence are not uncommon among these families and can be very traumatic for children.

4. Violence may pass from generation to generation.

• Most experts believe that children who are raised in abusive homes learn that violence is an effective way to resolve conflicts and problems.
• Boys who witness their mothers’ abuse are more likely to batter their female partners as adults than boys raised in nonviolent homes.
• There is no evidence, however, that girls who witness their mothers’ abuse are at higher risk of being battered as an adult. In fact, research studies have shown that the most common characteristic among battered women is the fact that they are female.
• Children who witness domestic violence are 1,000 times more likely to become abusers them.

5. The entire community feels the negative effects of domestic violence on children.

• Children from violent homes have higher risks of alcohol/drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. They are 60 times more likely to engage in delinquent behavior.
• Some of our country’s “missing children” are actually being hidden by their mothers to protect them from violent fathers. Conversely, abusers sometimes kidnap their children to punish their partners for leaving them or to get them to come back.
• Today’s child growing up in a violent home may be tomorrow’s prison inmate. A great majority of violent criminals were raised in abusive homes.

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