Exposure to Violence Leaves Lasting Scars on Kids

We need to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to preventing violence against our children and ensuring effective, coordinated interventions to help those children exposed to violence.

It is often said that it takes a village to raise a child. Equally important, it takes a community to protect our children. Too many of our children are regularly exposed to violence in their homes, schools and neighborhoods. Substantial numbers of our youngest citizens have been abused, neglected or assaulted, while others - as horrifically recounted recently in descriptions of the Lester Street murders - have been killed. Moreover, countless numbers witness domestic or neighborhood violence every day.

Research shows that stress and trauma - such as witnessing or being victims of violence - can impair children's brain development. Some studies have found that adults who experienced significant early life stress have differences in brain structure compared to people who experienced low levels of early stress. Early stressful experiences, including exposure to violence, can influence the ability of an infant brain's stress response system to turn on or off appropriately. The three children who survived the Lester Street killings were 4 months old, 5 years old, and 9 years old. Research suggests that the youngest child is just as likely to be affected as the 9-year-old. 

The effects of direct domestic violence on children have been the subject of extensive research. Recently, however, increased attention has been directed at the effects of witnessing or hearing violence. An evolving body of research is now revealing the negative outcomes from these indirect forms of victimization.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently released the results of the most comprehensive national survey conducted to date which examines children's exposure to violence. The findings should shock and galvanize all of us to action. More than 60 percent of the surveyed children reported being exposed to violence, either directly or indirectly, during the past year. Almost half had at least once been the victim of an assault, with 10 percent of these children suffering injuries from the assault. In addition, nearly 25 percent of surveyed children were victims of robbery, vandalism or theft. Just over 10 percent were victims of maltreatment (such as physical and emotional abuse or neglect), and over 6 percent were sexually victimized. 

Substantial numbers of children also reported indirect exposure to violence. Over 25 percent reported witnessing a violent act, including almost 10 percent who had seen one family member attack another and nearly 40 percent who had witnessed two or more episodes during the year. 

Behind these numbers are real children, often physically and emotionally injured, in pain and suffering. While many children demonstrate amazing resilience in these situations, all too many undergo what researchers describe as 'lasting physical, mental, and emotional harm ... difficulties with attachment, regressive behavior, anxiety, and depression.' Many of these children will exhibit higher rates of delinquency, aggression and violent behavior. They are also at risk for revictimization, and are more likely to have contact with both child welfare and juvenile justice systems. 

In addition, research has documented future effects on physical, mental and emotional health, including alcoholism, depression, severe obesity and other chronic adult diseases. 

Many of these negative outcomes are rooted in the impaired neurocognitive development that has been documented in children exposed to violence. One recent study demonstrated that a child growing up in a high-violence neighborhood loses the equivalent of an entire year of reading development: Simply put, he has lost a year of school. 

Shelby County was recently awarded a federal planning grant to address the exposure of our children to violence. This is an important milestone for our community: It gives policymakers, parents, educators, law enforcement and child advocates an opportunity to make specific changes to improve our children's lives.

We need to develop a comprehensive and coordinated approach to preventing violence against our children and ensuring effective, coordinated interventions to help those children exposed to violence. In the past, these efforts have been fragmented and fleeting, and have not utilized evidence-based practice.

We can either embrace this opportunity by making our children's health a central feature of future policy, or resign ourselves to a perpetual cycle of violence which endangers children's development. Whether we are concerned about crime, education, work force development or economic growth, the time for us to act is now. Our failure to improve the lives of our children will have the gravest consequences for them and for our future as a community.

Richard Janikowski is an associate professor of criminology at the University of Memphis.

This is one in a series of monthly guest columns on the importance of public/private investment in early childhood. For more information, call The Urban Child Institute at 385-4233 or visit theurbanchildinstitute.org.

Originally appeared in The Commercial Appeal at http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/oct/10/guest-column-exposure-to-violence-leaves-lasting/