Intimate Violence between Partners

Introduction

Due to the intimacy involved between the perpetrators and victims, domestic violence is a problem that affects civilizations all over the world. It is difficult to properly combat this issue, and the children who witness these incidents suffer the most (UNICEF, 2012). Researching the problem, its causes, and impacts is necessary in order to find long-lasting remedies. This study sought to determine the prevalence of domestic violence exposure among children as well as the impact that exposure to domestic violence has on young people. Previous studies have demonstrated that children who see violence between parents suffer detrimental effects and are more likely to become future perpetrators or victims. It was predicted that the trauma that children suffer from witnessing domestic violence caused behavioral problems.

Methods

The article is a UNICEF report on the effects that domestic violence has on the children that witness their parents fighting and the prevalence of this violence in various parts of the world. The main participants in the study were young children that were living in homes that experienced domestic violence, other participants in this study were government agencies and victims of the violence. This article has used various methods in compiling data for this study these methods include: interviews, government data on domestic violence cases and review of earlier studies done by non-governmental organizations like the United Nations.

In making their investigation into the matter, UNICEF began by interviewing children that come from abusive households asking questions geared to understand how the domestic violence affects them with majority confessing they feel scared. The report also reviewed statistics from studies that were done by other organizations such as the UN to supplement their findings and know where to look for information. This report utilized government statistics on known cases of domestic violence to know children from which country were most vulnerable.

Results

The study by UNICEF found out that children that witness domestic violence are more likely to end up victims of abuse when they turn into adults as the study found that 40 percent of children exposed to violence reported experiencing abuse as adults. In another study done in the U.S., the violence was not limited to adulthood since it was discovered that children from abusive homes are 15 times more likely to be assaulted than children from other households (UNICEF, 2012).

A study conducted in the U.S. found out that the exposure to domestic violence in young children was found to lead to behavioral problems like aggression anxiety, depression, suicidal inclinations, and fear. Exposure to violence was also proven to cause learning problems in the children with a study finding that 40 percent had below average performance as opposed to those from stable homes (UNICEF, 2012). In their teens and adulthood, these children turn to drugs and criminality owing to the improper development of social skills. The studies all show that when a child is exposed to domestic violence, there is a high chance that they will pass it on to their children.

Discussion

The results from numerous studies conducted is in agreement with the hypothesis that witnessing domestic violence causes behavioral problems in children. This can be attributed to the trauma that the children suffer from after watching one of their parents being abused by the other, they, therefore, develop negative and wrong notions about human interaction. During this traumatic period, emotional stress generated by domestic violence was found to cause permanent brain damage to the children witnessing it whereby their sensory and mental growth is impaired. This damage is what causes these children to follow in the footsteps of their parents in the future by becoming the abusers or the abused. This problem can be solved through education of the public on the effects of domestic violence on children and formulation of policies that offer support to children in abusive households.

References

UNICEF. (2012). Behind Closed Doors, the impact of domestic violence on children (pp. 1-8, Rep.). Retrieved from: doi:https://www.unicef.org/media/files/BehindClosedDoors.pdf.