[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 130 (Tuesday, October 2, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10059-S10065]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself and Mrs. Murray):
  S. 1483. A bill to amend Family Violence Prevention and Services Act 
to reduce the impact of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking 
on the lives of youth and children and provide appropriate services for 
children and youth experiencing or exposed to domestic violence, sexual 
assault, or stalking; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I am introducing legislation today, 
with Senator Murray, that would address one of the most challenging and 
tragic crimes in our society. This bill is the Children Who Witness 
Domestic Violence Act. It is a comprehensive first step towards 
confronting the impact of domestic violence on children. This bill 
addresses the issue from multiple perspectives by providing funds for 
several key programs.
  The bill would support multi-system interventions for children who 
witness domestic violence by providing nonprofit agencies with funding 
to bring various service providers together to design and implement 
intervention programs for children who witness domestic violence. These 
working partnerships would take advantage of local resources such as 
counselors, courts, schools, health care providers and battered women's 
programs to best address the needs of children in violent homes.
  The bill would also create opportunities for domestic violence 
community agencies and elementary and secondary schools to work 
together to address the needs of children who witness and experience 
domestic violence. For example, domestic violence agencies could work 
with schools to provide domestic violence training to school officials 
and to students so they can make appropriate referrals and can 
understand how witnessing domestic violence impacts children's behavior 
and achievement. The groups could provide anger management and other 
educational programming to students so they can learn about and deal 
with the problem as they experience it.
  The bill would also provide training to child welfare, and where 
appropriate, to court and law enforcement personnel to assist them in 
recognizing and treating domestic violence as a serious problem 
threatening the safety and well being to both children and adults. 
Training would include teaching staff to recognize the overlap between 
child abuse and domestic violence and to better identify the presence 
of domestic violence in child welfare cases. Staff would also be taught 
how to increase the safety and well-being of child witnesses of 
domestic violence as well as the safety of the non-abusing parent so 
that children can stay with their non-abusing parent when it is safe to 
do so.
  The bill would provide funds to shelters so they can run programs to 
address the physical, emotional and logistical needs of children who 
stay there. The bill also would give funds to States to assist private 
and public agencies and organizations in expanding crisis nurseries--
temporary respite care for children who are at risk of abuse in their 
homes. Such nurseries have proven effective in preventing child abuse 
and in keeping families together in a safe way, when possible.
  Finally, the bill would fund comprehensive research to investigate 
the link between domestic violence and child abuse, the link between 
childhood exposure to domestic violence and violent behavior in youth 
and adults, and other key issues that can provide insight into 
appropriate remedies for this devastating problem.
  Mr. President, I introduce this legislation today, because, as I have 
said before, nowhere is violence more isolated from view, more 
difficult to combat and more far reaching in its impact than violence 
in the home. To turn a blind eye to the suffering of the victims of 
domestic violence and their children is to be, however unwittingly, 
complicitous in the crime because it is out of sight and behind closed 
doors that domestic violence thrives.
  This bill reflects the fact that the effects of domestic violence 
extend far beyond the moment when violence occurs. One of the most 
compelling marks that violence against women leaves is on our children. 
I am reminded of the voice of Quinese Robinson, a teenager from 
Minneapolis, who just last year, came home to find that her mother's 
husband had brutally murdered her mother. Quinese simply said, ``My Mom 
is the most important person in our life. When he killed her, he 
basically killed all four of us, because we do not have a mother.''
  This is one story among millions. It is estimated that as many as 10 
million children witness violence in the home each year, and much of 
this violence is repetitive. As many as 70 percent of children who 
witness domestic violence are also victims of child abuse. If we are 
serious about helping children and reducing youth violence, we cannot 
ignore the impact of domestic violence on children.
  Studies indicate that children who witness their fathers beating 
their mothers suffer emotional problems, including slowed development, 
sleep disturbances, and feelings of hopelessness, depression, and 
anxiety. Many of these children exhibit more aggressive, anti-social, 
and fearful behaviors. They also show lower social competence that 
other children.
  Children in homes where their mothers were abused have also shown 
less skill in understanding how others feel when compared to children 
from non-violent households. Even one episode of violence can produce 
post-traumatic stress disorder in children. Children who witness 
domestic violence are at higher risk of suicide.
  Jeffrey Edleson and others at the Minnesota Center Against Violence 
and

[[Page S10065]]

Abuse at the University of Minnesota collected multiple studies on the 
devastating results of this trauma. The examples are painful, but they 
deserve telling. One 4 year old girl named Julie witnessed her father 
stab her mother to death. In describing the event, Julie consistently 
placed her father at the scene of the crime and recounted her father's 
efforts to clean up after the crime. She could not describe her 
father's actions but when the district attorney saw Julie stabbing a 
pillow and crying ``Daddy pushed Mommy down,'' he was sure that the 
father had committed the crime.
  A child who was being treated at San Francisco General Hospital saw 
his father cut his mother's throat. For a period of time after the 
crime, the child could not speak.
  Not surprisingly, Edleson found that children growing up in violent 
families are more likely to engage in youth violence and that the 
social and economic risk factors for youth violence correspond to the 
risk factors for domestic violence and child abuse.
  The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. 
Dept. of Justice identifies family violence as a major risk factor in 
the lives of serious, violent and chronic juvenile offenders. It is 
estimated that as many as 40 percent of violent juvenile offenders come 
from homes where there is domestic violence.
  In addition to increasing violence, witnessing domestic violence 
directly hinders school achievement. Child witnesses have higher 
incidences of impaired concentration, poor school attendance, being 
labeled an underachiever, and difficulties in cognitive and academic 
functioning.
  As this overwhelming research indicates, domestic violence and 
violence against women permeate our entire society. People who try to 
keep family violence quiet and hidden behind the walls of the home 
ignore its tragic echoes in the hearts and minds of our children, in 
our schools, on the streets and in our human relationships.
  In the face of this devastating situation, I call on my colleagues to 
say to these child witnesses around the country, that they will not 
suffer in silence, for that is what their abusers want them to do. 
Their cries will not be muffled behind closed doors and by the fear 
inflicted by abusive parents. We need to provide these children with a 
way out of violence and a way to deal with the pain of violence.
  This bill represents a modest step to address this devastating 
problem. I urge my colleagues, in the names of all of these children, 
to support this critical legislation.
                                 ______