Australia
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Personal Safety, Australia, 2023, ABS cat no. 4906.0 (2023).
This release presents information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2021-2022 Personal Safety Survey (PSS), which was conducted during the COVID-19 context.
The survey collected detailed information from men and women about their experiences of violence since the age of 18, as well as experiences of current and previous partner violence, stalking, physical and sexual abuse and harassment, abuse before the age of 15, and general feelings of safety.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2022) Australia’s children: Children exposed to family violence (online).
Key findings:
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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.
The summary report highlights that research has found exposure to family violence is associated with a range of outcomes, including:
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diminished educational 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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behavioural difficulties
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homelessness
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future victimisation and/pr violent offending
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, the statistics were 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 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.
Brown, Thea, Samantha Bricknell, Willow Bryant, Samantha Lyneham, Danielle Tyson and Paula Fernandez Arias, Filicide offenders (Australian Institute of Criminology Report No. 568 February 2019).
Report abstract:
Filicide is the killing of a child by a parent or parent equivalent. Between 2000–01 and 2011–12, there were 238 incidents of filicide in Australia involving the death of 284 children. This paper examines the characteristics of custodial parents, non-custodial parents and step-parents charged with the murder or manslaughter of their children.
Offender circumstances and characteristics differed according to the offender’s gender and custodial relationship with the victim. As filicide is difficult to predict, intervention strategies should focus on families with multiple risk factors and address the needs of parents as well as those of children at risk.
Commissioner for Children and Young People, Children and Young People’s Unique Experiences of Family Violence (Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tasmania, 2016).
This report provides a number of findings on children and young people’s unique experience of family violence. It notes that effects of family violence on children and young people can have a detrimental effect on their development, as well as their physical and mental wellbeing. Their experience is a form of ‘complex trauma’ – ‘which describes both children’s exposure to multiple, chronic and prolonged developmentally adverse traumatic events, and the substantial long-term impact of this exposure’. Further, ‘[m]any children and young people who have experienced FV display high levels of self-efficacy and resilience; it should not be assumed that their potential to succeed is lessened compared to those who haven’t experienced FV or that they will grow up to be perpetrators themselves’. There is a need to improve the ways information is gathered on children’s experiences (p.4) and to understand their specific needs (p.5).
Abstract: This world-first research explores the role technology plays in children's exposure to family and domestic violence. It shows the impacts of technology-facilitated abuse and highlights the range of strategies used for protection and intervention.
The research is based on a survey of over 500 professionals who work with domestic and family violence cases, as well as focus groups with domestic violence specialist staff and interviews with young people, mothers and perpetrators.
Key findings include:
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Over one quarter (27%) of domestic violence cases involve technology-facilitated abuse of children.
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Of cases involving children, the most common forms of technology-facilitated abuse they experienced are:
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monitoring and stalking – 45%
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threats and intimidation – 38%
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blocking communication – 33%.
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This abuse typically involves everyday technologies such as mobile phones (79% of cases), texting (75%) and Facebook (59%).
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It causes real harm, negatively impacting children's mental health (67% of cases), their relationship with the non-abusive parent (59%) and their everyday activities (59%).
The research highlights options for future action such as education, hands-on technology support, screening tools for professionals and extending phone replacement programs to older children.
Flood, Michael, and Lara Fergus, An Assault on Our Future: The Impact of Violence on Young People and Their Relationships (Report, The White Ribbon Foundation, 2008).
Reporting statistics drawn from the National Crime Prevention Survey (2001) this paper reports that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people were significantly more likely to have witnessed physical domestic violence against their mother or step-mother than other young people (42%, compared to 23% for all respondents) (p11).
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).
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.
Meyer S, Stambe R-M. Mothering in the Context of Violence: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Mothers’ Experiences in Regional Settings in Australia. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. November 2020.
Abstract: Domestic and family violence (DFV) disproportionately affects women and children in Australia and globally. On average, one in three women experiences DFV during adulthood and the majority of these women identify as mothers. The prevalence of DFV is higher for Indigenous women and their experiences disproportionately range at the more severe end of physical abuse. For women affected by DFV, mothering during and post this type of victimization is complicated by strategic entrapment, undermining of the mother–child relationship, and threats of harm directed at children and mothers. While a substantial body of literature has examined the experiences of mothers affected by DFV more broadly, research on the experiences of Indigenous mothers affected by DFV remains scarce. Research evidence is further limited when trying to understand the specific constraints experienced by mothers affected by DFV in regional settings. This article examines the experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mothers affected by DFV in regional Queensland, Australia. Data derived from 17 qualitative face-to-face interviews are used to explore the lived experiences of these mothers. Findings identify the immediate and long-term effects of DFV on mothers and children, including similarities and differences in women’s experiences of mothering in the context of DFV, experiences of entrapment in an abusive relationship, experiences of post-separation abuse, strategies used to mitigate its impact on children, and surviving as a female-headed single-parent household in regional settings. While mothers in this study shared a number of similar experiences, regionality, the risk of cultural disconnectedness, and socio-structural marginalization disproportionately affected Indigenous mothers in this study. Findings raise key implications for supporting mothers and children’s safety and recovery, access to safe and sustainable housing in regional towns, and the empowerment of Indigenous women to overcome the lasting effects of colonization and disproportionate experiences of disadvantage.
