Some 500 Iowans who are involved in preventing child abuse and domestic violence are gathering this morning in Des Moines for a two-day conference designed to improve their skills. Among the speakers, Lundy Bancroft is considered a “batterer intervention specialist” and he tells the message he’d like to get across.He says people need to understand that when children grow up in a home where their father or step-father is abusing their mother, it has big implications as a very disturbing, upsetting, scary experience. Bancroft has written several books on the subject, including “Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of the Angry,” which he says explains the motivations of batterers.Bancroft says community members have to get behind the moms with the legal, emotional and financial support they need to protect their children from domestic violence.A well-publicized court case in northwest Iowa a few years ago focused on the death of a little girl who was abused over many months. The child’s mother claimed it was her live-in boyfriend who did the beatings but she ended up being put in prison, while the man was never convicted. The conference is called “Do All You Can To Protect Us” and is being presented by Prevent Child Abuse Iowa.
