Australia
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022) Australia’s children: Children exposed to family violence.
This resource has collated available statistics about family violence and children.
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The 2016 Personal Safety Survey (PSS) estimates that about 1 in 6 women (16% or 1.5 million) and 1 in 9 men (11% or 992,000) experienced physical and/or sexual abuse before the age of 15.
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According to the 2018 ABS Recorded Crime data, more than two-fifths of all sexual assaults recorded against children aged 0–14 (around 3,100) were perpetrated by a family member.
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Sexual assaults perpetrated by family members were almost 4 times more likely perpetrated against girls than boys (107.0 sexual assaults per 100,000 girls compared with 28.3 sexual assaults per 100,000 boys).
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Where the perpetrator was specified, a parent or another family member was the perpetrator in more than half (58%) of assault-related hospitalisations involving children aged 0–14 in 2016–17
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The 2016 PSS estimates that about 1 in 6 women (16% or 1.5 million) and 1 in 9 men (11% or 992,000) experienced physical and/or sexual abuse before the age of 15.
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The 2016 PSS Parents were the most common perpetrators of physical abuse before this age. Around 45% of adults experienced physical abuse before the age of 15 by a father or stepfather, and 24% by a mother or stepmother. Where mothers or stepmothers were identified as the perpetrator, victims were more likely their daughters (66%) than their sons (35%) (ABS 2018a).
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The 2016 PSS also estimated that of those who had experienced violence from a previous partner and had children in their care when the violence occurred, 418,000 women (68%) and 92,200 men (60%) reported that the children had seen or heard the violence.
‘Being exposed to family violence can have a wide range of detrimental impacts on a child’s development, mental and physical health, housing situation and general wellbeing (AIHW 2019; ANROWS 2018; WHO 2016). More specifically research has found exposure to family violence is associated with a range of outcomes, including:
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diminished education attainment
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reduced social participation in early adulthood
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physical and psychological disorders
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suicidal ideation
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behabioural difficulties
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homeless
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future victimisation and/or violent offending
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety, Research summary: The impacts of domestic and family violence on children (2nd ed., ANROWS, 2018).
This summary outlines the major issues identified in ANROWS research relevant to children, the factors preventing effective service delivery, and the policy and practice changes recommended by the researchers.
Some key points include (pp 1-2):
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there is a greater likelihood of “impaired parenting” (e.g. parent irritability or inconsistency/low parenting efficacy) in homes with domestic and family violence;
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children are more likely to experience physical and verbal parental conflict after their parents separate;
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a significant number of mothers found that their children had started copying abusive attitudes and behaviours; and
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child protection agencies were less likely to investigate cases reported for domestic and family violence vs. reports for other matters.
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. Violence against women: Accurate use of key statistics (ANROWS, 2018).
This short resource includes a summary of information from the 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics Personal Safety Survey on the numbers of pregnant women and children exposed to family and domestic violence (p 6). It states that an estimated 187,800 women who have experienced violence by a current partner have been pregnant during the relationship (and of these women, nearly one in five experienced violence during pregnancy). For violence perpetrated by previous partners, this percentage increased significantly: nearly half of women who experienced violence by a previous partner and were pregnant at some point in that relationship experienced violence during their pregnancy. Additionally, 65 percent of women who had children in their care when they experienced violence by a current or former partner reported that the children had seen or heard the violence (p 8).
Bromfield, Leah, et al, ‘Issues for the Safety and Wellbeing of Children in Families with Multiple and Complex Problems: The Co-Occurrence of Domestic Violence, Parental Substance Misuse and Mental Health Problems’ (National Child Protection Clearinghouse Issues Paper No 33, Australian Institute of Family Studies, December 2010).
