---
kind: "section"
citation: "34 U.S.C. § 12461"
title: "34"
title_heading: "Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
number: "12461"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/34/12461"
units:
  - "Subtitle I — Comprehensive Acts"
  - "Chapter 121 — Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement"
  - "Subchapter III — Violence Against Women"
  - "Part K — Strengthening America’s Families by Preventing Violence Against Women and Children"
---

# §12461. Findings


Congress finds that—

- (1) the former United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse suggests that [domestic violence](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-12) may be the single major precursor to [child abuse and neglect](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-3) fatalities in this country;
- (2) studies suggest that as many as 10,000,000 children witness [domestic violence](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-12) every year;
- (3) studies suggest that among children and teenagers, recent exposure to violence in the home was a significant factor in predicting a child’s violent behavior;
- (4) a study by the Nurse-Family Partnership found that children whose parents did not participate in home visitation programs that provided coaching in parenting skills, advice and support, were almost 5 times more likely to be abused in their first 2 years of life;
- (5) a child’s exposure to [domestic violence](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-12) seems to pose the greatest independent risk for being the victim of any act of partner violence as an adult;
- (6) children exposed to [domestic violence](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-12) are more likely to believe that using violence is an effective means of getting one’s needs met and managing conflict in close relationships;
- (7) children exposed to abusive parenting, harsh or erratic discipline, or [domestic violence](/usc/34/12291.md?p=a-12) are at increased risk for juvenile crime; and
- (8) in a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 103–322, title IV, § 41301, as added Pub. L. 109–162, title IV, § 401, Jan. 5, 2006, 119 Stat. 3017.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 14043d of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare, prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.