Children’s Direct Sensory Exposure to Substantiated Domestic Violence Crimes

Abstract

Police officers served as public health sentinels to collect data on children exposed to domestic violence events (DVEs) across an entire municipality for 1 year. These officers used a standard, validated protocol to collect data on all investigate DVEs. This study extended previous research by including data demographic data on children in the household at the time of the DVE and investigating children’s direct sensory exposure to DVEs. Findings revealed that almost half of all events had children present, and 81% of these children were directly exposed to DVEs. Children under the age of 6 years old were at greater risk of direct sensory exposure. Domestic violence households with children were more likely to be low-income, non-White, and headed by a single female compared to households at large. Logistic regressions revealed that six major DVE variables were related to children being directly exposed. These included father as perpetrator, victim injury, weapon use, non-White victim, mutual assault, and arrest of perpetrator.