This literature review cites statistics from a US study collected from household census data from over 20,000 households (G. Fox and M. Benson ‘Violent men, bad dads? Fathering profiles of men involved in intimate partner violence.’ In R. Day & M. Lamb (Eds.), Conceptualizing and measuring father involvement. (Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2004)):
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37% of children were accidentally hurt during domestic violence;
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26% of children were intentionally hurt during domestic violence;
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49% of mothers were hurt protecting children;
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47% of perpetrators used the child as a pawn to hurt mothers;
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39% of perpetrators hurt mothers as punishment for children's acts;
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23% of perpetrators blamed mothers for perpetrators’ own excessive punishment of children.
Hart, Amanda, ‘Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Undifferentiated Needs in Australian Family Law’ (2004) 18 Australian Journal of Family Law 170.
This article points out that children may find it difficult to disclose violence because of a fear of not being believed and the possibility of making the situation worse. The article notes that children need to be included in determinations of what is in their best interests (p174).
Hooker, Leesa, Rae Kaspiew, and Angela Taft, Domestic and family violence and parenting: Mixed methods insights into impact and support needs: State of knowledge paper (ANROWS, 2016).
This comprehensive state of knowledge paper is the first of a three part mixed-methods research project addressing parenting and abuse tactics. This paper presents the current state of knowledge on parenting in the context of DFV by examining the following four research questions:
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What is the prevalence of DFV among parents?
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How does DFV impact on parenting capacity?
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What are the methods and behaviours that perpetrators use to disrupt the mother---child relationship?
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What interventions exist to strengthen and support a positive and healthy mother--child relationship?
This review identifies that DFV may impact negatively on women and children and the parenting capacity of both perpetrators and victims is affected. Altered mother--child relationships may occur due to deliberate undermining of the mother’s parenting, and children are often used by perpetrators as tools to abuse mothers and exert control and coercion (p 2).
The report points out that violence does not end when couples separate. It specifically identifies the legal system as a tool of abuse used by perpetrators, and that poor understanding by legal professionals can heighten the risks for women and children (p 2).
Although there is limited information on the parenting style of abusive fathers, abusive men as fathers have been characterised by researchers and victims as authoritarian, under-involved, self-centred and manipulative. These men also engage in high levels of substance abuse. Children exposed to partner violence in the home by their father/stepfather are at heightened risk of child maltreatment including child sexual abuse (p 2).
The report suggests that supportive care includes improved understanding and collaboration between child protection, family law, and domestic violence advocacy services (p 2).
The report also identified issues with forced contact through court:
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Shared parenting can leave mothers and children exposed to continuing abuse (p 26).
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Post-separation matters, including negotiation of property, parenting and child support can be used by abusive ex-partners to maintain power and control (p 27).
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Women feel pressured by lawyers to agree to co-parenting arrangements even though children’s safety may be at risk, or make decisions in an environment of fear, pragmatic concern, and family ideology (e.g. perpetrators playing on guilt about “breaking up” the family) (p 28).
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Awareness amongst court staff in screening for family violence and safety concerns still remains problematic, despite legal and policy reform (p 28).
Humphreys, Cathy and Lucy Healey, PAThways and Research Into Collaborative Inter-Agency practice: Collaborative work across the child protection and specialist domestic and family violence interface: Final report (ANROWS, 2017).
PAThways and Research In Collaborative Inter-Agency practice (the PATRICIA Project) is an action research project focused on the collaborative relationship between specialist community-based domestic and family violence support services for women and their children, and statutory child protection organisations.
The study found that even when domestic and family violence was the focus of an initial child protection report, it was poorly addressed—for example, no link being made between an abusive father’s patterns of behaviour and the barriers they caused to the healthy, daily functioning of the family (p 12). The study also found that collaborations between child protection and domestic and family violence services showed a lack of engagement with the family law system. Evidence of the impact of abuse on children was rarely adequately recorded in child protection files, and family law issues were rarely addressed in ways that would enable the protection of children from ongoing contact with an abusive father (p 14).
Kaspiew, Rae, et al., Domestic and family violence and parenting: Mixed method insights into impact and support needs – Final report (ANROWS, 2017).
