IMPACT ON CHILDREN WHO WITNESS VIOLENCE AND ABUSE
Children who witness violence against
other children, adults or animals suffer effects
that are immediate, long-term and costly.
Even media portrayals and visual
images of violence and abuse can have a disturbing
impact on a child.
Effects on the child witnessing violence
and abuse may include worthlessness, isolation,
aggression and violent behaviour, poor relationships,
acting out, emotional and psychological behavioural
Each child who witnesses abuse experiences
it differently. Each experience is unique.
Seeing is experiencing. It is terrifying
and confusing for a child to witness violence and
When I see/hear you hit someone,
I think it's OK to hit. I'm scared you'll hit me.
I think it's my fault. I want to protect those you
are hitting. I am afraid I could become you.
History is not doomed to repeat itself.
We must take responsibility to protect
children in our communities. Short and long-term
treatment for abusers and those subjected to violence
and abuse must be available.
- Violent behaviour is learned.
Some studies indicate that between 40% and 60%
of assaultive men witnessed wife assault during
- Children exposed to wife assault
have similar adjustment problems as children who
are themselves physically abused.
- Serious behaviour problems are
17 times higher for boys and 10 times higher for
girls who have witnessed wife assault than for
other children. Ontario Women's Directorate
Its your turn to stay awake
and keep guard in case daddy wants to play that game
In a Locked Ward...
We have survived
at the hands of the man
they called my father
Your bony body
and your heart
your fractured mind
the scars and bruises
of our life together
I can count
each rib and vertebra
as I rub relief
into your aches
My heart beats broken
and all our stories...
our shattered family.
You are my mother.
The pain we share
is too much
Childhood cries cannot be heard
Reaching out for a whole new world
The pain inside will never go away
Make me believe in tomorrow, today.
Power and trust is what was broken
If I had the knowledge, I would have spoken.
Time has passed, how can it be
That I have no life, I have no dreams.
Life to me seems so unreal
Reaching out, only to feel
The boy inside is no longer real
Out of Control
When the wind was soft
in a new neighbourhood,
Did I play Indiana Jones
with the garage door,
When it was summer
and I broke my arm,
When things were pleasant,
all at the cottage,
Where my brother or me
was slapped for drinking a beer?
I guess it all began then,
In the car, above the garage,
With light coming in through
That’s when I ...
Now I can’t think of much
without feeling screwed up,
Always feeling at a loss,
Out of control and far from peace, from peace,
from calm, from my sense of myself, a screwed
frame\sensed floating through, rigid, pained,
crushed, uptight, yearning
Largely for peace and slithers, That’s all,
Each time man
I feel like I could screw
Any association, any verb or thought regarding it,
makes me want to fricken rage.
I’m always looking around waiting for something
Jump up and screw me over, all the fricken time,
Just an impressionable cunt ...
How can I ever begin to think that a threesome is
How can I ever feel
that any sex or fantasy is alright
without it being screwed up, without it grating your
fricken soul apart and
taking you off track.
How else can I do that?
What else can I think ?
How can I let go of all that,
and with her?
Just feeling so fricken trapped
and pinned down by all of this,
so screwed ...
screwed, screwed, screwed
No calm, no peace, no matter,
no nothing, just screwed.
At times it feels too beyond,
all too tiring to
imagine anything but this pain.
Too much pain fricken sucks.
I’m just finding it harder
to think positively
about this in any way.
It only lasts for about one hour
Stubbornly, with reluctance,
I fall to that world of dark,
deep pain, rage, emptiness.
Discussion - The Impact
of Witnessing Violence and Abuse
Statements regarding the impact of
- There is a lifetime, long-term
effect, which requires long-term treatment.
- The media must take responsibility:
prevention, early intervention, culture, government.
- Children must learn to settle
their differences differently, to deal with their
feelings, to learn that healthy anger is okay.
