DOMESTIC violence can have a devastating impact on children and young people. With the introduction of new legislation earlier this year, the increasing focus on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and early intervention making an appearance on the latest agendas for both Police Scotland and the Scottish Government, many professionals hope the impacts of such abuse will be lessened.

This month in Polmont Young offenders’ institution, around half of all the young people incarcerated there had witnessed physical violence in the home, with 58% admitting they had been beaten or injured themselves. The Centre for Youth and Criminal Justice (CYCJ) based at Strathclyde University reported that 76% of the young people who come through their Interventions for Vulnerable Youth (IVY) programme have witnessed some form of domestic violence.

Clinical and forensic psychiatrist Dr Lorraine Johnstone, project lead at IVY, previously said she was seeing “a bigger effect of domestic violence than of any other form of maltreatment, even psychical abuse of children”

She added: “We are trying to make sense of why that [domestic violence] is particularly toxic. I would not want to minimise other abuse experiences, but there seems to be something particularly difficult about watching someone you love being harmed by someone else you love. It seems to be extremely potent for young people."

Heather Russell, CEO of South Lanarkshire Women’s Aid, explained that projects such as CEDAR are vital for children’s recovery process.

Her organisation runs the scheme for south Lanarkshire, and currently has an eight-week waiting list for young people needing help.

Ms Russell said: “We know often children try to protect mum. The dynamics that creates within the parent-child relationship can be really loaded and it can skew a healthy relationship.

“We also know as well that the abusive parent is brilliant at using tactics of coercive control and child contact, which is why the new domestic abuse act is fantastic as it accounts for children as victims in their own right.

“CEDAR helps to take away power from the perpetrator. Whether we like it or not, the status quo is that the father should be involved in his child’s life regardless of whether he is recognised as being an abusive parent. It’s a nonsense to think that abuse isn’t going to continue and used throughout that child’s life, so CEDAR gives mum and the child the tools to recognise it and work round it.”