Sixty Percent of Kids are Exposed to Violence

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More than 60 percent of children have been directly or indirectly exposed to violence within the past year, according to a national study by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Nearly one-half of kids surveyed were assaulted at least once in the past year and more than 1 in 10 were injured in an assault.

Conducted between January and May 2008, the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, measured exposure to violence for kids 17 and younger. They looked at conventional crime, sex crimes, school violence and threats, family violence and more. Attorney General Eric Holder recently unveiled the Defending Childhood Initiative, focused on this issue. So far, the Department of Justice has aware $5.5 million to eight cities (none of them in Georgia) to focus on:

Providing appropriate programs and service for families and children
Increasing access to quality programs and services
Developing new services where gaps exist.

Reducing Gang Activity: OJJDP Best Practices

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Looking for some help to reduce gang crime in your neighborhood? Doing a thorough assessment of the nature and scope of the youth gang problem in your community is just one of the Best Practices from OJJDP. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has just released a new report called Best Practices To Address Community Gang Problems: OJJDP’s Comprehensive Gang Model, which includes nationwide research on effective gang reduction methods. Some of these Best Practices include:

Addressing the problem
Holding youth accountable
Providing relevant programming
Coordinating community participation

For the full model, click here.

Report: Teachers Happy With Reforms

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An overwhelming majority of juvenile justice teachers appear to be satisfied with reforms of the system that took place five years ago. According to researchers at Georgia State University and Auburn University, 96 percent of juvenile justice teachers “reported being satisfied with the results of the system-wide reforms.”

“The greatest areas of dissatisfaction were in the areas of behavior management and increased stress,” says an abstract to their study, “System Reform and Job Satisfaction of Juvenile Justice Teachers.”

The study was based on a survey administered to teachers who had been in the system since 1998, when reforms were implemented. “A comprehensive survey was administered to teachers who had been in the juvenile justice system since 1998 when reform measures were implemented.”

Expunging Your Record: How-To Forum

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An estimated 400,000 Georgians will be arrested for a criminal offense this year, according to the Georgia Justice Project. Some of these people will never be convicted, but their arrest record could make it hard for them to get a job, rent an apartment, get into school, etc. The Georgia Justice Project is hosting a forum called “Is There A Real Second Chance in Georgia?” on October 9. It’s a day long event to help people get their records expunged and/or corrected. Religious leaders and elected officials, including Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, will be there.

KIDS COUNT: 22% of Georgia Kids Live in Poverty

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New Data from KIDS COUNT shows more children are living in poverty across the country, while the poverty rate for children in Georgia stands at 22%.   The updated numbers include data from the U.S. Census bureau.  You can look up states, cities and for the first time congressional districts. “These numbers should be a major wakeup call,” said Laura Beavers, national KIDS COUNT coordinator at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “The economic success of America’s children and families, now more than ever, depends on the financial stability of the communities they live in.”

Among other things, the database includes a survey of teenage risky behaviors from 2007-2008.  Here’s what they report from Georgia:

7% engaged in binge drinking
5% used marijuana
4% use other illicit drugs

Poll Shows People Believe That Kids Can Be Rehabilitated

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Georgia has some of the toughest juvenile crime laws in the nation that focus more on punishment than rehabilitation. A new report suggests that the public may have different attitudes.  Some highlights:

People believe rehabilitation and treatment can reduce crime AND are willing to pay extra taxes to provide those services;
They support rehabilitation even for young people who commit violent crimes;
They oppose young offenders being sent to adult criminal court without an individual determination made in each case;
They agree that non-white youth are more likely than white youth to be prosecuted as adults; and
believe strongly in a separate juvenile justice system. These findings are from the National Juvenile Justice Network’s recently updated “Polling on Public Attitudes About the Treatment of Young Offenders.” The information was collected between 2005 and 20007 and the document also looks back at public attitudes during the 1990’s. To read the full document, click here.

Why Teenage Boys Fight: New Research Identifies Risk Factors

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African American and Latino boys are more often involved in fights, according to researchers who study racial and ethnic risk factors for fighting. They surveyed more than 4,000 teenagers in California, between the ages of 12 and 17 and found:

27% of African American teens reported fighting
24% of Latino teens say they fight
16% of white teens fight
6% of Asian/Pacific Islander teens fight

The study, reported this month in the Journal of Academic Pediatrics, found that alcohol and smoking increased the odds of fighting among whites and Latinos. Poverty was a factor for African Americans.  White kids who got more support from their families had fewer fights, while Latino kids who got more support at school were less likely to fight. The research concludes that prevention efforts should be tailored to these differences, as well as family and community factors.

Black Boys Suspended from School 3 Times More than White Boys, Says New Study

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Middle school kids nationwide, specifically minorities, are facing out of school suspension at alarming rates, according to a study published by the Southern Poverty Law Center called Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis. Atlanta is one of 18 urban school districts the researchers studied. Using data from more than 9,000 middle schools they discovered a suspension rate of 11.2 percent. But the suspension rate for black boys was dramatically higher at 28.3 percent…almost three times higher than the rate for white boys.The research focuses on middle schools and warns suspensions in these grades may have significant, long-term repercussions for students. Also, few previous studies have separated middle school data from that for all grades, masking the extraordinarily high frequency of suspension in middle schools.

Report: Spend Less on Prisons, More on Programs

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Although crime is down, incarceration rates are up, according to a new report by the Justice Policy Institute, which is dedicated to finding solutions to major social issues. The report notes a rise in racial disparities and asks why states are spending more money on prisons during an economic crisis. The JPI makes these points about kids and crime:
States with higher rates of high school graduation and college enrollment have lower crime rates than states with lower educational attainment levels. Investments in job training and employment are associated with heightened public safety. Youth who are employed are more likely to avoid justice involvement.

Longer Classes Improve Literacy

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Longer classes in reading and writing could help students get promoted to the next grade according to a 2010 report from the Public Policy Institute of California. The Blueprint for Student Success was a literacy program that ran for five years to determine what works in reading reform in the San Diego Unified School District. According to the report, the program helped mostly elementary and middle school children. However, the program did not show any results either positive or negative in regards to completing high school college prep work. The study recommends that the Department of Education ease its Title I requirements so school districts could use the money for reforms that target both low-incoming students as well as low performing students regardless of school or neighborhood.