Orr C., Fisher, CM., Preen DB., Glauert RA. and O’Donnell, M. (2020) ‘Exposure to family and domestic violence is associated with increased childhood hospitalisations’, PLoS One 15(8) doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237251
From the Report: This cohort study used deidentified individual-level linked administrative data of children born 1987-2010 in Western Australia who were exposed to family and domestic violence (FDV) in the prenatal period (12 months prior to birth) to five years of age (early years).
It found that children exposed to FDV are more likely to be hospitalised than non-exposed children. Children exposed to FDV in both the prenatal and early childhood period has a threefold increased odds of mental health hospitalisation. We found a significant increase in odds of pregnancy-related hospitalisation in FDV exposed children. When stratified by Aboriginal status, Aboriginal children had a higher proportion of hospitalisations than non-Aboriginal children.
Exposed children have an increased likelihood for hospitalisation than non-exposed children. Within the exposed cohort differences were apparent between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. Aboriginal children had greater odds for hospitalisation in most of the diagnostic groups compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Our findings represent an important advance in the literature with respect to the burden of disease of children exposed to FDV.
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.
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 the its aftermath’ (p16). A variety of behavioural, emotional, and cognitive-functioning problems among children 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).
Finkelhor, David, et al, ‘Children’s Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey’ (2009) (Oct) Juvenile Justice Bulletin 1.
This Bulletin discusses the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, the first comprehensive nationwide US survey of the incidence and prevalence of children’s exposure to violence Conducted between January and May 2008, it measured the past-year and lifetime exposure to violence for children age 17 and younger across several major categories: conventional crime, child maltreatment, victimization by peers and siblings, sexual victimization, witnessing and indirect victimization (including exposure to community violence and family violence), school violence and threats, and Internet victimization.
The study found (inter alia) that children who were exposed to one type of violence, both within the past year and over their lifetimes, were at far greater risk of experiencing other types of violence. For example, a child who was physically assaulted in the past year would be five times as likely to also have been sexually victimized and more than four times as likely also to have been maltreated during that period. Similarly, a child who was physically assaulted during his or her lifetime would be more than six times as likely to have been sexually victimized and more than five times as likely to have been maltreated during his or her lifetime.
Jane E M Callaghan et al, ‘Beyond “Witnessing”: Children’s Experiences of Coercive Control in Domestic Violence and Abuse’ (2015) Journal of Interpersonal Violence (online).
This article investigates children’s experiences with domestic and family violence (DFV), through interviews with 21 children who have been victims of DFV (p 7). The results indicate that children are aware of patterns of coercive control, and the impacts of such abuse (pp 10-3). Such experiences result in an increased sense of constraint, which children may develop specific strategies to cope with (pp 14-6).
Significantly, the article raises children’s direct agency in coping with, and responding to, DFV, highlighting the inaccuracy of treating children as merely passive witnesses (pp 17-20). Accordingly, the authors recommend that professional responses to DFV better recognise children’s agency, moving beyond perceptions of them as passive witnesses, and tailor strategies for children as direct victims (pp 22, 23-4).
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’.
Katz, E (2016) Beyond the Physical Incident Model: How Children Living with Domestic Violence are Harmed By and Resist Regimes of Coercive Control, Child Abuse Review Vol. 25, 46-59.
Abstract: This article begins to build knowledge of how non-violent coercive controlling behaviours can be central to children’s experiences of domestic violence. It considers how children can be harmed by, and resist, coercive controlling tactics perpetrated by their father/father-figure against their mother. Already, we know much about how women/mothers experience non-physical forms of domestic violence, including psychological/emotional/verbal and financial abuse, isolation, and monitoring of their activities. However, this knowledge has not yet reached most children and domestic violence research, which tends to focus on children’s exposure to physical violence. In this qualitative study, 30 participants from the UK, 15 mothers and 15 of their children (most aged 10-14) who had separated from domestic violence perpetrators, participated in semi-structured interviews. All participants were living in the community. Using the ‘Framework’ approach to thematically analyse the data, findings indicated that perpetrators’/fathers’ coercive control often prevented children from spending time with mothers and grandparents, visiting other children’s houses, and engaging in extra-curricular activities. These non-violent behaviours from perpetrators/fathers placed children in isolated, disempowering and constrained worlds which could hamper children’s resilience and development and contribute to emotional/behavioural problems. Implications for practice and the need to empower children in these circumstances are discussed.
