- Studies suggest that up to 10 million children witness some form of domestic violence annually. 1
- From 1993-1998 45% of female victims of domestic violence lived in
households with children under the age of 12. 2
- Close to 70% of girls involved in the juvenile justice system have
histories of physical abuse. 3
- Men who as children witness parents’ domestic violence are twice as likely
to abuse their own wives as sons of nonviolent parents. 4
- In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of
the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their
children. 5
- 80% of runaways come from homes where domestic violence occurs.
6
- 40 percent of girls age 14 to 17 report knowing someone their age who has
been hit or beaten by a boyfriend. 7
1 Carlson, Bonnie E. (1984). Children’s Observations of Interpersonal Violence. Pp. 147-167 in A.R. Roberts (Ed.) Battered Women and their Families (pp. 147-167). NY: Springer. Straus, M.A. (1992). Children as witnesses to marital violence: A risk factor for lifelong problems among a nationally representative sample of American men and women. Report of the Twenty-Third Ross Roundtable. Columbus, OH: Ross Laboratories.
2 J.L. Edleson, “The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering,”
Violence Against Women 5, no. 2 (February 1999)
3 Owen, B. and Bloom, B. (1997) “Profiling the Needs of Young Female Offenders.”
Report to the Executive Staff of the California Youth Authority.
Sacramento, CA: California Youth Authority.
4 Straus, Murray A., Gelles, Richard J., and Smith, Christine (1990).
Physical Violence in American Families: Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
5 Strauss, Murray A, Gelles, Richard J., and Smith, Christine. 1990.
Physical Violence in American Families; Risk Factors and Adaptations to Violence in 8,145 Families. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers
6 San Diego Domestic Violence Council, 1998.
7 Children Now/Kaiser Permanente Poll, December 1995.
