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Almost 40% of homeless mothers and their children
are likely to be assaulted.
Over 40% of all women experience
intimate partner violence in their lifetime
PROTECTIVE ORDERS AND KEEPING SAFE
(what to do when violence occurs
thank you justice for children)
Repeated childhood Trauma is *torture.
Watching mom being beaten or raped is torture.
Decades of medical studies, statistics about ACEs and childhood trauma (short video) make clear that exposure to violence in the home impacts a child forever. COVID increased domestic violence calls dramatically (see the numbers where you live here). Domestic violence is life altering to a child. Even if it happens before birth. Brain imaging in infants shows that exposure to domestic violence – even as children are sleeping, or in utero – can reduce parts of the brain, change its overall structure and affect the way its circuits work together.
It is not just the damage done to this child or this generation of children growing up in this home. It is the damage done to the generations that follow. Epigenetics (study of gene expression) proves that traumatizing behaviors are repeated from generation to generation. Childhood trauma is both biological and learned.
Thirty years ago, a child protection case could be opened in MN in cases where a child watched mom being beaten or raped. Legislators understood that violent behaviors traumatize and forever impact a child. Over the next 12 months, child protection cases doubled and no additional funding for child protection services from legislators meant that the old interpretation of abuse would be reinstated. Today, only 22 states allow domestic violence to even be considered in child abuse cases (but not a form of child abuse).
The lack of transparency, under-reporting and lack of media attention given to the invisible children living in these toxic homes means kids will watch their mothers beaten & raped for now. Don’t expect better school performance, less crime or happier communities without ending domestic violence and the terror and abuse children are living with.
*The World Health Organization defines torture as
“extended exposure to violence and deprivation”.
Decades of medical studies, statistics about ACEs and childhood trauma make clear that exposure to violence in the home impacts a child forever. COVID and mean politics are driving increases in suicides and domestic violence across all states. Negative consequences continue well into adulthood. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) involving family violence inflict severe long-term effects.
For people of color, especially African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, the effects of trauma are often magnified because they are more likely to suffer from systemic racism, discrimination and microaggressions. The nonprofit research organization Child Trends reported last year that 6 percent of kids nationally – about 4.5 million children – had seen or heard parents or other adults rape, slap, hit, kick or punch each other in the home. Four percent had been exposed to or victims of neighborhood violence and in at least one state (Arkansas) 56% of children have experienced at least one ACE. The results were based on a survey of parents about their children. In five states – Arizona, Mississippi, Arkansas, Hawaii and Tennessee – at least 10 percent of children had been exposed to domestic violence at home.
Child Trends says parents likely under-report violence in the home out of embarrassment or fear of stigma. The research doesn’t include the psychological and emotional abuse, including gaslighting, that many women and some men told USA TODAY was far worse for them and their children to live with. The findings, children’s health advocates say, underscore a need for improved detection and prevention of domestic violence, and better treatment of abuse survivors and their children in the health care system, schools and the courts.
Courts have a long way to go in recognizing the impact on children’s well-being. Parents accused or even convicted of domestic violence in many cases are able to gain unsupervised visits with their children, or partial or full partial custody – even when children are afraid of the offender. When parents in an abusive relationship separate, conditions for their children can become even riskier.
Domestic violence crosses racial, ethnic and socioeconomic lines. Cheryl Branch, executive director at Savannah’s SAFE women’s shelter, says the calls she gets from abused women in The Landings, an exclusive gated community, are as horrific as those that come from low-income clients. She says women are afraid to leave husbands who threaten to spend whatever it takes to gain full custody of the children. When shelter residents go back to their domestic abusers – as many do – Branch is required to notify child protection authorities, just as she would be if a parent returned to someone who has sexually abused his or her child.
Huth-Bocks, the Cleveland psychologist, says researchers’ ability to study human brain development has “exploded in the last five to six years.” So has data on the mental health and addiction effects of adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs – 10 harmful experiences or conditions, including domestic violence, tracked by health professionals.
Chaos at home hurt a child’s grades and shattered their dreams of a safe and predictable home life. Young children don’t even know that what’s happening around them is wrong or even criminal.
No parent dreams of their child growing up in a dysfunctional family. We all want children to feel safe and to be able to grow in an environment where they will be successful, stable and happy.
“The new generation needs an opportunity to live life without continuing the cycle.”
If you or your child is experiencing domestic violence and/or mental health problems:
- Contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or online
- Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255
- Visit the National Child Traumatic Stress Network to learn about resources and treatment.
Current Federal efforts to change definitions of domestic violence and sexual assault have rolled back women’s rights by half a century, campaigners have warned. The Trump administration quietly changed the definition of both domestic violence and sexual assault back in April but the move has only just surfaced. The change could have significant repercussions for millions of victims of gender-based violence.
The Trump Justice Department’s definition only considers physical harm that constitutes a felony or misdemeanor to be domestic violence – meaning other forms of domestic violence such as psychological abuse, coercive control and manipulation no longer fall under the department’s definition.
All Adults Are the Protectors of All Children
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