Domestic Violence: Child Protection, Intervention & Evaluation

The Batterer As Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics
Research on children's exposure to domestic violence has tended to focus primarily on two aspects of their experience: the trauma of witnessing physical assaults against their mother, and the tension produced by living with a high level of conflict between their parents. However, these are just two elements of a much deeper problem pervading these children's daily life, which is that they are living with a batterer. The parenting of men who batterer exposes children to multiple potential sources of emotional and physical injury, most of which have not been recognized widely. This publication looks at the characteristics of men who batter and identifies ways in which these characteristics also influence their ability to parent appropriately. Additionally, it addresses the implications of such parenting for child protective and custody determinations.