Child Maltreatment by Cindy L. Miller-Perrin;Robin D. Perrin; & Robin D. Perrin

Author:Cindy L. Miller-Perrin;Robin D. Perrin; & Robin D. Perrin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781452205793
Publisher: Sage Publications Inc. (Textbooks)
Published: 2013-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Interventions for Children Exposed to Community Violence

Given the negative effects associated with children's exposure to community violence, interventions of some kind are warranted for children who have witnessed extreme violence. Understandably, law enforcement and other professionals often focus on dealing with the perpetrators and addressing the needs of the direct victims of community violence, unfortunately neglecting the needs of child witnesses, who are indirect victims. Children who are exposed to community violence, for example, often encounter both delays in receiving treatment referrals and few preventive intervention programs within their communities (Osofsky, 1998).

In response to these problems, several communities have developed intervention programs aimed directly at responses by police to children exposed to community violence (see Groves & Zuckerman, 1997; Marans & Cohen, 1993; Osofsky, 1997). One such program is the Violence Intervention Project, which was initiated in New Orleans in 1993. This project includes an educational program that provides police trainees and officers with information on the effects of violence on children and a 24-hour hotline that police and families can call with their concerns about children exposed to community violence (Osofsky, 2004). An evaluation of the project, which included random samples of police officers who completed surveys between 1994 and 2001, indicated that during the course of the 10 years of the program, increases were noted in police officer sensitivity toward traumatized children and early referrals for intervention and treatment (Osofsky, Rovaris, Hammer, Dickson, Freeman, & Aucoin, 2004).

Another program is the Child Witness to Violence Project, founded in 1992 at Boston City Hospital (Groves & Zuckerman, 1997). This program provides therapeutic interventions for children who witness violence in their communities by offering therapeutic and support services that focus on the child, his or her family, and additional community professionals involved with the family (e.g., schoolteachers). This program represents a multiservice intervention approach that focuses not only on providing therapeutic intervention for individual children but also on mobilizing the support that parents and other community caregivers can provide for these children.

La Greca and colleagues at the University of Miami (La Greca, Perez, & Glickman, 2002) have developed the Keeping Children Safe program, an intervention for professionals working with elementary school children that attempts to help children cope with community violence. This program includes several intervention activities to be implemented by schoolteachers and counselors that focus on (a) discussion of trauma-related events, (b) positive coping and problem-solving skills, and (c) enhancing children's peer and adult social supports. The program has been effective in reducing negative coping skills, increasing social support, and decreasing traumatic stress symptoms over time (La Greca et al., 2002).

Some observers have recommended specific public policy initiatives directed at alleviating the difficulties faced by children and families who live in violent communities (American Psychological Association, 1993; Hawkins, 1995; Osofsky, 1995, 1997). Osofsky (1997) makes the following public policy recommendations, which she believes are necessary to focus attention on youth exposed to community violence and to guide program development to solve this problem:

Development of a national campaign to change the

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