Katz, E, Nikupeteri, A & Laitinen, M 2020, ‘When Coercive Control Continues to Harm Children: Post-Separation Fathering, Stalking and Domestic Violence’, CHILD ABUSE REVIEW, vol. 29, no. 4.
Abstract: This article highlights how domestic violence perpetrators can use coercive control against their children after their ex-partner has separated from them. It provides insights into how children experience coercive control post-separation by drawing from two data sets: one from the UK and one from Finland. The data comprised narratives of 29 children and young people aged from 4 to 21 years old. Three overarching themes arose from the data: 1) dangerous fathering that made children frightened and unsafe; 2) ‘admirable’ fathering, where fathers/father figures appeared as ‘caring’, ‘concerned’, ‘indulgent’ and/or ‘vulnerable-victims’; and 3) omnipresent fathering that continually constrained children’s lives. Dangerous fathering made children’s lives frightening, constrained and unpredictable. Admirable fathering was found to be a powerful tool of control when combined with dangerous fathering, because admirable fathering increased father-child emotional bonds and could make children want to see/live with their fathers, whilst dangerous fathering simultaneously made them fearful of him. Admirable fathering was typically aimed at professionals and wider communities, and could occur alongside fathers/father figures stalking, harassing and/or attacking ex-partners and children when they were not in the public eye. Perpetrators aimed to portray themselves as ‘caring’, ‘concerned’, ‘indulgent’ and/or ‘vulnerable-victim’ fathers, and to make their ex-partners seem like perpetrators or deficient mothers. Perpetrators disguised their use of coercive control tactics as ‘admirable’ behaviour. With respect to omnipresent fathering, children were fearful that their father/father figure could appear at any time to attack, harass, manipulate, upset or kidnap them or their mothers. This behaviour led to some children continuously monitoring their surroundings as a protective strategy. Fathers/father figures were able to maintain some degree of control, domination and emotional power over children even when they were not physically present. The article suggests that robust measures are necessary to prevent coercive control perpetrating fathers/father figures from using father-child relationships to continue exerting coercive control on children and ex-partners.
Lux, G & S Gll, Identifying Coercive Control in Canadian Family Law: A Required Analysis in Determining the Best Interests of the Child. (2021)59 (4) Family Court Review 810-827 doi: 10.1111/fcre.12540
Amendments to the Canadian Divorce Act have required that family violence, specifically coercive controlling behaviour, be considered when making best interest determinations for children. This paper (1) outlines how this concealed, patterned, and harmful behaviour presents in family law disputes and (2) sets out considerations for parenting arrangements. It identifies the perils of subjective impressions as well as where the legal system and its interventions may be vulnerable to misuse. Children in families where coercive control is occurring are at risk of harm. The article concludes that the lack of intentional analysis of coercive control does not serve the best interests of the child.
Lyons, et al., Risk Factors for Child Death During an Intimate Partner Homicide: A Case-Control Study (2021) 26(4) Child Maltreatment 356-362 doi: 10.1177/1077559520983901
This research used the US National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data (2003–2017) to compare all IPH incidents with a child corollary victim (n = 227) to all IPH incidents where a child was present but not killed (n = 350). We examined risk factors for child fatality during an IPH. For each risk factor, we calculated the odds ratio for child death during the IPH, adjusting for multiple comparisons. Perpetrator history of suicidal behavior, rape of the intimate partner victim, a non-biological child of the perpetrator living in the home, and perpetrator job stressors increased odds while prior separation of the IPV victim from the perpetrator decreased the odds of a child death during an IPH incident.
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; much 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, 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 depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, increased aggression, antisocial behaviour, temperament and mood problems, impaired cognitive functioning, learning and schooling difficulties, 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.
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; much 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, 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.
•
Witnessing the violence
•
Witnessing a parent’s physical injuries
•
Being neglected as a consequence of a parent’s injuries
•
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
•
Witnessing damage and destruction to furniture, toys and other family belongings
•
Witnessing harm to family pets, or becoming aware that a pet has been given away, harmed or killed
•
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.
•
Being forced into poverty or homelessness as a consequence of the perpetrator’s economic abuse
•
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 depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, increased aggression, antisocial behaviour, temperament and mood problems, impaired cognitive functioning, learning and schooling difficulties, 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.