NCJ Number
179397
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 66 Issue: 10 Dated: October 1999 Pages: 109-112
Date Published
October 1999
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article suggests ways to prevent children from being exposed to violence and to intervene when children have experienced such exposure.
Abstract
Children who are victims of or witnesses to violence suffer devastating consequences. The scars are not only physical, but also affect how children see, feel, and learn. Preventing children's exposure to violence is about reaching families early and helping new parents become capable and nurturing caretakers. Home visitation programs can bring nurses and other skilled professionals into homes and offer new families the assistance and skills they need. Prevention is also about teaching children conflict resolution skills, keeping guns out of criminal's and children's hands, bringing an end to domestic violence, and keeping violent images out of the home. When children become victims of or witnesses to violence, police, prosecutors, and courts must respond based on an understanding of children's developmental stages; they must also ensure that children traumatized by violent crime have access to mental health and other victim services. Other means of effective intervention are multidisciplinary intervention approaches that team mental health providers with police officers, child advocacy centers that draw on the skills of a multitude of professionals, child interview specialists in prosecutors' offices, court-school programs, and training initiatives that help police identify abuse-related injuries and understand the psychological impact of abuse. Finally, the criminal justice system must do a better job of holding perpetrators of violence against children accountable.