News

Major rise in referrals of children affected by domestic abuse

The number of children affected by domestic violence has increased significantly, a child protection charity has said.

Buttle UK, which provides support to children in crisis, has published figures showing it received 9,909 referrals about children affected by domestic abuse during 2016.

The figure represents an increase in referrals of just under a third (33.1 per cent) - on the previous year, when the charity supported 7,446 children affected by domestic abuse.

In 2016, 3,384 of children referred were aged four or under (34.2 per cent) -  in 2015 the figure was 2,501 (33.6 per cent).

The majority of cases involved children witnessing physical, mental and sexual abuse in the home on an ongoing basis. The charity said children often displayed withdrawn or challenging behaviour.

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