EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN

In homes where domestic violence occurs, fear, instability, and confusion replace the love, comfort, and nurturing that children need. These children live in constant fear of physical harm from the person who is supposed to care for and protect them. They may feel guilt at loving the abuser or blame themselves for causing the violence. "Domestic Violence, Understanding a Community Problem", National Woman Abuse Prevention Fund

In general, 70% of men who abuse their female partners also abuse their children.
Arbitrell Bowker and McFerron, "On the Relationship Between Wife Beating and Child Abuse", Feminist Perspective on Wife Abuse, Kersti Yllo and Michelle Bogard, eds. 1988

Nearly 70% of the children who go to shelters for battered women are victims of abuse or neglect.
Jean I Layzer, Barbara D. Goodson and Christine Delange "Children in Shelters", Response. Volume 9, Number 2, 1986

3.3 million children in the United States, between ages 3 and 17 years, are yearly at risk of exposure to marital violence.
Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe and Susan Kaye Wilson (1990) Children of Battered Women. Newbury Park. CA: Sage Publications

Studies of abused children in the general population reveal that nearly half of them have mothers who are also abused, making wife abuse the single strongest identifiable risk for child abuse.
Lenore Walker, Ed.d The Battered Woman Syndrome, New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc. 1979

In 1992, an estimated 1,261 children died from abuse or neglect. This means that more than 3 children died each day in the United States as a result of maltreatment.
National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, 1993

In a study of juvenile offenders, 63% of those incarcerated for murder had killed the men who had beaten their mothers.
Peggy Sissel, Public Education Coordinator with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

A comparison of delinquent and non-delinquent youth found that a history of family violence or abuse was the most significant difference between the two groups.
Miller (1989) "Violence By and Against America's Children", Journal of Juvenile Justice Digest, XVII (12), p.6

Boys who witness family violence are more likely to batter their female partners as adults than are boys raised in non-violent homes.

Girls who witness their mother's abuse have a higher rate of being battered as adults.
"Battered Families……Shattered lives", Georgia Department of Human Resources. Family Violence Teleconference Resources Manual, January 1992

Children in homes where domestic violence occurs are physically abused or seriously neglected at a rate 1500% higher than the national average in the general population.
National Woman Abuse Prevention Project, Washington D.C.

As violence against women becomes more severe and more frequent in the home, children experience a 300% increase in physical violence by the male batterer.
Strauss and R. Gelles, Physical Violence in American Families. 1990

Children from violent families can provide clinicians with detailed accounts of abusive incidents their parents never realized they had witnessed.
Peter Jaffe, David Wolfe and Susan Kaye Wilson (1990) Children of Battered Women. Newbury Park. CA: Sage Publications

Batterers may abduct their children as a way of retaliating against their former spouses or partners.

It has been estimated that in more than half of the kidnappings of children by parents in this country, the abductions occur in the context of domestic violence.

In most cases, parents who are searching for their child, abducted by the other parent, are white, female, have reported a history of domestic violence and are the custodial parent.
Geoffrey Greif and Rebecca Hegar, "When Parents Kidnap: The Families Behind the Headlines", 272, 1992

Sixty-two percent of sons over age 14 were injured when they attempted to protect their mothers from attacks by abusive male partners.

Interviews with children living in battered women's shelters show that, within a one year period, 176 of these children had stayed twice with friends or relatives, and 75% over age 15 had run away at least twice.
Maria Roy, Children in the Crossfire, 1988