Children in homes where domestic violence occurs may indirectly receive injuries. They may be hurt when household items or weapons are thrown or used, when their mothers who are being attacked by the batterer are holding them.
The risk of a child being physically abused or seriously neglected is many times higher than the national average in the general population.
More than 90% of the battered women said that their children have witnessed their battering.
More than 60% of all domestic offenders had either seen their mothers abused or had themselves been abused as children.
Boys who witness domestic violence are more likely to batter their female partners as adults than boys raised in nonviolent homes.
Nearly 2/3 of all homicides committed by young men under age 20 are sons killing the man who has beaten their mother.
About a quarter of all victims of domestic violence are beaten while they are pregnant. The first beating incident often coincides with the womans first pregnancy.
On an average, a woman entering a California shelter brings two children with her.
Source: Mid-Peninsula Support Network for Battered Women National Woman Abuse Prevention Project Hershey, Report to Eastern Psychological Association San Francisco Family Violence Project Dr. Richard Gelles California Alliance Against Domestic Violence
