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Wife Abuse High Risk Factor for Child AbuseStudies of abused children in the general populace reveal nearly half have mothers who are also abused - making wife abuse the single strongest identifiable risk factor for child abuse. Findings from the Illinois Department of Public Aid noted, "When we suspect child abuse, we should suspect woman abuse. When we see battered mothers, we must also reach out to their children. These interconnections must be heeded as we attempt to eradicate family violence through services, education and public policy." Breaking the cycle of violence is the object of "Safe From the Start," a bipartisan, state-federal initiative recently announced by Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin. The program seeks to identify and provide help for children 5 or younger who are victims of abuse or have witnessed acts of violence. Sen. Durbin has indicated he will work to see this program initiated in other states. We applaud the effort to identify children at risk and to make appropriate services available to them. Breaking the cycle of violence has been the mission of A Safe Place and other domestic violence programs for more than two decades. In this country, one in every four women will be abused by an intimate partner, someone who says he loves her, sometime in her lifetime. That's an amazing 3-4 million women each year! Domestic violence assaults result in more injuries requiring medical treatment than those of rape, automobile accidents and mugging combined. Lake County alone sees 3,000 domestic violence cases go through its courtroom each year — a figure high enough to warrant the opening of a second domestic violence courtroom on May 21 to handle this onslaught of cases. The youngest of domestic violence victims are the child witnesses to this crime. An estimated 3.3 million children each year see the violence, hear the violence, are awakened from the innocence of a child's sleep by the violence perpetrated against their mothers. Make no mistake, mother abuse is child abuse. When a mother is abused, her children suffer confusion, stress, fear. When a mother is abused, her children feel guilty that they cannot protect her. When a mother is abused, her child fears that he or she is the cause of the abuse. When a mother is abused, her sons are more likely to grow up to be abusers themselves, repeating the destructive patterns they learn early in life. When a mother is abused, her daughters are more likely to become passive, to believe they should be submissive to their future partners, and to accept that abuse is just part of life. When a mother is abused, her children are 6 to 15 times more likely to suffer abuse themselves. Many times, this is the act that drives a woman to finally abandon her relationship and to seek protection and help. Of women coming into shelter, more than half report their children have been physically, emotionally and sometimes sexually abused. The abuser is two to three times more likely to be the batterer than the woman herself. Many victims report that their abuser threatens or attacks the children as a way to control and hurt the mother even more. If we are to seriously address child abuse, we must also address the abuse of their mothers, recognizing the links between these violent behaviors found in the home. Without intervention, counseling and education, our next generation is doomed to repeat what they learn from the examples in their home. Working with moms and children together breaks the cycle: it stops the violence for mothers, and builds better examples for their children to model as they grow into adulthood and establish relationships of their own. Phyllis A. DeMott If you would like more information about A Safe Place and the domestic violence help services and programs we provide, please call us at 847-249-5147 or email us at info@asafeplaceforhelp.org.
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Everyone has the right to a violence-free, safe and healthy life. Copyright ©2001-2007 A Safe Place. All rights reserved. |
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