.Domestic violence can be related to child abuse in many ways. Forty five to seventy percent of women in battered women shelters say that their abusers have also abused children at some point. It has also been found that the chance of a mother committing child abuse doubles when she herself has been abused. This seems hard to rationalize to someone standing on the outside. One would think that a mother would be pre-disposed not to inflict harm on her child if she herself is a victim. That instead she would be more protective. But in some cases the mother devotes all of her attention to caring for her abuser in order to prevent future attacks. When this happens she is prone to neglect her child and possibly begin to abuse the child herself. She may take out her aggression and frustration on the child, as this may be her only outlet. She may also punish her child severely in order to hide the child's behavior from the abusive figure. Sometimes children can get caught up in the violence, which occurs in the home. If a child tries to stop a conflict their parent might hurt him or her. In other cases the child may simply be hit by accident as the fight occurs. Violence and other forms of abuse in the home always affect the children who experience it even if they don't get directly involved.We are driven to believe that when child abuse is reported, it is quickly alleviated within our judicial system. This is not always the case. When a dysfunctional family goes through an intervention there is usually a high probability of violence. When mothers try to leave with their children an abusive spouse may attempt to harm or kill them. For this reason many mothers stay in relationships where they or their children are being abused. When these cases go to court, the abuser is usually able to convince the court that the mother does not deserve sole custody of the child. In the most extreme cases, the children are given under the cust...