This report focused on:
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inter-parental conflict (IPC) in families and impacts on the emotional health and parenting behaviours of mothers and fathers and child functioning;
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how domestic and family violence (DFV) experienced before separation, after separation, or both affects parents’ emotional health and parent–child relationships; and
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mothers’ experiences of engagement with services in the domestic and family violence, child protection, and family law systems in the context of DFV.
Overall, it found that any exposure to IPC or DFV is associated with poorer wellbeing outcomes for mothers and children in both intact and separated families (compared with families where such exposure does not occur). Sustained exposure to IPC and DFV is particularly damaging (p 13). The impacts of DFV on mothering and mother–child relationships are multiple and often continue post-separation (p 10).
The findings also show that for a significant proportion of families, exposure to IPC and DFV is sustained after separation, and it escalates for some (p 12).
The results point to the importance of early reduction in family conflict, and the need for approaches post-separation that prioritise the reduction of exposure to IPC and DFV. This includes the need for approaches to help women and children repair relationships that have been damaged as a result of DFV (p 14).
Kaspiew, Rae, et al., Domestic and family violence and parenting: Mixed method insights into impact and support needs – Key findings and future directions (ANROWS, 2017).
In interviews with 50 women across Australia with experience of family violence, the study found that controlling and coercive behaviours were the most common tactic of abuse used by abusive fathers, which included setting rigid routines and/or having unreasonable expectations about children’s behaviour. Out of the 50 women interviewed, 45 described direct abuse toward their children, including psychological, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as witnessing abuse or being a direct victim of incidents that targeted the mother at the same time (p 3).
The report identified negative fathering behaviours occurring before and after separation, in addition to behaviour that was directly abusive to children. This includes (p 5):
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inattentive and inconsistent fathering;
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manipulative behaviours that had the effect of undermining relationships between mothers and children (often through the use of material resources);
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the exertion of controlling tactics in relation to mothers and children; and
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the manifestation of behaviours and negative attitudes to women in general and the mothers in particular, including abusive and denigrating attitudes that were adopted by some of the children (also, e.g. playing the “good” parent”).
The study found that courts give limited capacity to women to challenge the ongoing parenting role of the abusive parent due to priority placed on “meaningful relationships” and women’s concerns that they may be seen as an “alienating” parent (p 5).
The findings from the longitudinal quantitative analysis in the study showed that children who live with such violence are more likely to have a range of health, development and social problems (p 4).
Meyer, S, Reeves, E, Fitz-Gibbon, K. The intergenerational transmission of family violence: Mothers' perceptions of children's experiences and use of violence in the home. Child & Family Social Work. 2021; 1– 9.
Abstract: Intimate partner violence (IPV) on average affects one in four women, with the majority of victim survivors identifying as mothers in national survey data. Children experiencing parental IPV are now equally understood as victims. Extensive research documents the short- and long-term impacts of children's experiences of IPV on their safety and wellbeing. More recently, research has started to examine adolescent children's use of violence in the home as adolescent family violence (AFV). Contributing to this emerging body of research, we draw on narrative interview data from mothers who participated in a larger study on IPV, help-seeking and the perceived impact on children to better understand how mothers make sense of children's use of violence in the home. Mothers identified an emergence of AFV in male children with childhood experiences of adult IPV. Although mothers' experiences of adult and adolescent violence highlight their dual victimisation, mothers frame their abusive children as victims rather than perpetrators. Implications for future research, policy and trauma-informed practice are discussed.
Powell, Anastasia and Suellen Murray, ‘Children and Domestic Violence: Constructing a Policy Problem in Australia and New Zealand’ (2008) 17(4) Social and Legal Studies 453.
This article discusses the relationship between domestic violence responses, child protection responses and family law responses, where a child witnesses or experiences domestic violence. It identifies that (p467):
‘Where domestic violence responses, child protection responses and family law responses collide, a mother may simultaneously be constructed as being responsible for protecting her children from the influence of an ex-partner’s violence, in need of support and protection herself, and responsible for facilitating the other parent’s contact with children.’
