NCJ Number
164505
Date Published
1997
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This videotape presents a speech, followed by audience questions and comments, focusing on research findings regarding the relationship between child abuse and neglect and victims' later crime and violence, promising strategies and opportunities to intervene in the cycle of violence, and principles that should guide interventions and policymaking.
Abstract
National Institute of Justice Director Jeremy Travis summarized Federal initiatives focusing on children's issues and introduced the speaker, Cathy Spatz Widom, Ph.D., who has conducted extensive research on the cycle of violence. Dr. Widom summarized a longitudinal study that followed 1,575 children for 25 years following their substantiated cases of maltreatment prior to age 12. The results revealed that the abused children had an almost doubled risk of arrest for violent crime as a juvenile than did nonabused children. In addition, abused and neglected children were first arrested at earlier ages than nonabused children, had more arrests, and were more likely to become repeat violent offenders. Promising strategies to intervene and break the cycle of violence include home visits before or after birth, programs for at-risk preschoolers, truancy reduction programs, and community-based youth interventions focusing on violence prevention. Among the six principles that should guide interventions are that early intervention is the most effective and that increasing attention should focus on neglected children.