Effects of Violence          

           on

 

       Children

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Children who experience violence or stress may…

1.    Re-live the trauma:
·         dreams
·         nightmares
·         distress at triggers
·         fantasies
·         playing it over and over
·         talking over and over about the trauma

2.   Show changes in normal behavior:      
·         withdrawal
·         depression
·         regression
·         narrow range of emotions
·         loss of energy
·         symptoms of illness
·         increased risk-taking behavior

 3.  Show an increased state of arousal:
·         inability to concentrate
·         sleep disturbances
·         hyperalertness
·         irritability and anger
·         increased startle response
·         anxiety and fearfulness
·         increased aggression
·         easily upset
·         disrupted patterns of eating

4.   Having feelings that unnecessarily burden them:
·         feelings of guilt and responsibility
·         seeing oneself as bad or worthless
·         feelings of loss of control
·         sense of helplessness
·         pessimism about the future
·         fear that it will happen again

 5.  Have delayed or impaired development:
·         social development
·         school problems
·         moral development
·         intellectual development
·         psychological disorders

6.   Have difficulty with relationships:
·         identification with the aggressor
·     damaged sense of trust/autonomy
·     increased aggression
·     lack of empathy
·     withdrawal from friends

Even infants and toddlers may experience these effects.
The section above is from The Educare Training Institute.

Sad is how you feel
when mom is being hurt

The following information is reprinted with permission from Texas Health & Human Services Commission.  Reprinted sections are from the pamphlet. “Sad is how you feel when mom is being hurt.”

Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior that can include physical, emotional, financial, sexual, and psychological abuse used to gain power and control over an intimate partner.  In the majority of domestic violence cases, the non-abusive partner goes to courageous lengths to protect her children:

 Understanding the Problem:

Domestic violence is believed to be the most common yet least reported crime in the country.

An estimated 906,000 children were determined to be survivors of child abuse or neglect in 2003 in the United States.  More than 60 percent of them were from families where battering occurs.2

  Slightly more than half of female survivors of intimate violence live in   Households with children under age 12.3 

Often abusers will use the children to control their partners.  For example, the abuser may threaten to harm the children, file for sole custody, or make          false reports to Child Protective Services against the non-abusive parent as tactics to stop their partner from leaving.

Although children may not observe the violence, they are aware that it is occurring.  Even babies are affected by domestic violence.  Additionally, older children may be harmed while trying to protect their mothers.   
Children who live with domestic violence face increased risks; the risk of exposure to traumatic events, the risk of neglect, the risk of being directly abused, and the risk of losing one or both of their parents.  All of these may lead to negative outcomes for children and may affect their well-being, safety, and stability.4

Domestic violence is a major factor with teenage runaways and homeless street youth.  Some of our country’s “missing children” are actually being hidden by their mothers to protect them from violent fathers.  On the other hand, abusers sometimes kidnap their children to punish their partners for leaving them or to get them to come back.

In 2000, the U.S. Bureau of Justice, National Crime Victimization Survey  reported that 85 percent of serious spousal assaults are committed by               men against women.1

The effects of domestic violence on children can be reversible.  With prevention and intervention, the destructive cycle of domestic violence can be broken.   Services in domestic violence programs provided to children often include assistance with coping with the trauma of abuse, safety planning, and opportunities to learn non-violent problem solving skills.

End Notes

1 Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data Brief, Intimate Partner Violence, 1993-2001,  February 2003

2 Child Maltreatment 2003:  Summary of Key Findings. National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, 2005

3 U.S. Department of Justice, Violence by Intimates:  Analysis of Data on Crimes by Current or Former Spouses, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends, March 2008.

 4 Behrnman, Carter, Weithorn, Domestic violence and Children:  Analysis and Recommendations 1999, The Future of Children:  A Publication of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings institution.

(In this brochure, gender-specific terms are used – specifically survivors of domestic violence as female and abusers as male.  This is done because the Bureau of Justice Statistics, multitude of other research studies, and experiences from advocates working in domestic violence programs indicate that overwhelmingly domestic violence is a crime committed by men towards women.  It is important to remember, however, that there are male survivors of domestic violence and that all services and legal opportunities are available to male survivors of domestic violence.)

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