DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AS A FORM OF CHILD ABUSE
Child abuse and domestic violence are not new social problems, nor are they haphazard or deviant activities.
Both are considered an accepted part of our culture.
However, while domestic violence is now politically recognised as one of the most entrenched and pervasive forms of violence in our society today, child abuse issues have yet to receive the same degree of attention. This is despite the fact that every year in Australia, thousands of children, as well as women, suffer physically, psychologically and sexually as a result of acts of violence against them in the home.
Not surprisingly, these issues have essentially been regarded as a private matter. This, together with the fact that the family has traditionally been regarded as a source of love and support, has led to an element of denial at both a community level and an individual level.
However, the family, as the most important institution within our society, is extremely complex. It is both an agency of social control and an agency of social support, and that its internal dynamics can have both positive and negative effects on relationships.
One negative aspect of family life is the effect of domestic violence on children, either as witnesses to, or victims of, the conflict.
The increasing recognition of this specific aspect of domestic violence owes much to the work of the women's refuge movement. It was through the reports of refuge workers that people first became aware that children could be severely traumatised by witnessing domestic violence and, indeed, that the children may also be victims of this violence. Concern has also been expressed by health and welfare professionals, who have felt the frustration of not being able to intervene legally to protect child witnesses from extreme incidents of domestic violence, unless there was also evidence of child abuse.
In Australia, there has been an historical separation of domestic violence and child protection issues.
Domestic violence was brought out into the open by the women's movement in the late 1970s, and has commonly been applied to various forms of violent and abusive behaviour which occur in a marriage or de facto relationship. At an institutional level, domestic violence has been regarded as a matter for the police, courts, women's refuges and other women's support services.
In contrast, child abuse refers to the physical, sexual or psychological damage caused to the child by the abusive behaviour of others, or the failure of others to protect a child from such damage and has been more of a health and welfare issue. Child protection has therefore involved an additional group of people as well as additional legislation