WASHINGTON STATE--Yakima’s Top Cops Say Child Abuse Linked to Future Crime
Jul 27th 2010
YAKIMA, WASH. (July 27, 2010)—Law enforcement brass took a stand against child abuse and neglect today, saying that child endangerment is not only putting kids at risk in the present—it will also cause increased crime in the future. Yakima Chief of Police Sam Granato and Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin raised their concerns at a press conference at the Children’s Village in Yakima. They called on state lawmakers to maintain funding for voluntary home visiting programs that can reduce child abuse and neglect and later crime.
They released a research report from the anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Washington showing that more than 6,700 Washington children were abused or neglected in 2008. In addition to putting children at risk today, child abuse and neglect also leads to increased crime in the future. The report estimates that 250 of the kids who were abused and neglected in 2008 will become criminals as adults, who otherwise would have avoided such crimes if not for the abuse and neglect they endured as children.
While most children who experience childhood abuse or neglect never become violent offenders, survivors of abuse and neglect are significantly more likely to commit crimes as adults. One researcher found that being abused or neglected almost doubles the odds that a child will commit a crime as a juvenile. The survivors are also more likely to abuse their own kids, creating a cycle of violence that can span generations.
The law enforcement leaders said voluntary home visits to at-risk families could prevent many cases of abuse and neglect from ever occurring. These programs send nurses or trained paraprofessionals to help pregnant mothers and new parents learn about their child’s health and developmental needs. Research on the Nurse-Family Partnership program has shown that providing this support to new families can significantly reduce the likelihood that parents will abuse their kids and also cut future crime.
A study of Nurse-Family Partnership in Elmira, New York compared at-risk children whose mothers received visits with similar children whose families did not participate. Children in participating families were half as likely to be abused or neglected. Children who did not participate in the program had more than twice as many convictions by age 19 as those in families who received the visits.
Washington State currently has a modest investment in voluntary home visiting services. However, local grants and government support combined only provide funding to serve less than 20 percent of eligible families statewide. A recent inventory of Nurse-Family Partnership programs in Washington State revealed that Yakima County has 79 percent of its children born to families on Medicaid, compared with the state average of 48 percent, and the Nurse-Family Partnership program only has the capacity to serve 12 percent of eligible families. Law enforcement leaders called on the Governor and State Legislature to maintain the state’s investment in home visiting services and pursue new federal funding available to increase access to home visiting services by more families.
Chief Granato and Sheriff Irwin are members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national anti-crime organization of 5,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors, including more than 200 in Washington State.
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