•August 12, 2015•

Provided by
Prevent Child Abuse Illinois

Tommy isn’t doing well in daycare. He can’t sit still. He keeps running to the door and looking out the window. And yesterday he kept picking fights with the other kids. He’s normally such a good boy. What’s changed? Well for one thing, over the weekend, the police were called to Tommy’s house twice for “domestic disturbance.”

Domestic violence, also called intimate partner violence, is a pattern of abusive behavior that is used by one person to gain power and control over another person. The target of the abuse is usually the abuser’s wife or girlfriend but men may also be victims. In Tommy’s case, his dad spent all weekend yelling and screaming at Tommy and his mom. On Saturday night, the yelling was so load the neighbor’s called the police. Sunday night, Tommy’s dad was hitting and kicking his wife, and the police were called again. It wasn’t the first time this had happened.      Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.