Male children who witness adult-to-adult domestic violence are, as adults, 700 times more likely to beat their female partners. Male children who also are physically abused are, as adults, 1,000 times more likely to beat their female partners.

Murray A .Straus, Richard J. Gelles, and Suzanne K. Steinmetz. Behind closed Doors: Violence in the American Family (New York: Anchor Press. 1981).

Of children who witness wife battering, 40 percent suffer anxiety, 48 percent suffer depression, 53 percent act out with parents, and 60 percent act out with siblings.

"Forgotten Victims of Family Violence," Social Work, July,1982.

Current estimates of family violence in the United States suggest that three to five children in every classroom may witness violence in their homes.

"Fact Sheet," Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Internet site at www.ccadv.org,1998.

"While violent crime in this country seems to have reached a "plateau", one of the highest increases in violent crime is occurring in teen dating relationships."

Recent quote from a Family Court Judge.

One in three teens experience some form of relationship violence before they graduate from high school or college.

(San Diego Union-Tribune Publishing Co., May 2, 1998).

According to the San Diego County YWCA's Domestic Violence Institute, which surveyed more than 1,000 local students, "Teens didn't know that their boyfriends hitting them was wrong."

(San Diego Union-Tribune Publishing Co., May 2, 1998).