‘Similarly, children may be simultaneously constructed as primary ‘victims’ in need of protection from exposure to parental violence, as secondary victims who can be protected from exposure to a father’s violence by supporting/protecting the mother, or as ‘witnesses’ of parental conflict who will benefit most from equal contact with both parents. Domestic violence itself is understood differently throughout these contested discourses…’
Richards, Kelly, ‘Children’s Exposure to Domestic Violence in Australia’ (2011) 419 Trends and Issues in Crime and Criminal Justice 1.
This paper presents a helpful overview of relevant literature. It identifies that children who live in homes characterised by violence between parents, or directed at one parent by another, have been called the 'silent', 'forgotten', 'unintended', 'invisible' and/or 'secondary' victims of domestic violence.
It summarises the research that demonstrates that witnessing domestic and family violence can involve a broad range of incidents, including the child:
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hearing the violence;
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being used as a physical weapon;
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being forced to watch or participate in assaults;
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being forced to spy on a parent;
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being informed that they are to blame for the violence because of their behaviour;
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being used as a hostage;
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defending a parent against the violence; and/or
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intervening to stop the violence.
It summarises research on the impact of domestic and family violence on children in the aftermath of violence including:
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having to telephone for emergency assistance;
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seeing a parent’s injuries after the violence and having to assist in ‘patching up’ a parent;
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having their own injuries and/or trauma to cope with;
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dealing with a parent who alternates between violence and a caring role;
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seeing the parents being arrested; and
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having to leave home with a parent and/or dislocation from family, friends and school.
Sety, Megan, ‘The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children: A Literature Review’ (Report, Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse, 1 August 2011).
This review identifies that:
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Children experience serious emotional, psychological, social, behavioural and developmental consequences as a result of experiencing violence.
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Infants and young children are especially at risk.
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Perpetrators often attack or undermine the mother-child relationship and use children in committing violence, such as threats to harm the children.
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Children continue to be at risk from the effects of violence during and after parents’ separation.
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Children experience significant risks in shared parenting arrangements when the arrangement involves substantial shared time with the violent parent.
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The evidence shows that false allegations of domestic violence and child abuse are rare. There is, however, evidence to suggest that perpetrators often deny or minimise their use of violence.
Stambe, R.-M., & Meyer, S. (2022). Police and Duty Lawyer Perceptions of Domestic Violence Protection Order Proceedings Involving Parents: Towards Greater System Accountability and Family-Centred Decision-Making.Journal of Family Violence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-022-00449-8.
Abstract
Purpose: Domestic violence (DV) is a problem of global significance and remains a gendered issue that disproportionately affects women and children. Prevalence studies on women’s experiences of DV suggest that around 50% of victims identify as mothers. The effects of DV on mothers and children are well documented, raising implications for their protection. Civil protection orders are a legal tool used to reduce and prevent experiences of DV. Research on protection order effectiveness is mixed with research suggesting that the ongoing relationship between a respondent and aggrieved parent around child contact presents ongoing opportunities for re-victimization. This study contributes to the scant literature on the implications of protection orders on parental responsibilities.
Method: The study draws on surveys with duty lawyers and focus groups with police officers. A thematic analysis was used to examine perceptions and experiences of ‘no contact’ protection orders and respondent parent non-compliance where mutual children are involved.
Results: Findings suggest that ambiguous ‘no contact’ conditions and a lack of clarity around their implications for child contact play a key role in respondent parent non-compliance, ranging from uninformed non-compliance to the strategic use of children as a form of coercive control in non-compliance.
Conclusion: Findings raise implications for specialist legal advice and support for parents affected by DV to sit alongside protection order court proceedings. Findings highlight the need for greater system accountability to ensure court-issued protection orders take a family-centred approach that align with parental responsibilities and ensure child and adult victims’ safety and wellbeing.
