Paper completed towards Masters Degree (applied) in Social Work, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington.

This paper is based on research resulting from the collation of twelve months of police domestic violence call-out data (ending July 1997) for incidents in the Rotorua Police Precinct where children were present. The goal of the study was to find out how many children were being affected by police attended domestic violence, and to profile this group from the data collected by the police at the time of incident. From a sample of 398 children the author found that over half were less than four years of age and one third were known to Rotorua Children, Young Persons and their Families Service. The complainants and perpetrators of the violence were mainly Maori from low socio-economic circumstances. Alcohol was, contrary to the author's hypothesis, present in less than half of these incidents. In 45% of cases physical harm to a complainant occurred. These domestic violence incidents were also geographically analysed. A literature search by the author supported the understanding that children (including infants) are at risk of physical and psychological harm when present during family violence incidents. However, support was not generally sought for children present at the incidents studied. The author concludes by suggesting that intervention is required at several levels: economic, iwi involvement, prevention and early intervention, and the establishment of clear agency protocols so that children can be attended to as victims in their own right.--AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT

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