The Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation held a joint press conference yesterday to highlight the problem of children who are exposed to domestic violence, saying that it was a serious issue that does not receive enough attention from civic groups and the public.
These children are often neglected, as the law protects only victims of domestic violence, which in most cases are the mothers themselves, and victims of child abuse, which are children who are actually physically abused, the foundation said.
Children exposed to marital violence are marginalized and caught between the two laws because they do not suffer physically, yet what they have heard and witnessed can be damaging to their mental health, the foundation said.
According to Chiang Chi-hsuan (江季璇), director of the Taipei Social Worker's Association, violence becomes ingrained in a child's personality, and it is likely to cause them to become either aggressors or victims in the future.
"Since it [violence] becomes a part of their personality, it has nothing to do with their socio-economic status when they grow up. That's why we see news anchorwomen or city councilors -- people with respectable jobs -- being abused," Chiang said.
Chiang added that figures worldwide were shocking -- 30 to 50 percent of boys exposed to marital violence become aggressors and up to 60 percent of the girls become victims of violence when they grow up.
The foundation said that signs indicating that a child is possibly being exposed to violence include a lack of progress in school, low self-confidence and self-abasement.
The foundation is one of the few organizations in Taiwan devoted to helping children who are exposed to violence by educating and counseling both mothers and their children.
"The aggressors are usually unwilling to accept counseling," Chiang said. "That's why we need a legal injunction to make aggressors undergo counseling. Only in this way can they change the way they think and the way they behave."
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