Thousands of Australian children are victims or witnesses of domestic violence every year but a lack of documentation and support could create a vicious cycle of abuse.
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It comes as academics on August 28 analysed Australia's high rates of intimate partner violence.
Melbourne University child psychologist Katitza Marinkovic Chavez said there was a lack of data on children witnessing the murder of a parent.
"In Australia we still lack a system for keeping track of how many children are losing one or both parents to intimate partner homicide," Dr Chavez said.
"Our current estimates show we would be expecting between 30 and 40 children so far this year.
"In the past 20 years we're talking about more than 1,000 children but we don't have official statistics."
Dr Chavez said the lack of data left the government and support services in the dark and meant traumatised children didn't get the support they needed.
Sydney University adolescent psychologist Siobhan O'Dean said early intervention to treat traumatised children was crucial to preventing a cycle of violence.
"By and large, the strongest predictors of family, domestic and sexual intimate partner violence are past experiences of being a victim, or a perpetrator, or a witness of such violence," Dr O'Dean said.
"So that means children or adolescents witnessing that kind of violence and going on to perpetrate in the future.
"It really highlights the need to effectively break cycles of victimisation and perpetration."
New data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) revealed more than 500 Australian children also end up in hospital each year because of family and domestic violence.
More than one third had their first hospital stay before the age of five.
Separate research from the AIHW revealed 54 per cent of parents said they used corporal punishment on their children, and more than a quarter believed corporal punishment was "necessary to raise children".
Dr O'Dean said the failure to document and address cycles of trauma and violence was part of a broader failure to fix Australia's domestic violence problem.
"There's been quite a bit of investment in treatment, but the rates of violence are stable," she said.
"Intimate partner violence is most commonly treated through psychotherapeutic interventions like cognitive behaviour therapy and batterer intervention programs.
"A few meta analyses have shown that... by and large [these treatments are] no more effective than arrest and sanction alone."
Dr O'Dean said focusing purely on attitude change and gender equality wouldn't fix the problem and that Nordic countries with the highest levels of gender equality also had some of the highest levels of intimate partner violence in the world.
"It's about addressing multiple risk factors beyond attitudes alone," she said.
"We need to look at how to prevent violence occurring in the first place... reactionary measures come far too late."
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Men's Referral Service 1300 776 491; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732; National Elder Abuse 1800 ELDERHelp (1800 353 374)
Ben Silvester
Got a tip? Email: ben.silvester@austcommunitymedia.com.au
