Part 1: Definition of "domestic abuse" Section 3: Children as victims of domestic abuse
This section recognises that domestic abuse can impact on a child who sees or hears, or experiences the effects of the abuse and it treats such children as victims of domestic abuse in their own right where they are related to either the abuser or the abused. Subsection (3) defines the term "related" for these purposes. An explanation of the definition of "relative" (as used in subsection (3)(b)) is set out above as the term is also used in the definition of "personally connected" (Section 2). As a matter of law, the Section only treats children as victims of domestic abuse for the purposes of the free-standing provisions in the Act. The section does not apply in relation to amendments made by the Act to other enactments, or to references elsewhere in legislation to victims of domestic abuse. That said, as with the definition in section 1, this section is expected to be applied more generally, for example by public authorities and front-line practitioners.