ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the subject of the abuse of children, characterized by extreme, escalating physical aggression between parents or by one of the parents, and of children who are witnessing the parental violence. It describes the knowledge regarding the influence that violence and threats between parents/guardians has on the development of children, the dynamics of violent emotions and behaviour in interaction, and the different survival strategies that children employ therein. Almost all children who live with their mothers in a shelter for abused women can speak in detail about the violence they have witnessed. Being witness to violence is often as traumatic as undergoing violence itself. Children who have been confronted with life-threatening situations show, in general, the same survival strategies as adults: denial, repression, dissociation, and identification with the aggressor. Children between the age of nine and thirteen can no longer avoid the fact that something is definitely amiss at home.
