A National profile of children exposed to family violence: Police response, family response, and individual impact.
Date
2015
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
U.S. Department of Justice
Abstract
A National Profile of Children Exposed to Family Violence: Police Response, Family
Response and Individual Impact provides the first nationally representative data on youth contact
with law enforcement and victim services – including best practices and help-seeking obstacles –
for cases of family violence involving exposure to children. These data come from a nationally
representative sample of 517 family violence incidents drawn from the 4503 respondents to the
Second National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV II). The NatSCEV
study, conducted in 2011, involved telephone interviews with parents of children age 0-9 and
with the youths themselves if they were age 10-17.
Between 13%-58% of police contacts and between 34%-97% of advocate contacts
following domestic violence incidents involving a child witness included actions from one or
more of 10 best practices. Most police best practices were associated with increased likelihood
of arrest. Almost half of children witnessed an arrest when one occurred, though only 1 in 4
youth were spoken to by police responding to the scene. Youth exposed to domestic violence, as
a group, have high rates of other victimizations and adversities. Although this group reports
elevated trauma symptoms, the characteristics of a specific domestic violence incident and the
response to that incident by police were generally unrelated to youth's current trauma symptoms
after controlling for history of victimization and other adversities. However, child current trauma
symptoms were lowest when perpetrators left the house after the incident, followed by when no
one moved out, and were highest when the victim moved out. Child witnesses to family violence
are a highly victimized group, and it is recommended that they systematically receive assessment
and services when any member of their family enters the system due to family violence.
Description
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Article
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Keywords
family violence, exposure to violence, impact, response, law enforcement
Citation
Finkelhor, D., & Turner, H. (2015). A National profile of children exposed to family violence: Police response, family response, and individual impact.