Living with Domestic Violence:
The Impact on Children and Society

Numerous studies have found an extremely high correlation between domestic violence and child abuse:

• 30% to 70% of men who batter female partners also physically and/or sexually abuse the children.
• Nearly 100% of children living in violent homes are abused by violent fathers (Saunders, et al.)
  when the definition of child abuse encompasses psychological abuse, which includes children's being forced to observe verbal or physical violence directed toward loved ones (Garbarino, et al.).

Despite the profound risk of serious physical and emotional harm to children, "men who seek custody
have a better than even chance of getting it, whether or not they have a history of violence (Bowker, et al.).
In one study, 59% of fathers who won custody had `physically abused' their wives, and 36% had kidnapped their children (Chesler)."

CHILDREN - AND SOCIETY - PAY A HIGH PRICE FOR BATTERERS' ACCESS TO CHILDREN:

Research on the effects of witnessing abuse of a parent on children who themselves were not physically or sexually abused has found that:

• 53% acted out violently with parents, 60% with siblings, 30% with peers, and 33% with teachers.
• Both boys and girls have been known to participate in the beating of their mother.
• 79% of violent children in institutions reported that they had witnessed extreme violence between their parents.
• 65% of the families of children who had attempted suicide reported that children witnessed physical violence between their parents.
• Between 45% and 70% of male abusers witnessed domestic violence in their families of origin.
• 68% of individuals who witnessed violence as children say their children have viewed their own violence, and 57% say they use physical punishment on their children.

68% of the delinquent youth in treatment programs in Oregon had witnessed their mother's abuse and/or had been abused themselves.
Within this group:

A 1992 National Institute of Justice review of the research found that childhood abuse
increased the odds of future delinquency and adult criminality overall by 40%.

• Being abused or neglected as a child increased the likelihood of arrest as a juvenile by 53%, as an adult by 38%, and for a violent crime by 38%.
• Previously abused or neglected persons were at higher risk of beginning a life of crime at a younger age, with more significant and repeated criminal involvement.
• The physically abused (as opposed to neglected or sexually abused) were the most likely to be arrested later for a violent crime.

A study of 908 individuals sexually and/or physically abused and/or neglected in childhood found that:

• 26% were later arrested as juveniles, compared with only 16.8% of those who were not abused.
• Childhood victims of physical abuse were at 7.6 times the risk of arrest for rape or sodomy that nonvictims were.
• Among sexually abused children, the odds of being arrested as adults for a sex crime were 4.7 times higher than for those not victimized.

One study which compared abused, neglected and rejected boys with boys who experienced love
and nurturing over a 40 year time period found that about half of the abused and neglected group
were convicted of serious crimes, became alcoholics, or suffered from mental illness.

More than 4 in every 10 female offenders in State prisons reported that they had been abused
at least once before their current incarceration. About 32% of the female inmates said the abuse
had occurred before age 18. An estimated 34% reported being physically abused, and 34% reported being sexually abused.

A four-year study of young women who had become pregnant as adolescents found that:

• 62% had experienced contact molestation, attempted rape, or rape prior to their first pregnancy.
• On average, respondents were 9.7 years old at first molestation, with 24% reporting that their first · 7% had committed murder. such experience occurred at age five or younger.
• 77% were molested more than once.

Studies on incest survivors have found that:

• 56% have experienced suicidal ideation,
• 28% have made suicide attempts, and
• 19% have engaged in some form of self-mutilative behavior.

In the U.S. in 1991, 63% of the males between the ages of 11 and 20 who were incarcerated for homicide killed their mother's batterer.