Child Abuse and Neglect

CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT
Helping At-Risk Parents Become Better Parents Prevents Child Abuse and Neglect and Crime

Too many of New York's police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, and other police leaders are arresting or prosecuting adults who they first met as victims of child abuse and neglect. Annually, over 77,000 New York children are confirmed as abused or neglected, although research shows that it is likely three times that numbers since many cases are never reported. While most victimized children never become violent criminals, being severely abused or neglected, especially when it occurs during infancy and early childhood can lead to permanent changes in children's brains. Some children have trouble learning empathy, while others develop a pre-disposition for misinterpreting actions as threatening and reacting violently. This sharply increases the risk that these children will grow up to be arrested for a violent crime. The tragedy is that we can prevent most child abuse and neglect and reduce future crime. Beginning prenatally, in-home parent coaching programs for families of newborns have been shown to cut child abuse and neglect in half. The programs provide a range of support to at-risk mothers before their child is born and through the earliest years. Nurses or other trained professionals help parents manage stress, understand newborn health and nutrition needs, identify early warning signs, make their home child-safe, teach practical steps to avoid hurting their kids and more. The RAND Corporation concluded that the Nurse Family Partnership program saves more than it costs especially for the highest risk population where it saved the government $5.70 fpr every dollar invested.

There are two important in-home parent coaching programs that currently exist in New York state on a small scale: the Nurse Family Partnership Program (NFP) and Healthy Families New York (HFNY) and the Nurse-Family Partnership Program. They work effectively to prevent early child abuse and neglect and they save money. By increasing access to these programs for families on a voluntary basis, we would create safer communities where all our children have a fair chance to become productive citizens instead of criminals.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids New York calls on New York Policy Makers to:

Provide funding for proven in-parent coaching programs, beginning during pregnancy, to serve all families at risk of abusing or neglecting their infants.

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