NCJ Number
178229
Date Published
1999
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This video, the first in a five-part series on children exposed to violence, displays the artwork and writings of children who have experienced violence in their homes and on the streets, accompanied by their comments on how the violence has affected them, as well as commentary by experts in child development and mental health services.
Abstract
The artwork is expressive of both the infliction of the physical harm experienced in the violence and the feelings that have accompanied the victimization. Some of the experiences of violence are sexual abuse, exposure to violence between parents, physical abuse from parents, and the witnessing and experience of violence at school and in the community. Some of the feelings expressed in the artwork and the comments of the children are fear, detachment, powerlessness, hopelessness, depression, and a desire that their life would change. Experts in child development and mental health services for child victims provide commentary to explain the impact of children's exposure to violence. They advise that children's exposure to ongoing and unpredictable violence is devastating to their mental health and positive development. Under such a threat and experience of violence, children become anxious, hostile, and hopeless. They come to believe that life is basically an unhappy and frightening experience without much hope for change. The experts in child development also discuss the critical steps that lead to recovery from the impact of exposure to violence as a child.