Youth violence is a huge problem in the US and around the world.
Colin Henderson's winning design will be displayed on T-shirts and other items at this year's Domestic Violence Awareness Rally, which is scheduled for Oct. 17. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How do severely violent youth, who injure and murder people, differ from kids who do not attempt to harm others? It is important to know how these children and teens are different so that we can identify and provide treatment for them. Two decades of research including a new study has verified the traits of these youth.
Several studies over the last 2 decades of youth that kill others have indicated that there was abuse, domestic violence, or parental substance abuse or mental illness in the majority of the child or teen’s household before the murder occurred. In a recent study, 84% of youth that had injured or killed another person, 54% of non-assaultive youth with behavior problems, and 37% of youth with no behavior problems had family histories of violence or criminality. Of the group with family histories of violence, but no behavior problems, the majority did not have learning, substance abuse, anger management, or school behavior problems. Most did not have deviant peers, although all were delinquent and most had experienced some kind of trauma and had psychiatric problems. It appears that some children with strong resiliency factors who are able to excel in some areas are also able to overcome very damaging risk factors.
Young murderers tend to struggle academically. Myers et al. (1995) reported that nearly 3/4 of adolescent murderers had failed a grade and had learning disabilities. Nearly 2/3 of youth that injured or killed a victim, in the Seifert study, had learning problems. By contrast, only 1/4 of youth without behavior problems had learning problems.
Frequent diagnoses used for youth that commit murder include ADHD, Mood Disorders, Antisocial Traits, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and Conduct Disorder. Also reported are brief psychotic episodes that remit after the murder occurs. In the Seifert study approximately 1/2 of severely assaultive youth had substance abuse problems and/or showed signs of psychosis. However, only 15% of non-assaultive youth had substance abuse problems and 23% had symptoms of psychosis. Additionally, as in the McArthur study of adults released from psychiatric hospitals, 75% of those that had psychiatric symptoms and were substance abusers, were assaultive.
Many studies over the years have reported that the majority of young murderers have had prior arrests, assaults, and gang participation. Seventy-nine percent of the Seifert sample of severely assaultive youth were delinquent, while slightly more than 20% of non-assaultive youth were delinquent. Therefore, we conclude that past delinquency, assaults and disruptive behaviors distinguish severely assaultive from non-violent young people. Ninety-nine percent of youth that had killed or injured a victim and 67% of non-assaultive youth had anger management problems.
The majority of perpetrators of youth violence have had exposure to violence in the home, learning problems, mental illness and substance abuse, and prior delinquencies and assaults. Youth being processed by the juvenile justice system that have these traits should be targeted for intensive services, regardless of the charges for which they are arrested. Such a program would attempt to increase skills and reduce substance abuse, symptoms of mental illness, and criminogenic factors among high risk youth. Such a program has a great opportunity to be preventive of future violence. The more severe the youth’s problems are, the more intensive the services should be. Families must be included in these programs. Home visiting programs that assist families to eliminate domestic violence and improve parenting skills also prevents future violence by the children in those homes.
Our juvenile justice system is still bases sanctions on the charges for which a youngster is arrested and few if any children are arrested below the age of 12. However, what the research tells us is that 1) The offense for which a juvenile is arrested is generally only a fraction of illegal activities in which the youth is actually involved; 2) The juvenile offenders who are less than 13 years of age will most likely become the chronically and severely violent youthful offenders as teens; 3) Modeling of violence often begins in a home where the parents or neighborhood are violent or criminal. Therefore, many of our State and County juvenile justice systems need major transformation. Everyone must call for change until the systems reflect the research of the last 20 years.
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A New Study Compares Victims of Trauma to Perpetrators of Youth Violence
A new strudy compared victims, perpetrators, and victim/perpetrators of violence. Youth Perpetrators of violence had experienced more severe and chronic trauma than youth who were just victims. Significantly more victims with no history of perpetration had greater social support and life coping skills than perpetrators. Perpetrators of violence had weaker connections to schools than victims that were not perpetrators. This study implies that giving support and services to victims of domestic and youth violence, as well as child abuse and neglect may prevent victims from becoming perpetrators of violence.
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New Article on Psychology Today: How a Child Killer Slipped Past the System
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Ohio School Shooter Had history of Family Violence
According to CNN tonight, TJ Lane, the suspected school shooter at Chardon High School in Ohio, had been exposed to the domestic violence between his parents. When parents set this as the model for solving problems, why are we surprised when the child in the home uses violence to solve his problems? TJ, reportedly had been accused of assault in the past, as well. He was allegedly in an alternative school for those with behavior problems. His father had served time in jail for assault. These 4 things together are huge red flags. However, future violence did not have to be inevitable in this or any other violence ridden family. Intervention in these families is essential to eliminate violence and help family members heal from the trauma it causes.
Tomorrow, I am attending a workshop at Georgetown University on combining the departments of juvenile and social services. This is an idea for which I have long advocated. Nice to see the idea coming into its own. If ever there was a case that could have used a united juvenile and social services, the Lane case is it. I hope these terrible events are a catalist for people to start considering this idea seriously, as well as appropriate treatment when there are red flags.