Wolbers, H, Boxall, H., and Morgan A. (2023) Exposure to intimate partner violence and the physical and emotional abuse of children: Results from a national survey of female carers. Research Report 26, Australian Institute of Criminology.
Abstract: Drawing on a large sample of female carers living in Australia (n=3,775), this study aims to document and explore children and young people’s experiences of abuse in the past 12 months. We focus on children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetrated against their female carers, as well as children being the target of direct physical and emotional abuse themselves.
Overall, a significant proportion of respondents who had a child in their care during the past 12 months said that a child was exposed to IPV perpetrated against them (14.1%). One in nine said a child in their care had been the target of direct abuse perpetrated by their current or most recent former partner (11.5%). Critically, one-third of respondents who experienced IPV said a child was exposed to the violence at least once in the past 12 months (34.8%).
A number of factors were associated with an increased likelihood of children being subjected to direct abuse. These included the characteristics of respondents and their relationships, children and households. We also present evidence linking economic factors, including changes in employment, with the direct abuse of children.
International
Edleson, Jeffrey L, ‘Children’s Witnessing of Adult Domestic Violence’ (1999) 14(8) Journal of Interpersonal Violence 839.
In this foundational article, the author reviews 31 research articles published since 1989. As a result of the review, the author attempts to ‘expand common definitions of how children witness adult domestic violence by showing how children not only see violence but also hear it occurring, are used as part of it, and experience its aftermath’ (p16). A variety of behavioural, emotional, and cognitive-functioning problems among children were found to be associated with exposure to domestic violence. The author identifies factors that appear to moderate the impact of witnessing violence (eg whether the child was also abused, child gender and age and time since last exposure to violence).
Holt, Amanda, ‘Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse as a Form of “Domestic Violence”: A Conceptual Review’ (2016) 17(5) Trauma, Violence, & Abuse 490-499.
This article discusses adolescent-to-parent abuse (APA), varied forms of abusive behaviour perpetrated by a child toward a parent (p 490). Mothers are more likely to be victims of APA than fathers (p 490), and correlations have been identified between APA and abusive behaviours within a young person’s dating relationships (p 491). As a distinct form of abuse, it is not necessarily appropriate to approach APA within a traditional domestic violence framework (p 496). Responding to APA raises issues separate from youth crime and domestic and family violence more broadly:
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Parental responsibility orders are inappropriate in cases where the burdened parent is a victim of the perpetrator’s APA, as such orders may cause revictimisation (p 492).
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Attitudes that place responsibility or blame on the victim parent must be avoided, as they may lead to victim blaming in cases of APA (p 493).
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The gendered focus on these issues should be reduced in APA cases, in order to properly engage with the child-parent abuse dynamic (p 495).
Jofre-Bonet, Mireia, Melcior Rossello-Roig, Victoria Serra-Sastre, The Blow of Domestic Violence on Children’s Health Outcomes (City University London, London School of Economics, 2016).
This study examines the effect of domestic violence on children’s health outcomes. Drawing results from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, the authors found that ‘there was a strong negative externality of household violence on children’s health outcomes’. Children living in a household where there was domestic violence appeared to be between 55% and 61% less likely to have their health rated as Excellent’. This paper ‘not only sheds light on the negative impact of domestic violence on children’s health but provides a robust quantification of this effect’.
Simon Lapierre et al., ‘Difficult but Close Relationships: Children's Perspectives on Relationships With Their Mothers in the Context of Domestic Violence’ (2018) 24(9) Violence Against Women 1023-1038.
Despite a recent focus in the literature on mother-child relationships, there is a limited understanding of children’s perspectives on their relationships with their mothers. This article reports the findings from a participative and qualitative study involving Canadian children who experienced domestic violence, and focuses on their perspectives on their relationships with their mothers under those circumstances. 46 individual interviews were conducted with children to gather their experiences. Results showed that women’s and children’s victimisations are inextricably linked. Notwithstanding the negative effects of domestic violence on mother-child relationships, the participants’ mothers played a significant role in their children’s lives and had close relationships with them. Communication was also found to be an important element in mother-child relationships. However, several participants stated that the communication with their mothers was limited whilst they lived with the domestic violence perpetrator. As the participants experienced domestic violence alongside their mothers, the results also revealed a dynamic of mutual protectiveness. Overall, the findings emphasised the need for policies and practices that support mother-child relationships in the context of domestic violence, as well as programs that support mother-child relationships or facilitate mother-child communication.
