Violence against women is consistent across all racial and ethnic groups (Bachman & Saltzman, 1995).
One-third of homicides of women were committed by a current or former intimate partner whereas only four percent of homicides of men were committed by intimate partners. (Fox & Zawitz, 2000). The percent of female homicide victims of an intimate partner has remained almost the same over two decades. The percent of male homicide victims of intimate partners has decreased dramatically over the same period (Rennison & Welchans, 2000).
Most families involved in child fatalities were two-person caretaker situations where a majority of the perpetrators were the father of the child or the boyfriend of the mother (Percora et al., 1992).
Adult domestic violence was found in 41 percent of the families experiencing critical injuries or deaths of children due to child abuse and neglect (Oregon Children's Services Division, 1993).
Women and children in the same families are often both maltreated. Studies over the past 25 years show a median co-occurrence of woman abuse and child maltreatment of 41 percent (Appel & Holden, 1998) and the majority of studies reveal an overlap of 30 percent to 60 percent depending on the families studied (Edleson, 1999a).
Many children exposed to adult domestic violence also exhibit behavioral, emotional and cognitive problems (Edleson, 1999b). The impact of exposure varies by the level of violence in a home, the degree of a child’s exposure and the presence of other risk and protective factors (Edleson, 2001).
Exposure to violence in the home has been found to be one of the most significant predictors of an adolescent’s later use of violence in the community (Singer et al., 1998).
Half of the husbands who batter their wives three or more times during a year were also reported to have physically abused their children. Battered mothers were twice as likely to maltreat their children as were mothers who were not being battered (Straus & Gelles, 1990).
A major reason reported by battered mothers for both staying with and leaving an abusive partner is for the safety and welfare of their children (Hilton, 1992; Humphreys, 1995; Sullivan et al., 2000).
