When home's not sweet.

• Author: Robinson, Brenda J.
• Position: Domestic violence

Studies suggest that violence is learned - and may be stopped - not in prison, but at home.

"Building prisons to deal with crime is like building cemeteries to deal with AIDS," says Georgia Senator Mary Margaret Oliver.

Along with building prisons, some policymakers are exploring crime prevention at an earlier stage, before children learn violent behavior patterns - often from their own parents. New evidence suggests that family violence is a major cause of subsequent delinquency, crime and acts of violence. Violent families too often produce violent youngsters. Intervening early in those families may help stop the creation of the next generation of criminals.

A just-released study, funded by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), followed 1,000 seventh- and eighth-grade Rochester, N.Y., students for four years. It found that mistreated youngsters who grew up in violent families were twice as likely to commit brutal acts as were children from non violent families. The highest rates of youth violence occurred among youngsters exposed to all three types of family violence - spouse abuse, child mistreatment and general hostility. Nearly 80 percent of these youngsters reported involvement in violent delinquency (six offenses that include assault, rape and robbery, but not murder) compared to 39 percent of those from nonviolent homes.

OJJDP Administrator Shay Bilchik says that we now know that "if we can reduce family violence - not just abuse and neglect - we can prevent future violence by its young victims." The study is the first to compare violent behavior among youths who experience a range of violence in their homes. In addition to child mistreatment, researchers examined violence between parents or intimate partners and family hostility such as physical fights and general conflict. They found that any brutality in the home increased the likelihood of adolescent violence, but rates skyrocketed for youngsters exposed to multiple types of family violence.

"Policymakers must recognize the social costs as well as the human costs [of family violence]," says former Maine Representative Charlene Rydell, director of the Milbank Memorial Fund's Domestic Violence Project. "It is not a private family matter; this is a societal matter."

VIOLENCE PERMEATES FAMILIES

Family violence has traditionally been perceived in two distinct categories: domestic, generally thought to be perpetrated between intimate partners, often a man against a woman, and abuse of children, either physical, sexual or emotional. Although response and intervention systems focused on one or the other, more recent research indicates significant overlap within families. Some studies suggest that from 40 percent to 80 percent of men who batter their wives and girlfriends also abuse their children.

Unfortunately, the agencies that respond to domestic violence and child abuse are separate and often operate with different goals, clients and approaches. Lack of collaboration can camouflage underlying causes as well as potentially more...