When domestic and family violence occurs between adults in families with children, those children are exposed to that violence. A significant number of Australian children are exposed to violence perpetrated most often against their mother by their father or their mother’s current or former male partner. Higher rates of exposure occur among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Children do not however need to see or hear the domestic and family violence to be exposed to it.
Childhood exposure to domestic and family violence may be direct or indirect, with either form having the potential to cause significant harm.
Examples include:
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Assault prior to birth
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Attempting to stop the violence or defend a parent
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Being threatened, harmed or abused by the perpetrator in order to control or intimidate the victim, for example: being used as a weapon or hostage; being blamed for the violence
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Being forced to watch or participate in the violence, or spy on a parent.
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Witnessing the violence
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Witnessing a parent’s physical injuries
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Being neglected as a consequence of a parent’s injuries
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Sleeping during the violence, or overhearing the violence from another room and taking measures to avoid being affected, for example: turning up the volume; sleeping with pillows over the ears; leaving the house and walking the streets
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Witnessing damage and destruction to furniture, toys and other family belongings
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Witnessing harm to family pets, or becoming aware that a pet has been given away, harmed or killed
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Experiencing the aftermath of the violence, for example: having to seek emergency assistance; witnessing a parent being interviewed or arrested by police; attending to a parent’s injuries; having to interact with the perpetrator; knowing a parent may be stalked; coping with their own trauma, distress and injuries; assuming the care of family members; missing school; being removed home and community because they are not safe; being isolated from family and friends.
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Being forced into poverty or homelessness as a consequence of the perpetrator’s economic abuse
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Growing up in an environment of stress without stability or security, and without appropriate adult role models.
A perpetrator may also use a range of tactics to undermine or destroy the relationship between mother and child. Depending on the child’s age, the perpetrator may deliberately abuse the victim in front of the child so as to induce fear in the child or a sense that their mother is weak and unable to protect herself. The perpetrator may discredit the victim’s mothering skills by accusing her of being a bad mother, or he may coach and recruit the child in the perpetration of the violence, or isolate the victim and children from family, friends and other sources of support and care. Over time these corrosive and manipulative behaviours may increasingly restrict and control all aspects of the everyday lives of victims and their children, including their sense of reality and their capacity to act competently and assertively; and may ultimately impair their physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing.
Different children in the same family may give dramatically different statements and testimony as a consequence of different experiences, for example one child may be the targeted child, another may be the protected child.
It should be noted too that notwithstanding the extent of exposure to domestic and family violence a child may be reluctant to disclose their experiences or feelings for fear of not being believed or making the situation worse, or because they have been groomed or coerced not to disclose. The prevalence of exposure may also cause the child to perceive violence as normal and disclosure as unnecessary.
Parents and caregivers who perpetrate domestic and family violence are far more likely than other parents and caregivers to also perpetrate direct forms of child abuse and engage in negative parenting practices. The affected children in their care are also more likely to experience multiple additional adversities such as exposure to other forms of physical, sexual and emotional violence and abuse in the home, at school, and in the community. A child’s exposure to domestic and family violence at any age may result in a range of poor psychological, behavioural and physical outcomes including diminished educational attainment, depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, suicidal ideation, increased aggression, antisocial behaviour, temperament and mood problems, impaired cognitive functioning, low self-esteem, pervasive fear, peer conflict, loneliness, increased likelihood of alcohol or substance misuse, and vulnerability to unemployment and homelessness. It is also possible that domestic and family violence -exposed children may as adults exhibit attitudes and behaviours that reflect their childhood experiences.
