When home isn't safe: Children and domestic violence

Abstract

The following excerpt is from a forthcoming book about the impact of witnessing violence on young children. The author is the founding director of the Child Witness to Violence Project at Boston Medical Center. This program was founded in 1992 and provides mental health services to young children and their families who have been bystanders to traumatic violence. The book, Children Who See Too Much: Lessons Learned from the Child Witness to Violence Project will be published by Beacon Press in winter 2002. This excerpt focuses on the particular risks of exposure to domestic violence for young children.