Children Exposed To Domestic Violence

Lorenzo 'Shakes' Carcaterra was a boy from Hell’s Kitchen, New York, in the 1960’s. Shakes is of Italian decent and lives with his father and mother in a small apartment. Lorenzo’s father worked long hours for little pay and was quick to anger and used violence to control the household. Shakes witnessed the physical and emotional abuse of his mother. He never confronted his father, but always tried to play the peacekeeper between the two. Shakes mother was not fluent in English and had a hard time connecting to the community and her son. The trauma that Shakes went through because of the domestic violence shaped his psychological and social development. Shakes was a resilient kid and sought social support from three boys: Thomas "Tommy" Marcano, Michael Sullivan, John Reilly and various other men in his community.

Groves, B.M. (1999). Mental Health Services for Children Who Witness Domestic Violence. The Future of Children, 9(3), 122-132.

The formative experiences that define a child's home life will have a lasting impact on the individual as he or she enters the later stages of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. The degree to which one's family life is loving, nurturing, supportive and attentive is a substantial determinant in emotional, social and intellectual development. Accordingly, a home which is abusive, violent, negative and neglectful is more than likely to have deleterious effects for the child both while and well after maintaining residence there. This turns us toward the focus of the present study, which is the impact levied by domestic violence on children.

According to the United States department of Justice, Over sixty percent of American children are exposed to a type of violence every year (Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., Ormrod, R., Hamby, S., and Kracke, K. 2009). These forms of violence can be perpetrated by a victims home, community or school, with majority of children knowing the perpetrator(s). These experiences with violence whether primary or secondary, can cause serious psychological trauma to a child and in worst case scenarios death. The 2009 survey by the Department of Justice also found that children exposed to any form of violence were more likely to engage in violence in the future and almost forty percent of these children were exposed to multiple acts of violence ( pg.2). The

Many children witness domestic violence each day. Most times, children witness their mothers being abuse by their fathers, step-fathers, or mother’s boyfriends. According to Couchenour and Chrisman (2011), “Women and children are at greater risk of being victims of abuse than are men” (p. 131). Witnessing violence or being abused at home has serious effects on children. This article explains the short-term and long-term effects that domestic violence has on children.

Over 5 million children witness domestic violence across the U.S. each year. When a child/children are exposed to domestic violence; it affects their life aspects, such as learning, health, and social ability. Children who witness domestic violence often fault themselves and live in fear. Most children become dysfunctional and victims of child abuse. Domestic violence not only affects the victims of the crime but surrounding victims, also. Any child exposed to domestic violence can potentially commit domestic violence later on in life.

“Exposure to family and community violence is linked with aggressive behavior. One of the theoretical perspectives that explains this link is social learning theory, according to which children learn from the aggressive models in their environments. Additionally, victimization may compromise children's ability to regulate their emotions, and as a result they may act out aggressively” (Margolin & Gordis 2004, 153). “Posttraumatic stress symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are important consequences of exposure to violence because they can impair social and behavioral functioning” (Margolin & Gordis 2004, 153). Research has shown that children exposed to domestic violence demonstrate impaired ability to concentrate, difficulty with schoolwork, and significantly lower scores when their verbal, motor, and cognitive skills were being tested (Fantuzzo & Mohr). It seems as if the academic and cognitive difficulties from exposure affect the child possibly through its impact on psychological functioning. For example, PTSD and depression may hinder with learning and the ability to perform well in the classroom (Margolin & Gordis 2004).

Domestic violence is defined as the inflicting of physical injury by one family or household member on another (“Domestic violence – Definition and more from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary,” n.d.). Texas Family Code Sec 71.004 defines family violence as an act by a member of a family or household against another member of the family or household that is intended to result in physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault or that is a threat that reasonably places the member in fear of imminent physical harm, bodily injury, assault, or sexual assault, but does not include defensive measures to protect oneself. Nowhere in the definitions does it specify male to female, adult to child, child to elderly or any other kind of specific limitations for what is domestic violence. That being said, one group that does often get overlooked is the witnesses to the violence. Most people consider domestic violence as between two adults in some sort of non-stranger relationship. So, for this paper, that is how we will address the ones who watch it happen and suffer because of seeing it – the children.

The purpose of this literature is to deliver an extensive overview of the research topic. This chapter will provide a historical background on domestic violence, a historical perspective of the services provided and an overview of different forms of domestic violence. The goal of this literature review is to examine the statistical information that is presented as it relates to domestic violence. This literature review will also reveal how domestic violence affects children as well as the mental health of its victims. In addition, this chapter will include the Afrocentric perspective and theoretical framework as they relates to the research topic.

People are greatly influenced by those around them as they learn and grow by watching the actions of others whether it be positive or negative; and this is the case in many domestic violence occurrences. Many researchers have examined the effects of witnessing inter-parental violence on a person’s future actions. It has been suggested that witnessing such violence plays a major role in children’s behaviour, bullying in schools and children growing up to repeat the same behaviour towards their intimate partner as they had witnessed as a child. It was suggested that in many cases observing domestic violence often leads to problematic behaviour.

Studies have shown that between 10% and 30% of adults have witnessed physical domestic violence during their childhood (Black, Sussman, & Unger, 2010; Edleson, 1999; Godbout, Dutton, & Lussier, 2009; Jankowski, Leitenberg, Henning, & Coffey, 1999; Sappington, Pharr, Tunstall, & Rickert, 1997). It has been suggested that psychological violence has gained less empirical attention than physical violence, however the results for children witnessing psychological violence are much higher, ranging from 46% to 58% (Black et al., 2010; Godbout et al., 2009).

3.Domestic violence (DV) has been occurring for many years, even before my generation and the generation before. The most common violence is against women, which has occurred throughout the world for many years. The public ignored violent men and the violence towards women. Women who were in danger were judged and viewed as inadequate when they were unable to protect their child. This led to women having a lack of resource and put the children at risk for witnessing domestic violence. In this paper we will discuss the intersection between domestic violence and children. The big question we have to ask our self after reading this paper is should the state be able to remove a child from a home where domestic violence occurs often?

Alcohol addiction is not a sudden outcome of domestic violence. Children are slowly and gradually detached from their families and begin to seek the love and support they need from strangers. Children who face domestic violence crave attention and may become “people pleasers”. They strive to fit in. Submissive behavior is witnessed in children who face domestic violence (Goodman and Rosenberg), thus, opening the door for abusive relationships and; possible drug addiction.

In domestic violence is in many ways, and mainly it is a woman who is reporting it to the authorities. Seven out of ten domestic violence calls are women reporting a male. It is not only found in the case of a woman reporting a man, but a child reporting their mother or father. I am going to open the door a little more about it in the eyes of a man and a child. A woman could be the abuser in the household to the male or her own children. A child can have more than just physical abuse. in this case there is physical, mental, and verbal. We will cover all of these in the following statements.

Domestic violence has an impact on children. Although they are not direct victims of the attacks, physical or verbal, the impact may cause them suffering serious problems in childhood and later in his adolescence and adult life.