Exposing children to domestic and family violence may be one aspect of a complex pattern of behaviours engaged in by perpetrators in order to control another person, sometimes referred to as coercive control.
When domestic and family violence occurs between adults in families with children, those children are exposed to that violence. A significant number of Australian children are exposed to violence perpetrated most often against their mother by their father or their mother’s current or former male partner. Higher rates of exposure occur among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Children do not however need to see or hear the domestic and family violence to be exposed to it.
Childhood exposure to domestic and family violence may be direct or indirect, with either form having the potential to cause significant harm.
Examples include:
•
Assault prior to birth
•
Attempting to stop the violence or defend a parent
•
Being threatened, harmed or abused by the perpetrator in order to control or intimidate the victim, for example: being used as a weapon or hostage; being blamed for the violence
•
Being forced to watch or participate in the violence, or spy on a parent.
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Witnessing the violence
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Witnessing a parent’s physical injuries
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Being neglected as a consequence of a parent’s injuries
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Sleeping during the violence, or overhearing the violence from another room and taking measures to avoid being affected, for example: turning up the volume; sleeping with pillows over the ears; leaving the house and walking the streets
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Witnessing damage and destruction to furniture, toys and other family belongings
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Witnessing harm to family pets, or becoming aware that a pet has been given away, harmed or killed
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Experiencing the aftermath of the violence, for example: having to seek emergency assistance; witnessing a parent being interviewed or arrested by police; attending to a parent’s injuries; having to interact with the perpetrator; knowing a parent may be stalked; coping with their own trauma, distress and injuries; assuming the care of family members; missing school; being removed home and community because they are not safe; being isolated from family and friends.
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Being forced into poverty or homelessness as a consequence of the perpetrator’s economic abuse
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Growing up in an environment of stress without stability or security, and without appropriate adult role models.
A perpetrator may also use a range of tactics to undermine or destroy the relationship between mother and child. Depending on the child’s age, the perpetrator may deliberately abuse the victim in front of the child so as to induce fear in the child or a sense that their mother is weak and unable to protect herself. The perpetrator may discredit the victim’s mothering skills by accusing her of being a bad mother, or he may coach and recruit the child in the perpetration of the violence, or isolate the victim and children from family, friends and other sources of support and care. Over time these corrosive and manipulative behaviours may increasingly restrict and control all aspects of the everyday lives of victims and their children, including their sense of reality and their capacity to act competently and assertively; and may ultimately impair their physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing.
Different children in the same family may give dramatically different statements and testimony as a consequence of different experiences, for example one child may be the targeted child, another may be the protected child.
It should be noted too that notwithstanding the extent of exposure to domestic and family violence a child may be reluctant to disclose their experiences or feelings for fear of not being believed or making the situation worse, or because they have been groomed or coerced not to disclose. The prevalence of exposure may also cause the child to perceive violence as normal and disclosure as unnecessary.
Parents and caregivers who perpetrate domestic and family violence are far more likely than other parents and caregivers to also perpetrate direct forms of child abuse and engage in negative parenting practices. The affected children in their care are also more likely to experience multiple additional adversities such as exposure to other forms of physical, sexual and emotional violence and abuse in the home, at school, and in the community. A child’s exposure to domestic and family violence at any age may result in a range of poor psychological, behavioural and physical outcomes including diminished educational attainment, depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, suicidal ideation, increased aggression, antisocial behaviour, temperament and mood problems, impaired cognitive functioning, low self-esteem, pervasive fear, peer conflict, loneliness, increased likelihood of alcohol or substance misuse, and vulnerability to unemployment and homelessness. It is also possible that domestic and family violence -exposed children may as adults exhibit attitudes and behaviours that reflect their childhood experiences.
Exposing children to domestic and family violence may be one aspect of a complex pattern of behaviours engaged in by perpetrators in order to control another person, sometimes referred to as coercive control.