Domestic Violence, Developing Brains, and the Lifespan: New Knowledge from Neuroscience

This article, written by Lynn Hecht Schafran and published in the Summer 2014 issue of The Judges Journal, discusses current science on the impact that witnessing domestic violence has on children's developing brains.

We are at a watershed knowledge-development point with respect to understanding the impact of domestic violence on children. This has been a subject of judicial concern and commentary for decades. Now, with the advent of magnetic resonance imaging, neuroscientists have produced scores of studies documenting on a neuronal level the profoundly negative impact of exposure to domestic violence on children, and how children can recover when exposure to the violence is eliminated and they are secure in the care of their non-abusing, primary caregiver parent.

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