NCJ Number
185576
Date Published
1998
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This analysis of the impact of violence and related risk factors on child and youth development reviews efforts of school, mental health services, and police to improve neighborhood safety and promote prosocial behavior and concludes that collaboration and an integrated approach can best aid prevention and early intervention.
Abstract
Violence has negative effects on many children’s mental health. The majority of children succeed in dealing with both internal and external demands to achieve healthy growth and development using the order, stimulation, and opportunities provided by families, schools, and communities. However, negative outcomes are not simply the result of the family or the school. Instead, they result from a complex interaction among social, cognitive, emotional, constitutional, biological, and family factors. Families and schools serve as the primary training grounds for children’s socialization. However, laws ideally reflect the external boundaries for expected behavior. Police can serve as benign authority figures who represent social aspirations and requirements for order, safety, and justice and who constructively intervene when the individual, family, or community interferes with these requirements. Police can also provide children and families with a sense of security and safety through rapid, authoritative, and effective responses at times of difficulty. However, children’s contacts with police may arouse threatening rather than comforting and positive feelings. Collaborations among social agencies has great potential for improving children’s lives, and accumulating data indicate that it can be effective. 83 references