Effects of Domestic Violence on Children - Coursework Example

Research of the previous studies on the effects of domestic violence on children. The impact of exposure to domestic violence on child functioning. Safeguard and promotion of the welfare of children under the Children act 1989 and 2004. Effective interventions, approaches and public-awareness campaigns to prevent domestic violence and protect children by local authorities and social services are discussed extensively. Conclusion: Progress of domestic violence prevention efforts would depend on the level of public and governmental commitment to making prevention a long-term priority.

Primary prevention programs should be implemented in both primary and Domestic violence has been prevalent in many societies and cultures worldwide. It has often gone unnoticed and failed to receive the level of concern it deserves in terms of the devastating effects it has on children and families. Domestic violence is defined as violence between adult intimate partners. Though the definition above seems simple, it is widely accepted in the law enforcement community as the definition, the application of the definition varies quite significantly from organization to organization, state to state, and country to country.

(National Research Council, 1996) The term "intimate partners" in some cases refers only to people who are cohabitating or have lived together whereas at other times "intimate partners" refers to people who are dating or who have dated at some time in the past. Definition of domestic violence is better understood as emotional abuse, physical abuse, or sexual abuse between people who have at some time had an intimate or family relationship. (Ganley, 1989) In relationships where there is domestic violence, children witness about three-quarters of the abusive incidents.

About half the children in such families have themselves been badly hit or beaten. Many view the above definition of domestic violence as overly restrictive. They argue that domestic violence can occur between adult family members who are not "intimate" in the traditional sense, such as adult brothers and sisters, cousins, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law. Many consider elder abuse to be a form of domestic violence. Though the definition above clearly states "adult", there are recent trends for states to adopt legal definitions of domestic violence that include violence toward children more than half of states now mention children in their domestic violence laws.

This could broaden the definition to be violence between any of the following: husbands, wives, ex-husbands, ex-wives, partners, ex-partners, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, children, people who have lived together which could include cousins, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, and caregivers, and people who are or have dated in the past. The definitions of domestic violence that were used varied. Most adopted definitions that included violence from ex-partners but not violence from other family members.

The Home Office definition was: "Any violence between current and former partners in an intimate relationship, wherever and whenever the violence occurs. The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse."