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FCL NEWSLETTER -- June, 2002

Domestic Violence and Children -- Keeping Young People Safe
Why Doesn't She Just Leave? -- The dillema of a mother in a violent relationship
Resources -- Hotline and publications
Bills for Youth At Risk -- Youth Grant Program, Mental Health, Children of Prisoners
Stressed Families in Newsletter History -- Group Day Care, the 601 Child, Corporal Punishment
Whatever Happened To?
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Articles in Prior Newsletters

Domestic Violence and Children

When a mother is physically abused, chances are her children suffer too. Social workers and law enforcement personnel increasingly recognize the coexistence of both problems within families and are realizing that it seldom suffices to treat female abuse and child abuse separately. Moreover, there are substantial indications that exposure to domestic violence has harmful consequences for children, even when they are not the object of aggression and despite the efforts of parents to cover it up.

The Demographics of Abuse

A study commissioned by The David and Lucille Packard Foundation titled The Future of Children: Domestic Violence and Children (1999) reveals that between three and ten million children in the U.S. are exposed to domestic violence each year. Families of all economic levels are affected, but domestic violence is more common in low-income households. Children with single-mother parents have a greater risk of exposure, and domestic violence is more prevalent in homes where there is substance abuse. Families with children, especially children ages five and under, are more prone to domestic violence. Child development experts agree that birth to age five are the crucial formative years when most brain development takes place.

Harmful Consequences for Children

Families with children, especially children ages five and under, are more prone to domestic violence, and child development experts agree that birth to age five are the crucial formative years when most brain development takes place. Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to suffer behavioral problems such as aggression, phobias, insomnia, low self-esteem, and depression. Men who witnessed domestic violence as children are twice as likely to abuse their own wives. Exposed children are more likely to become substance abusers and are more likely to attempt suicide. Sleep disorders such as bed-wetting, insomnia, and nightmares are common. Academic performance and problem﷓solving skills also suffer. They may also lack empathy, and chronic exposure to abuse may result in post-traumatic stress disorder, which include symptoms of emotional numbing, avoidance of painful reminders of violent episodes, or obsession with the violent events.

Barriers to Protecting Children

Children who can turn to a loving adult for support and reassurance are less susceptible to experience debilitating symptoms, but because battered mothers suffer physical and emotional trauma firsthand, they may be unable to provide emotional stability, and leave their children to cope on their own. Cultural norms that accept violence and force as legitimate means for settling disputes undermine efforts to respond to domestic violence. It is estimated that less than half of cases of domestic violence are reported, and when they are, victims may find that the aims of child protective services (CPS) and battered women?s advocates often collide. CPS workers focus on the children and keep families intact, while domestic violence advocates concentrate on protecting the adult victim, often by assisting her in her efforts to leave an abusive relationship.

Roughly half the residents in women's shelters are children, but there are few services that deal with their special needs. While removing victims from violent environments is crucial, when uprooted, children may lose their only forms of positive support, such as teachers, relatives, and friends. If the children are older, they may even be separated from their mothers as many shelters do not allow adolescent males.

Furthermore, there are some disturbing legal trends that, despite good intentions, pose special problems in cases of domestic violence. Failure-to-protect laws wrongly assume that a battered woman can stop domestic violence and enforcement may result in the removal of children from the home. Women may be compelled to stay in an abusive relationship because leaving could result in additional violence, and even death. If the abuser is the family's sole source of income, leaving may result in poverty or even homelessness. (See Sidebar.)

Child welfare laws that make exposure to domestic violence an illegal offense per se pose additional problems. By automatically criminalizing exposure to domestic violence, these laws deny public agencies and judges the flexibility to tailor appropriate remedies to each family's situation. Juvenile courts may terminate parental rights when the situation does not improve. The trend towards joint legal custody in divorce settlements may have unintended consequences when there is violence in the home, because an abusive parent is more likely to share custody. These legal shortcomings may deter women from reporting incidents of domestic violence. The choice of remaining in an abusive relationship or risking the loss of her children through the courts is a no﷓win situation.

While the recent trend of increased coordination between social workers, battered women?s advocates, and law enforcement is encouraging, fashioning the correct response to domestic violence will require additional research and new strategies. A one-size-fits-all approach can cause more harm than good.

Several current bills address the need for further study and provision of assistance for children who have been subjected to abuse:

AB 1909, by Rebecca Cohn (D., Saratoga), authorizes counties to study and identify effective practices in domestic violence court cases. FCL SUPPORTS.

AB 2462 , by Patricia Bates (R., Laguna Niguel), creates the presumption that children from homes with domestic violence have sustained physical injury, whether or not they witnessed the violence, in order to qualify them for benefits under the Victims of Crime Program. FCL SUPPORTS.

AB 2652 , by Judy Chu (D., Monterey Park), will establish model guidelines for law enforcement agencies when intervening in domestic violence cases. FCL SUPPORTS.

SB 1722 , by Martha Escutia (D., Whittier), requires police reports of domestic violence cases to identify children who were likely to have witnessed domestic violence and makes them eligible for public services. FCL SUPPORTS.

SB 1807 , by Wesley Chesbro (D., Arcata), lowers the burden of proof for law enforcement to prevent the return of a weapon confiscated during a domestic violence arrest from ?clear and convincing? to ?a preponderance of the evidence;? that returning the weapon would result in additional harm. FCL SUPPORTS.

Successful ?Healthy Start? Programs Face Elimination

We note with sadness that Governor Davis' revised budget proposal for the 2002-03 fiscal year does not renew funding for Healthy Start. California faces a budget shortfall in excess of $23.6 billion, Based on the notion that children in good physical and emotional health make better students, Healthy Start was signed into law in 1992 by then-Governor Pete Wilson. Since its inception, the program has provided low-income students with a broad array of social services and academic support through partnerships with community services. Healthy Start costs California a mere $39 million, but for every dollar it spends it brings in an additional $4 in local and federal spending.

According to the Department of Education, test scores in schools with substandard academic achievement that participated in Healthy Start have improved dramatically. Eliminating funding for Healthy Start for short-term budget considerations will have devastating consequences that will be felt for years to come.

Why Doesn't She Just Leave?

Children and Domestic Violence Resources

Bills for Youth At Risk

Stressed Families in FCL Newsletter History

Inflation Pushes Up Newsletter Cost

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