Growing up in a violent home has a devastating effect on children. Are at higher risk for alcohol and drug abuse and juvenile delinquency than children from nonviolent homes. Juvenile delinquents are four times as likely as non-delinquents to be from homes where the father battered the mother. Often suffer emotional effects, including constant anxiety, fear of abandonment and guilt for not being able to stop the abuse or for loving the abuser. Without professional help, these problems continue into adulthood.
Children also learn how to be abusers from growing up in violent homes.
Boys who witness domestic violence are more likely to batter their female partners as adults than boys raised in non-violent homes. Therefore, domestic violence today is a precursor of future domestic violence. Following is a list of some of the characteristics common in abusive relationships. These professionals have much to contribute to increasing public understanding about domestic violence and can provide valuable guidance to policy makers. However, it should be noted that domestic violence is the genesis of many incidents of workplace violence, e.g., a worker is shot by a violent partner who also shoots other employees, or a batterer who has just lost custody of the children shoots the social worker who testified against him.