Violence is a leading cause of death for minorities ages 15 to 34 years. But long before youth perpetrate, or are injured by violence, they often encounter numerous adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). ACEs are harmful, oft
Violence is a leading cause of death for minority youths ages 15 to 34 years.[1] But long before youth perpetrate, or are injured by violence, they often encounter a variety of adverse childhood experiences. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are harmful, often traumatic experiences that take place in a child’s life between birth and 17 years of age. Witnessing violence, being abused, or experiencing neglect may be obvious pathways to future violence. Yet there are other experiences that may not be so apparent. These include aspects of children’s environments that can make them feel unprotected, unstable, and uncertain about their emotional security and personal safety. Examples include experiencing discrimination, academic failure, parental separation, food insecurity, mental health concerns, housing insecurity, and a lack of opportunity to bond with parents, family, and other caring adults. ACEs can have a cumulative impact. The more adverse experiences a child has, the more likely they are to perpetrate or be injured by violence in the future. Youth living in urban areas are often subjected to ongoing personal, structural, and historical traumas.
According to the Center for Disease Control, ACEs are costly to the public, with an economic burden of about $748 billion dollars annually. Yet violence can cost youth, families, and communities much more than money. While money can be replaced, recovering a quality of life can be difficult and in the case of death, impossible. It is important to know the risk factors associated with youth violence and strategies that can be used to reduce the ACEs that can lead to youth violence.
Young people may experience risk factors across several domains including individual, family, peer and social, and community. Parents play a crucial role in the individual and family domains. In the individual domain, having low academic performance and/or learning disorders, experiencing high emotional distress, showing early signs of aggression, and exposure to violence are risk factors. As such, it is important that parents protect children from violent conflict and ensure that they get a strong academic start through high-quality preschool programs that include curriculums on social-emotional learning. In the family domain, parental discipline strategies can be impactful. Parenting that is overly harsh with unrealistic expectations for a child’s developmental stage (i.e. spanking a 4- year-old who wets the bed) can become an adverse experience. Similarly, parenting that doesn’t impose reasonable boundaries (i.e. respecting other people’s property) behavior expectations (i.e. completing homework, following school rules) or consequences for rule violations (time out, or loss of screen time) may be too lax, and can also become a risk factor for violence. Community resources that offer parenting classes and support such as after-school programs, can go a long way to strengthen the family domain against ACEs.
Community and social domains require engagement that reaches beyond parenting. Communities that are socially disorganized, featuring high levels of transiency, and offering little in the way of economic opportunities and social integration, bear hallmarks of a compromised community domain. In the peer and social domain, perhaps not surprisingly, association with street networks (i.e. gangs), social rejection and a low commitment to school are all negative social experiences that can lead to deleterious outcomes for youth. Because risk factors in the community and social domains are beyond the scope of individuals and families, they must be addressed at the structural level and require a commitment from community leaders and social institutions to implement large-scale solutions that can combat structural violence.
Structural violence exists where social systems and institutions leave precarious gaps in human services that result in social injury and the criminalization of youth’s legitimate needs. Schools with zero tolerance policies are frequently sites of structural violence. Zero tolerance policies may not account for a student’s mental health or learning needs, or their prior victimization in school. These policies disproportionately impact students of color, who often experience more serious consequences than their White counterparts for rule violations.[2] Zero tolerance policies often lead to pushout, the overuse of out of school suspensions, and expulsion that forces vulnerable students of color out of the institutions that can provide security and stability into the prison pipeline. Structural violence is visible and exacerbated at the intersection of mental illness, substance abuse disorders, and learning disabilities. Outside of schools, there may be few opportunities for caring adults to observe, intervene, and meet the needs of vulnerable youth. This can set the stage for future violence.
Youth violence is not inevitable. When violence and the associated risk factors (hurting families, poor mental health, substance abuse, and poverty) are viewed as public health issues rather than crimes, communities will be in a better position to provide resources and care that vulnerable youth need and deserve to overcome adverse childhood experiences. In Berks County, Pennsylvania, Not One More is here to help!
By Dr. Ebonie Cunningham Stringer (Please include my name in the publication)
Executive Director, Not One More: A Peace and Justice Project
[1]Information about youth violence and adverse childhood experiences is provided by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Visit www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/index.html for more information on youth violence.
[2] Skiba, Michael, Nardo, Petrson. 2002. “The Color of Discipline: Sources of Racial and Gender Disproportionality in School Punishment.” The Urban Review. 34(4).
Morris, Monique W. 2018. Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. The New Press.
en traumatic evets that take place between birth and 17 years of age. According to the Centers for Disease Control, ACEs impose an economic burden of about $748 billion dollars annually. Yet violence can cost youth, families, and communities much more than money. It is important to know the risk factors associated with youth violence and strategies that can reduce ACEs.
Parents play a crucial role in minimizing ACEs. They must protect children from exposure to violent conflict and ensure a strong academic start in quality preschool programs that emphasize social emotional learning. Parenting that is overly harsh with unrealistic expectations for a child’s developmental stage, as well as parenting that is lax on behavioral expectations and consequences for rule violations, can lead to risky and violent behavior. Community resources that offer parenting classes and quality after school programs can go a long way towards strengthening families against ACEs.
Communities must also be fortified against structural violence. Structural violence exists where social systems and institutions leave precarious gaps in human services. This often results in social injury and the criminalization of youth’s legitimate needs. For example, schools with zero tolerance policies may unwittingly employ structural violence when they punish youth without accounting for their mental health, learning needs or victimization in schools. Students of color often experience more serious consequences than their White counterparts for rule violations. These practices can lead to pushout, the overuse of suspensions and expulsion that excludes vulnerable students of color from educational opportunities, in effect pushing them into the prison pipeline.
Youth violence is not inevitable. When violence, poor mental health, substance abuse and poverty are viewed as public health issues rather than crimes, communities will be in a better position to provide the resources that vulnerable youth need to overcome adverse childhood experiences. In Berks County, Not One More is here to help!
Dr. Ebonie Cunningham Stringer
Executive Director, Not One More: A Peace and Justice Project
