British children 'need protecting' from domestic violence
Children who witness domestic violence suffer longlasting effects
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Tuesday, 15, Aug 2006 10:10
Almost a million British children need protecting from the effects of witnessing domestic violence, the United Nations has warned.
A new report from the UN, Body Shop International and Unicef suggests that the lives of around 275 million children worldwide are being blighted by domestic violence.
The report looked at the impact on the children who witness violence - physical, sexual and emotional - between parents, partners, or carers in their household.
The director of the secretariat of the UN secretary general's Study on Violence Against Children, Dr Amaya Gillespie, believes the impact could be "really quite severe", creating not only fear and anxiety, but also longlasting effects.
"We know with very young children especially it can actually have physical changes on the brain development which have now been observed and are inarguable," she told the Today programme.
"It can also have effects later on, on academic achievement, in terms of children not being able to concentrate; also on their social skills, that some kids do not seem to be able to handle social situations, which all of course adds to their problems.
"And emotionally some of those things that stay with children can last a lifetime. They can actually lead them into a cycle of violence, both in terms of being revictimised and by falling into relationships that are violent.
"But also it can lead to those children using violence, because they learn these early and powerful lessons about how violence can work and maybe don't learn so much about other ways to handle life."
And, according to Dr Gillespie, younger children are at higher risk because they spend more time with their parents, particularly mothers, who are usually the victims of domestic violence.
But she stressed that it was "not inevitable" the effects of living with domestic violence had to stay with children for the rest of their lives.
"There are many things that we can do that can protect children and that can help them overcome these problems," she said.
"What we're particularly calling for here is to certainly improve the amount of information that we have, that it should be routinely collected so that we can look at proper trends rather than just a moment in time.
"And also we want more action, we want more support for children."
Those sentiments were echoed by children's charity NSPCC, which says it is calling on the government "to provide counselling and listening services for vulnerable children in all schools" and for senior managers responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be deployed at every British school.
"Children and young people need to know they can turn to someone to speak out," NSPCC policy advisor Emily Arkell said.
Commenting on today's report, Home Office minister Baroness Scotland said: "Every child has the right to live without the fear of violence and the negative effects witnessing domestic violence in the home can have.
"These findings demonstrate the need for us all to take responsibility for bringing about change and for keeping our friends and communities safe from a crime which devastates families and ruins lives."