Violence Prevention

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Violence Prevention

• June Lim
• junelim_at_ucla.edu
• CHS 286
• May 12, 2008

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Why Violence Prevention?

• Experience/Exposure
• Case examples
• NP
• AC
• April 2006
• Violence community, gang, school, child abuse,
  intimate partner violence/domestic violence,
  suicide, sexual violence, work place violence,
  hate crimes, etc.
• Intimate Partner Violence - threatened, attempted
  or completed physical, or sexual violence, and
  emotional abuse in the context of physical or
  sexual violence - CDC
• Child Maltreatment physical abuse, sexual abuse,
  emotional abuse neglect.

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• Victims of violence experience physical injury
  adverse mental health consequences harmful
  physical health consequences
• Violence also erodes communities by reducing
  productivity, disrupting social services,
  diminishing/violating feelings of safety

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Violence in the U.S.

• 2006 -1,530 children died in the U.S. from abuse
  and neglect
• 2006 - 905,000 children were victims of
  maltreatment
• 3.3-10 million children are estimated to be
  exposed to IPV
• For women alone, IPV in the U.S. results in 2
  million injuries and 1300 deaths annually
• National Center for Injury Prevention Control,
  2003.
• In 2005, 329 males and 1181 females were murdered
  by an intimate partner
• Bureau of Justice Statistics 2007
• 1/4 women and 1/7 men reported some form of
  lifetime IPV victimization

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Violence in Los Angeles County

• 2005 - 66,350 violent crimes reported
• Los Angeles Almanac, 2006.
• 2004 - 1,145 people lost their lives to guns
• 14 were 18 years old or younger
• Office of Health Information Research
  California Center for Health Statistics, 2004.
• 2002 - there were 161,642 child abuse neglect
  referrals to DCFS
• Los Angeles County Department of Children
  Family Services, 2006
• On average, the LA County DCFS receives 15,300
  calls per month 700 each weekday, 200 on
  Saturday, 125 on Sundays 40 were on neglect,
  25 on physical abuse, 25 on sexual abuse, 10
  on emotional abuse
• CWS/CMS County of LA DCFS, 2006

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• IPV prevalence varies by state, race/ethnicity,
  age, income education
• Studies are believed to underestimate prevalence,
  therefore difficult to monitor trends in nonfatal
  IPV

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CDC Framework for violence prevention
interpersonal
community
individual
Societal
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• Includes complex interplay between different
  factors in areas in which violence occurs
• Individual biological and personal history that
  increase likelihood of becoming
  victim/perpetrator
• Interpersonal relationships with peers,
  partners, family members
• Community schools, workplaces, neighborhoods in
  which social relationships occur
• Societal societal factors that help foster a
  climate in which violence in encouraged or
  inhibited includes social cultural norms,
  health, economic, educational, and social
  policies.

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• High rates of co-ocurrence between community
  violence and intrafamilial violence
• High rates of co-occurrence between interpersonal
  violence and child abuse
• 45-70 of children exposed to IPV are also
  victims of child abuse
• Combination of violent experiences generally more
  serious outcomes
• Connections between child abuse, domestic
  violence, and youth violence have not been
  systematically examined on a broad scale

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Effects on Children

• Violate childrens perception of safety
• Physical health safety - sleep disturbances,
  somatic complaints, irritability, disruption of
  brain development, harm nervous and immune
  systems
• Psychological adjustments - anxiety, PTSD,
  depression, regression, suicide, increased risk
  taking behaviors
• Social relations - aggressive antisocial
  behaviors
• Academic achievement - language development,
  attending to complex cognitive material
• Affect children into adulthood - increased risk
  for alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders,
  poverty, chronic health problems, suicide.
• Possible perpetuation of cycle of violence

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Effects on the Caretaker

• Caretakers are less available for care taking
• Distracted by own safety and survival issues
• Difficulty being emotionally available,
  sensitive, and responsive
• Those exposed to violence who are in greater need
  of nurturance and protection than those without
  have less access to supports

