"Father used violence against us too", how cases of domestic violence affect children

220 children from 0 to 18 years old were victims of domestic violence in 2024 alone. Dukagjini had access to a case file where the children had experienced violence from their father, and were often threatened that he would kill their mother. However, the consequences that these children may have from such events are considered great and worrying.

"I'm going to kill your mother..." this is the threat that some children received from their father for something he didn't like.

In addition to this threat, these children, aged 8 to 18, were often themselves victims and even more often witnesses of the violence that their father exercised against their mother.

The outcome was fatal for other family members, as their father is suspected of aggravated murder.

Dukagjini has managed to secure the file of one of the murders that occurred this year, but has decided not to identify it because some of the witnesses are still minors.

In all their statements, it is shown that family relations were not good, and that whenever their father got angry, he would vent his anger on them and their mother.

"In our family, since childhood, we have always had problems between our parents because my father was more violent and whenever he got angry he exercised physical and psychological violence against my mother. He also did not spare us children often. These problems have always been part of our lives."

But it wasn't just the father, as other family members had also been violent with them, even pointing a gun at some of the children.

"We were entering... the neighborhood... we say, when a car came out in front of us from which my uncle got out... who had a gun in his hand. He opened the back door and my sister was sitting... he asked us to get out of the car and go home with him, since we didn't get out he pointed the gun at her... telling her to get out or I'll kill you... I also want to add that my father was violent, he constantly treated us badly and exercised physical and psychological violence."

The consequences that these events leave on them are serious, and according to sociologist Jeton Brajshori, they should be treated seriously by institutions.

"Normally, the impact is very great on children, especially minor children and those who have entered adolescence, due to their biological development and due to their personal development, if we constantly see violence in the family, whether physical or psychological violence, then this will affect the children's personality and if it is not treated, then normally they will either turn into introverted types or into types who will use what they see at home...", stated Jeton Brajshori - Sociologist.

While Fjolla Hoxha, from the organization "Terre des hommes", says that Kosovo's legislation must be implemented in practice by the responsible institutions.

"The fact that we have a law on the prevention of domestic violence and protection from domestic violence or a specific strategy for this issue does not reduce the number of cases of domestic violence that we have, and unfortunately the greatest negative impact is observed on children, in various aspects..", emphasized Fjolla Hoxha - "Terre des hommes".

The television has requested data from the Kosovo Police on the number of reported cases where victims of domestic violence are aged between 0 and 18, but they have not provided such data for this year, but only for last year.

"During 2024, 2959 cases were identified. In these cases, 2368 victims were female and 617 were male (the number of victims is greater than the number of cases since in one case there may have been more than one victim). Regarding the age of the victims, the age group 0-18 years old is 220 victims, 18-20 years old = 127 victims, 20-30 years old = 782 victims, 30-40 years old = 741 victims, 40-50 years old = 527 victims, 50-60 years old = 330 victims, 60-70 years old = 181 victims, 70-80 years old = 60 victims and over 80 years old = 17 victims. The most frequent cases in terms of family relationships are cases between husband and wife with 1169 cases, followed by "327 cases of those involved in the reports have cohabitation and in 283 cases ex-spouses were involved," the Police said.

And during the period January-October of this year alone, there were a total of 2,409 cases of domestic violence reported, of which 1,984 victims were female.