NEARLY one third of all children at risk suffer some form of domestic violence, according to a comprehensive survey carried out in Ireland.
During a three month period this year the survey, undertaken in the mid west, found 27 per cent of 287 cases of children at risk had suffered some form of violence in the home.
The survey indicated that almost three quarters of that 27 per cent also included suspected physical violence or actual evidence of physical violence perpetrated on the mothers.
Dr Harry Ferguson, senior lecturer in the Department of Applied Social Studies at UCC was addressing a 200 delegate conference on Child Care and Family Support Services, organised by the Mid Western Health Board in Dromoland, Co Clare, to mark International Day Against Violence Against Women.
Regarded as the leading authority on child abuse and domestic violence in the State, Dr Ferguson described as "appalling" some cases of domestic violence. Some women were battered by their partners while they had children in their arms. One woman holding a 14 month old baby had her head battered against the wall. Another woman holding a one month old baby was also battered.
He added that some women suffered horrendous injuries, including broken jaws and broken noses, with women literally covered in bruises.
Dr Ferguson said women often reported that the most harrowing violence was verbal and psychological. This broke down their self esteem. The survey also showed violence by men through control of money and that women suffered from depression and mental ill health caused by men's violence. The survey found only a small proportion of domestic violence, 6 per cent, was perpetrated by female partners on men.
Dr Ferguson said domestic violence was not a problem confined to working class areas. It was a significant problem in the overall work of community care, and there were strong connections between child abuse and domestic violence which up to now had been under recognised in policy and practice and under theorised.
A key question for health boards were how far their new powers could be used under the Domestic Violence Act 1996, which comes into force on January 1st, to advance the protection of abused women and children.
Health boards and the Department needed to become more accountable under the Act. They should produce standardised data on domestic violence cases and develop domestic violence guidelines on the model of child abuse guidelines, he said.
Ms Monica O'Connor, research, training and development officer with Women's Aid and the Eastern Health Board, said 16 women were killed in the Republic this year, the highest figure ever. In many cases the alleged perpetrators were husbands, ex husbands, boyfriends, ex boyfriends or sons.
The Act meant agencies working with women would have to assess how dangerous men were and how at risk women were and if they were prepared to put in the kind of protected mechanisms in women's lives that would ensure their safety. She added that international research showed women were most at risk immediately after they decided to leave the abusive or violent man.
The main cause of violence against women was inequality between men and women - how men wanted to control women's lives, how they perceived women as objects and how they perceived women in terms of being less than they were.
"Pornography and violent videos validate men's belief that violence against women is acceptable and that their actions are justifiable. We do not see it as a root cause of violence against women.
"We do see that pornography and sexual objectification of women and violent videos would certainly be something one was seeing in refuges and rape crisis centres increasingly being used by violent men in marriage and in the family and in rape situations," she said.
Mr John Edwards, barrister and State prosecutor for Kerry, believed judges and lawyers practising in the family law area needed to be educated about domestic violence.
Such a campaign should bed spearheaded by a credible and respected mouthpiece and supported by those agencies providing frontline services to victims of domestic violence.