She might be kept from going to the doctor for routine preventive check-ups. If we ended domestic violence, we would greatly decrease many other health problems. This reduces the chance that injuries and illnesses caused by the violence will continue and grow worse. It improves the care given to abused women and makes available precious medical resources now absorbed by domestic violence. Shaping The Future Safer families mean healthier children.
Children growing up in violent families are at a greater risk for being abused themselves.
Even if they are not abused, witnessing the violence often has many of the same damaging effects. Children of domestic violence may grow up permanently handicapped in their intellectual and emotional lives because of what they experience when their minds and feelings were developing. They may be less likely to keep up healthy relationships, less likely to succeed in their work, and more likely to experience domestic violence themselves, whether as abusers or victims. Allowing domestic violence to go on in our society means wounding children now and adding to problems of juvenile delinquency, poverty, and violence in the future. To Live Safer families mean healthier communities.