- How does the child experience
abuse when witnessing it? Each experience is unique
and has a different effect. For a child who witnesses
abuse, the abuse becomes their reality.
- What does witnessing
abuse mean? Seeing abuse - a total sensory
experience. Seeing is experiencing.
- I see you hit, I lose self,
we lose culture. When I see you hit... I think
its okay to hit, Im scared youll
hit me, I think its my fault, I want to
protect her/him, I could become you. I see you
- Abuse is everywhere and
can be witnessed everywhere.
creates feelings of confusion, helplessness, fear,
anger, shame, complacency, hopelessness, withdrawal,
aggression, secrecy, depression, neglect, disintegration,
disassociation, isolation, self-blame, mistrust,
worthlessness and an inability to cope. Witnesses
may act out, model re-enactments, blame others,
run away, hide, block out memories, fantasize, remember,
and have difficulty interacting with peers. They
may experience a loss of identity, developing a
false self. They may feel desensitized and fragmented,
and they may feel that the perpetrator is larger
The community is learning, but we
know children witness violence. There is a sense
of hierarchy of abuse and witnessing abuse. Witnessing
abuse may be perceived to be less severe, but this
is not true. Children can experience the same trauma
in witnessing abuse.
We are a victim society. There is
a backlash, in that authorities have limited powers
to intervene with children. People disbelieve children
who witness abuse. The media sensationalizes abuse,
and it is not labeled until it is extremely severe.
ON THE IMPACT ON CHILDREN WHO WITNESS VIOLENCE AND
Barbour, Scott and Karin Swisher.
Violence: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego, California:
Greenhaven Press, 1996.
Barden, Renardo. Juvenile Violence.
New York: M. Cavendish, 1994.
Berger, Gilda. Violence and the Family.
New York: F. Watts, 1990.
Bochner, Sally, Wolf Koenig and Colin
Neale. Listen to Us Series. Film series, directed
by Wolf Koenig and Sally Bochner. Canada: Distributed
by the National Film Board, 148 min. 45 sec., 1992.
Bower, Bruce. Survivor Syndrome:
Childhood Sexual abuse Leaves a Controversial Trail
of Aftereffects. pt.2. Science News (US),
September 25, 1993, vol. 144 no. 13, p. 202-4.
Island, David and Patrick Letellier.
Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them: Battered Gay
Men and Domestic Violence. New York: Harrington
Park Press, 1991.
Jones-Farrow, Hilary. B.C./Yukon
Society of Transition Houses, Co-producers. What
About Us? Film, directed by Hilary Jones-Farrow,
written by Hilary Jones-Farrow and Judith Blackwell.
Canada: Distributed by the National Film Board,
27 min. 30 sec., 1993.
Kurland, Morton L. Coping With Family
Violence. New York, N.Y.: Rosen Pub. Group, 1986.
National Film Board. Campbell &
Co. Communications, Co-producers. Make a Difference:
How to Respond to Child Witnesses of Woman Abuse.
Film. Canada: Distributed by the National Film Board,
21 min. 40 sec., 1995.
ONeill, Patrick. Violence
and Its Aftermath: Introduction. Canadian
Psychology, April 1992, vol. 33 no. 2, p. 119-27.
Roy, Maria. Children in the Crossfire:
Violence in the Home - How Does It Affect Our Children?
Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, 1988.
TV Ontario. Child Abuse 2. Film.
Canada: Distributed by TV Ontario, 27 min. 1992.
Van Gijseghem, Hubert and Marie-Chantal
Gauthier. Links Between Sexual Abuse In Childhood
and Behavioural Disorders in Adolescent Girls: A
Multivariate Approach. Canadian Journal of
Behavioural Science, July 1994, vol. 26 no. 3, p.
I don't like when
people hit other.
I think it is scary!
Myles, age 11
Don't let the anger and
mistake pass on!!!
Care for them,
don't abuse them!
Make a new generation.
Please stop the violence
and the wars.
Abuse is not the way.