Family war zones: Research shows increasing physical and psychological impacts on kids

A sobering pattern indeed, say child advocates, especially considering the following:

• Domestic violence is one the fastest-growing violent crimes in Utah. Over the past few years, the frequency and intensity of abuse has increased, according to the 2006 Utah Domestic Violence Report. Victims are enduring more severe beatings and life-threatening situations than in years past. Attacks have become more aggressive and brutal.

• Utah considers domestic violence in the presence of a child — whether the child sees the attack or is in the room when it occurs — child abuse. It is the most prevalent form of child abuse in the state.

• Domestic violence is a factor in one-third of the cases where child abuse or neglect is proven, according to a 2006 report on the state of Utah's domestic violence. This translated to 1,450 cases for DCFS that year, but each case might represent more than one child.

• DCFS also is finding that more and more domestic violence-related child-abuse allegations are valid. The percentage of "supported" cases rose from 47 percent in 2000 to 54.4 percent in 2005. That means the number of children in need of counseling and foster care is on the rise.

• Utah's domestic violence crisis and information line received 2,500 calls in 2005, about the same as it has received the past couple of years. But there was a 61 percent increase in calls requiring law enforcement or emergency services. Requests for housing, food, clothing and medical care nearly doubled. Calls for legal help, principally assistance in obtaining protective orders, rose 24 percent, the report shows.

• According to 2005 data, 5,891 Utahns made their way to local domestic violence shelters that year — 3,173 were children, 2,686 were women and 32 were men. There was no room for thousands of others who were turned away.

The shelters were unable to serve 2,114 requests for help in 2006 due to full houses. The majority of those, 1,820, were at the South Valley Sanctuary and YWCA in Salt Lake County.

"Some of these kids almost don't have a chance," says Kristin Brewer, 3rd District Court guardian ad litem.

"One of the big things is people just need to pull their heads out of the sand and realize this is going on," she says.

Salt Lake police officer Jennifer Choate sighed as she left the Davis house.

"It's just sad when it comes to these kids," she said. "This is the way many of them enter the system, as witnesses or as child victims in cases just like this."

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