Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- Chapter 1 An Introduction to Domestic Abuse and Human Rights
- Chapter 2 The Nature of Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 3 The ECHR, the Istanbul Convention and Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 4 Legal Responses to Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 5 Domestic Abuse and Children
- Chapter 6 The Abuse of Parents by Children
- Chapter 7 Elder Abuse
- Chapter 8 Concluding Thoughts
- Index
- About the Author
Chapter 5 - Domestic Abuse and Children
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- Chapter 1 An Introduction to Domestic Abuse and Human Rights
- Chapter 2 The Nature of Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 3 The ECHR, the Istanbul Convention and Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 4 Legal Responses to Domestic Abuse
- Chapter 5 Domestic Abuse and Children
- Chapter 6 The Abuse of Parents by Children
- Chapter 7 Elder Abuse
- Chapter 8 Concluding Thoughts
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
INTRODUCTION
It is natural that when people discuss domestic abuse, the victim is identified as the person (normally the woman) who is the most direct focus of the abusive behaviour. However, this means that children living in homes characterised by domestic abuse can remain excluded from analysis. At most, they are seen as ‘collateral’ or ‘secondary’ victims. Typically, discussions then go on to describe the coping mechanisms that children use, ofter presenting them as more resilient than they are. This is most obvious example of this sidelining of the impact of domestic abuse on children is the 2013 UK Home Office's definition of domestic abuse:
Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.
This explicitly excludes children as the victims of domestic abuse.
This chapter will argue that children who live with or witness domestic abuse should be regarded as the direct victims of domestic abuse. It will be one of the key arguments of this chapter that domestic abuse against the carer of a child or in a household where a child is present is per se a form of child abuse by the perpetrator. Domestic abuse aimed at a mother is abuse to the mother – child relationship, something that is central to the child's welfare. This way of understanding the impact on children is particularly important because it means that interventions in relation to children should not focus on ‘protecting the child from the abuse’, but rather on protecting the mother – child relationship.
The chapter will not discuss children who are directly subjected to violence; such cases are unproblematic examples of child abuse. Instead, it will focus on cases where the direct target of the abuse is one person (typically the mother) and it is the child who is witnesses or lives with it. Inevitably this is a blurred line. Indeed, as already indicated, the chapter will to a large extent reject the distinction between direct and indirect victimisation.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Domestic Abuse and Human Rights , pp. 159 - 194Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2020