Domestic Violence: Children in Danger

Amanda Wing

Jessica Sewell

Dionne Spencer

Julia Morin

Trecia Mayo

Millions upon millions of children around the world, particularly in the United States alone, grow up in violent households where they fall victim to both witnessing and experiencing terror caused by abusive family members. Over the past few decades, this issue has been brought to the attention of our society; one that traditionally places children under the complete control of their "care" givers. Because of this, many children in violent homes are silenced and incapable of escaping. Many of these children often become caught in the middle of conflicts that occur within an unstable home. Reports and statistics of child abuse, while helpful, are wildly inaccurate due to the cases of abuse or neglect that have never been reported.

The violence a child experiences is purposeful. Their experience comprises of psychological, emotional (verbal abuse, humiliation, threats, persistant negative attitude, etc.) and physical injuries (hitting, punching, shaking violently, burning, drowning, etc.), neglect (inadequate provision of food, clothing, ignoring child's developmental stage i.e. not teaching toilet training, lack of bathing, etc.), sexual abuse (child pornography, involving children in sexual activity, indecent exposure, touching, etc.), exploitation (corruption) and abandonment, all of which indefinitely set a child up for a problematic future.

Children who witness violence in a turbulent home are known to suffer a great amount of behavioral, social and emotional problems such as Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), chronic bed-wetting, night terrors, anxiety, depression, withdrawal, low self-esteem and aggression. They also suffer from cognitive and attitude problems such as poor school performance, lower cognitive functioning, belief in male privilege and pro-violence attitudes. What the child sees or feels in a violent home stays with them for the rest of their lives.

What they experience will effect them in many different ways depending on their resiliency. Oftentimes, a child is too afraid to tell anyone about what is happening at home, fearing that no one will believe them if they spoke up. There is also a great deal of guilt and fear of what their parents might do to them if they were to find out.

 Abused women will often try to protect their children from the violence occurring within the home, however, countless amounts of mothers and their children are trapped in harms way due to the lack of economic and/or legal resources that would allow them to press charges against the abusive spouse.

Boys who witness violence between their parents are twice as likely to become abusers themselves, and girls who witness their mothers being attacked are more likely to accept and tolerate being battered if they are in a violent marriage.

Later on in life, the children that managed to survive through all of this are often contenders for high levels of depression and traumatic symptoms.

Facts:

• “At least half of all battering husbands also batter their children.” (Pagelow, 1989)

• “Abuse of children by a batterer is more likely when the marriage is dissolving, the couple has separated, and the husband/father is highly committed to continued dominance and control of the mother and children.” (Bowker, Arbitell, and McFerron, 1988) 

• UNICEF: “The vulnerability of children to violence is linked to their age and evolving capacity. Some children, because of gender, race, ethnic origin, disability or social status, are particularly vulnerable.”

• UNICEF: “Over the past decade, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and means that America has the worst record of child abuse in the industrialized world.”

• “Twenty-seven children under the age of 15 die from physical abuse or neglect every week in America. According to UNICEF, the United States has 2.4 annual deaths per 100,000 children, compared to 1.4 for France; 1 in Japan, and 0.9 in the United Kingdom.”

POTENTIAL SHADY ENVIRONMENTS INCLUDE: History of violence/conflict within the family, drug/alcohol dependency, poor parenting history, disabilities (of child or parent), unwanted pregnancy (child wasn't planned), family finances (poverty), age of parents (parenting might be found difficult if they are younger or older parents)

SIGNS THAT A CHILD MAY BE BEING ABUSED INCLUDE: severe headaches, poor concentration, sexually explicit play, clinging behavior, panic attacks, self-neglect, nightmares, regression to wetting or soiling, etc.

Preventative Incentives

In an effort to resolve this social problem, child welfare advocates and service providers have worked to initiate change within the family structure, helping both adults and children that have been directly affected by domestic violence.

An example of an organization dedicated to helping domestically abused children:

Click Here

There are hotlines available to reach in every state through Child Protective Services, a governmental agency that responds to all reports of child abuse or neglect. Click Here

Many people who feel that a child might be being neglected or abused at home are too afraid to take action, for fear that they could be wrong or that they'd put their relationships with the child/parent(s) or careers in jeopardy, but no one should hesitate in this matter. If there is even a suspicion of misconduct towards a child, a call should be made immediately.

Preventing child abuse is everybody's responsibility.

Shatter the silence. Listen to their voices. Stop the violence.

 POSED QUESTIONS: 

What might stop you from calling the police or a hotline if you suspected a child of being abused or neglected?

Do you find that our current system for child protection isn't doing all that it can?

What do you think should be done in order to stop child abuse from happening?

Is there any hope in our future for the silence to finally come to an end?

REFERENCES

http://www.law.yale.edu/rcw/rcw/jurisdictions/assc/iranislamicrepof/iran_violence.htm

http://www.unicef.org/sowc07/docs/sowc07_panel_2_1.pdf

http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/hart/hart.html#idm302752

  

http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/domesticviolence.cfm

Thurston, C. (2006). Child abuse: recognition of causes and types of abuse. Practice Nurse, 31(10), 51-57.