Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment (and crime)

[madmusic]

I'd like to note two interesting reports that have come to my attention lately. First, from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), intimate partner violence decreased between 1993 and 2004. BJS defines an intimate partner as "a current or former spouse, boyfriend, girlfriend or same-sex partner." This is good news and it is encouraging. The report’s press release notes that rates were steady from 2003 to 2004, though, and that violence did increase in 2004 for some groups.

Second, from the world of economics comes an interesting study titled, "Does Child Abuse Cause Crime?" The authors conclude that, yes, child abuse does cause crime; they "find that maltreatment approximately doubles the probability of engaging in many types of crime." The report uses a broad definition of child abuse, called child maltreatment, which includes both child abuse and neglect. Unfortunately, the authors know of only one proven prevention technique—weekly nurse visits for young children. Such a program is expensive and may, according to some estimates, cost more than it would save in prevented crime.

We'd like to hear your ideas about preventing both intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. What programs do you know of that have been successful, unsuccessful, or even tried in either area?

http://ncpc.typepad.com/prevention_works_blog/2007/01/briefly_noted_d.html

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. it doesn't CAUSE it!

It's just a symptom of the same disorder that causes them to beat their women. :eyes:

[madmusic]

3. What are you talking about?

Patriarchalism?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. dunno what the name of it is

just have noticed throughout my life that those tendencies seem to all be present in some individuals. (criminality and abusive)

[madmusic]

5. Born evil?

I'm trying to understand.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

7. that's close!...

:)

I was trying to remember if there is a term for a disorder with all those manifestations (criminal, abusive)

I shouldn't think out loud, it confuses people. :P

[illinoisprogressive]

2. Most of the inmates in prison were abused as kids.

[rebel with a cause]

6. Child abuse covers such a wide range of things.

There is physical, emotional, mental, verbal, and sexual that I can remember and there are different degrees in each of these. Then there are different types and degrees of neglect. I was abused as a child and I am not a criminal, and I have known people much more abused than myself and they are not criminals. So then the question has to be what kind of abuse has been shown to cause criminal tendency in their victim and how severe was that abuse. I believe it has to be much more complicated than just "child abuse causes crime". One answer may be that child abuse often creates two types of personalities. One personality is an aggressive one, the future abuser. The second personality is the submissive one, the continuing victim. But in sexual cases there could be some who are somewhere in between these two.

I worked with male child predators, and this is how they were for the most part. Some of the boys were the aggressors, they preyed on others. Others were more the victim. Letting themselves be the preyed upon. If encouraged by the other boys, they could become the aggressor. Both groups are capable of being predators, but the one is much less violent. These boys were all from the age of ten to thirteen, and several of them had been preying on younger children from the age of five. Now imagine when their abuse began. Only a couple of the boys there were not sexual predators (this was not really a home for predators), and were victims only. They were the only ones that I thought had a chance of not being criminal/abusers.

Now my abuse was never sexual, unless you consider having puritan parents abusive. My abuse was more physical, verbal, and emotional. What I have come to terms with is that because this was in my early socialization, I have basically set myself up to be abused throughout my life. I am too open, while being too defensive at times and too submissive at other times. My sister tells me she has never met anyone else as complicated to understand as I am. And I agree. But she loves me, and so do my kids. I guess that is enough. Others I have known have followed in their parents footsteps and abused others in the same way they were abused.

So what do we do with children that have been badly abused? What do we do with boys like those in the facility? They also had been socialized to this behavior. They were taught that it was wrong by facility staff, but they still had the behaviors. And some of them were sent back to the same homes that had created them in the first place. It is a sick old world out there, and the children caught up in it are in danger now, and have a good chance of being dangerous in the future. I know there were special treatment facilities set up for child/youth predators, but I really don't know that they worked that well. I am not an expert on this, and should not try to sound like one. These are just my opinions based on my experiences.

[madmusic]

8. Very informative reply...

Thanks for that.

This study found that one of the few programs that really works is home nursing, and that is when the new mother takes the baby home and nurse visits for a couple of years. Washington State Policy Research did a study and found that prevention, and they mentioned this program as one of the most effective, would decrease crime and save the State from building 2 new prisons. One problem. It will take a generation before it pays off. It appears the public wants immediate gratification even if it doesn't work or is wrong. Kind of like criminals. :)