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Risk factors

• Home risk factors poverty, single-parent
  household, and lower educational level of the
  parent
• Association between education and lifetime IPV
  was not linear - those who completed some college
  had significantly higher prevalence than those
  who graduated from high school but never attended
  college
• Family environment stress from family history of
  violence, drug or alchol abuse, poverty, and
  chronic health problems social isolation

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Neighborhood factors

• Place of residence violent victimization
• Neighborhood disadvantage high rates of poverty,
  joblessness, residential mobility
• Living in high crime neighborhoods produce
  opportunities to multiple exposures to violence
  including being the offender, witnessing
  violence, and being victimized.
• Neighborhoods with high level of social disorder
  have high levels of community violence

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Protective factors

• Having a trusted, available adult figure
• Alternative family
• Community support
• Childs individual resources and temperament

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• Debate regarding whether IPV (seen as private)
  and nonintimate violence (public) should be seen
  together within general theory of violence
• IPV may occur as result of patriarchal values
  that play out in both public/private spheres
• Economically disenfranchised men
• Extensive exposure to violence may normalize
  prevalence of violence and violence as means of
  social control violent behavior as acceptable

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Prevention efforts

• Men Stopping Violence (Atlanta) - create a
  climate of accountability in the community
  involves men (not necessarily identified
  batterers) to be educated and involved in the
  community trainings for micro/macrosystems
  addresses the social context (patriarchy) in
  which violence takes place
• Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los
  Angeles - promote, advocate and publicize
  community/youth-driven violence prevention
  efforts limitation of access to firearms,
  programs and policies that improve health,
  education, and economic development increased
  and sustainable funding for CBOs

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Challenges to Prevention Research

• Precursory conditions, events or hazards that
  lead to violent behaviors are not readily
  apparent
• Require more deliberative study to detect
  preventive effects given that such efforts are to
  avert behaviors that have NOT yet occurred and
  thus less readily observable
• Challenges in defining violence
• Challenges in designing studies that advance
  capacity to assess for risk and predict future
  violence
• Applying research to forge advance in
  intervention practices to prevent violence

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Continued

• Establishing demarcations between violence
  precursors to violence that assist to target when
  to intervene in relation to what kinds of
  behaviors
• Violent anything that gives rise to feelings of
  danger?
• What is defined as violent is shaped by factors
  such as ones primary relationships and
  involvement in violence, cultural and community
  context, environmental stressors and social
  supports, or previous or ongoing experiences with
  violence and trauma
• Unreliablity of retrospective self-report
  measures (due to trauma effects), unreliability
  of official records

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Further research areas

• Ending the cycle of violence
• Longitudinal/prospective research to assess
  changes in risk and protective factors and
  occurrences of violent behavior of large
  populations (not yet problem identified) to
  identify events, conditions, and processes that
  precede and directly predict violent occurrences.
• Identifying shared risk and protective elements
  across child abuse, youth violence, and IPV.
• Factors that protect childrens vulnerability
• Homicide Suicides
• Immigrants (specifically Korean Americans)
  violence model minority myth

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• Thank you!
• junelim_at_ucla.edu

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References

• Breiding, MJ, Black, MC, Ryan, GW (2008)
  Prevalence and risk factors of intimate partner
  violence in eighteen U.S. States/Territories,
  2005. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,
  34(2), 112-121.
• Guterman, NB (2004) Advancing prevention research
  on child abuse, youth violence, and domestic
  violence - Emerging strategies and issues.
  Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19(3),
  299-321.
• Margolin, G Gordis, EB (2000) The effects of
  family and community violence on children, Annual
  Review Psychology. 51, 445-479.
• Margolin, G (2005) Childrens Exposure to
  Violence - Exploring developmental pathways to
  diverse outcomes. Journal of Interpersonal
  Violence, 20(1), 72-81.
• Osofsky, JD (2003) Prevalence of childrens
  exposure to domestic violence and child
  maltreatment implications for prevention and
  intervention
• Raghavan, C, Mennerich, A, Sexton, E James, SE
  (2006) Community violence and its direct,
  indirect, and mediating effects on intimate
  partner violence. Violence Against Women, 12(12),
  1132-1149.