BCIFV home > Media Releases > October 22, 2001

For Immediate Release: October 22, 2001
Contact: Penny Bain at 604-669-7055 or 1 877 755-7055 or
pbain@bcifv.org or www.bcifv.org

Media Release:

Problems with Proposed Amendments to Divorce Act,

Part II:

The Impact of Family Violence on Children

"The existing Divorce Act is flawed," says Penny Bain, Executive Director of the BC Institute Against Family Violence. "One of its flaws is that it doesn't recognize fundamental differences between the 75 percent of divorcing families in which violence has not been a factor, and the 25 percent of families in which it has. Amending the legislation in such a way as to continue ignoring those differences would fail to serve one-quarter of divorcing families."

"Fundamental to understanding this issue is understanding the impact of relationship violence on children," says Bain.

According the 1999 General Social Survey on Victimization by Statistics Canada 8 percent of women and 7 percent of men have experienced relationship violence in the last five years. In large national studies in Canada and the US 25 to 30 percent of women report experiencing relationship violence during their lifetime.

Studies by Canadian expert Peter Jaffe and others show that up to 80 percent of children in domestically violent homes are present during incidents of spousal assault. But even when they're not present, they're usually aware of it as evidenced by the fact that they can provide detailed information about it. It's safe to say the effects of violence reverberate on all family members, whether the violence is seen, heard, or directly experienced (direct child abuse co-occurs with parental violence up to 70 percent of the time).

This exposure has lasting effects, which vary in nature and severity with the child's age, the closeness of the relationship with the abuser, and other factors. But in general, children exposed to violence are at risk for behavioural and learning problems, depression, substance abuse, and criminal behaviour. Anxiety and stress can reach clinical levels in these children: up to 60 percent of children in shelters for battered women suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As adults, children exposed to domestic violence are at increased risk for entering into violent intimate relationships of their own.

A common misperception is that when women leave the violence ends, says Bain. "But studies show the opposite: the violence in many cases escalates after women leave." In some of these cases, men who have been verbally but not physically abusive first assault their partners after they've left - and in extreme cases, kill them. According to a 1994 study by BCIFV consultant Mary Cooper, up to six times as many women are killed by their husbands after separation as while co-residing.

This danger extends to the children: one-third of filicides occur following parental separation. Some of these include the mother, but three-quarters include only the children. The danger can be so real and present, says Vancouver lawyer Patricia Bond, that women and children can be forced to change identities - even cutting ties with children from previous relationships - to protect themselves and their younger children.

The legal system provides opportunities for abusers to continue verbally and emotionally abusing their ex-wives during mediation, in civil court, in criminal court, during unsupervised visitation, and during inappropriately supervised visitation. A 1995 study in Nova Scotia revealed 24 percent of women experienced abuse during court-ordered access.

This, too, has a powerfully detrimental impact on children. Studies show that children exposed to post-separation conflict suffer more frequent and severe adverse effects than children whose parents completely disengage from each other. In some cases, no contact with the abuser is the best of all options.

"The existing Divorce Act fails to take these realities into account," says Bain. "Understanding how to fix it requires understanding how it currently affects children in the 25 percent of divorcing families that are marked by violence."

This is the second in a series of nine press releases. Next week: What Happens When Women Try to Leave: how existing legislation perpetuates and exacerbates family violence.

For more information, call Penny Bain at 604-669-7055 or 1 877 755-7055, email pbain@bcifv.org, or visit www.bcifv.org.

Click here to go to the next media release in this series on Family Violence and Custody & Access - October 30, 2001