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Related articles
- Bullying and its Relation to Child Abuse, Sexual Victimization, Domestic Violence, and … (education.com)
Jared Loughner is being medicated against his will while incarcerated. This makes him more likely to be competent to stand trial and less dangerous in the setting where he is being held. Casey Anthony was found competent to stand trial, but is she mentally ill and should she have been forced into treatment before she allegedly killed her little girl? Forced medication for the mentally ill is controversial. However, mandating treatment in cases where someone has the potential to be or has been dangerous to others, is an issue we must face and debate in this country. Weigh in with your opinion.
Kathy
Victims and Perpetrators of Violence
The Differences Between Victims of Violence that Grow up to be Helpers and Those Who Grow Up to be Perpetrators
By Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D.
Description: I have seen the transformation of one family member from a severely abused child to criminal, to dedicated helping professional because she had someone to help her overcome her trauma and lack of skills. Giving sufficient support and services to victims of domestic violence, abuse, and neglect as early as possible may prevent victims from becoming perpetrators of violence as they grow older. Preventing adult violence involves digging up its roots in childhood trauma.
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It is widely believed that many of those in the helping fields experienced trauma as children and were helped by a caring adult to cope with and overcome their trauma. Therefore, when they grow up, they have a need to help others and are often in the nursing and counseling fields. I have seen the transformation of one family member from a severely abused child to substance abuser, to dedicated helping professional because she had someone to help her overcome her trauma and lack of skills. I was not traumatized as a child, but as a young adult. By that time, I had gained many, but not quite enough coping skills. It took me many years and the support of friends to overcome my trauma. Through this experience, I learned things about coping that I can share with my clients. Ten folks that I know were traumatized as children and received monumental support from family and friends. All had professional counseling and all ten now lead pro-social lives and none are violent or criminal.
A study by Russell, Nurius, Herting, Walsh, and Thompson (2010) compared victims, perpetrators, and victim/perpetrators of violence. Perpetrators and victim/perpetrators had experienced more severe and chronic violence against themselves and loved ones than youth who were victims only. Victims who did not act out against others, had greater social support and life coping skills than perpetrators. Violent youth had weaker connections to and less success in schools than victims that did not become perpetrators. This study implies that giving sufficient support and services to victims of domestic violence, abuse, and neglect as early as possible may prevent victims from becoming perpetrators of violence as they grow older.
A small study compared victims of childhood violence, 6 of whom became great humanitarians, 6 who were pro-social, with no histories of perpetrating violence, and 6 of whom became infamous, violent criminals. In this study (Seifert, unpublished, 2011), the differences between the humanitarian and violent groups appeared to be 3 fold: 1) The majority of the people in both humanitarian and violent groups experienced some form of severe loss or trauma during childhood (humanitarian – 83% and violent – 100%). 2) Violence coming from within the family and from persons upon whom the children were dependent was more common among the violent criminals (50%) than the humanitarians 0%). 3) Greater numbers of the altruistic (100%) group had resiliency factors, including warm, nurturing families than the violent group (16%). One hundred percent of the humanitarian and non-violent groups were involved in positive activities as children, while none of those in the violent group were engaged in such activities. From this it can be hypothesized that the severity and chronicity of trauma may be one factor that distinguishes victims only from victim/ perpetrators. The other major factor that appears to distinguish pro-social victims from victim/perpetrators is supportive networks that help the pro-social victims learn skills to cope with life’s challenges.
A study from Scotland found that many of the children in the juvenile justice system were abused and neglected and first seen in the child welfare system. Many studies have documented high rates of victimization among the juvenile justice population in the US, as well. Placing a stronger emphasis on supporting the children that are abused, neglected and exposed to domestic violence, may help reduce the number of youth that subsequently enter the juvenile justice system and adults that commit heinous, criminal acts. Some have proposed that day care with parent involvement for every child that needs it and mandatory parent education in High Schools might help reduce these problems.
As a country, we must face the fact that over 3 million children are abused or neglected in the US every year. The US also has the highest violence and incarceration rates of any of the industrialized nations. How well we professionally care for abused and neglected children and those exposed to domestic violence will determine how many of those children will enter the juvenile justice and eventually the adult justice systems.
It is difficult to advocate for more services for children and families when the world is in financial crisis. However, we can pay now to help child abuse victims or we can pay a lot more later to incarcerate those children when some portion of them grow up to commit heinous criminal acts. As a society, we have a choice.
Thanks for the share!
Nancy.R
What about violence in books that kids read as some books can be quite vivid in their imagry and where do we draw that line on how much violence in books is okay (if any is okay at all)? Is it the same as tv violence?
Viewing too much violence is not good for anyone, so there should be limits on what children see. The more vulnerable (usually history of abuse) a youth is, the less they should be exposed to violence.
Kathy
Nova Bucks
28% of youth who carry weapons have experienced violence at home. NOVA is a resource for prevention education, counseling, and legal advocacy
click here for more
Dr. Kathy
Ohio School shooting