Fall 2001

For Oakland's Safe Passages, preventing youth violence means starting with the youngest of kids in the most heartbreaking of circumstances.

According to a report for the Oakland Police Department, its police force responds to well over 4500 domestic violence calls each year. Worse, these calls are estimated to represent only about 20 percent of all family violence incidents, meaning there are about 22,500 incidents of domestic violence each year in Oakland.

Nearly half of these episodes of domestic violence occur in households with children. The growing body of research suggesting the ill effects of exposure to violence on children, particularly those aged up to age five, convinced Safe Passages to adopt a strategy that will help the city intervene more effectively in domestic violence cases. Data suggest this strategy would reduce the incidence of domestic violence - and therefore very young children's exposure to violence - and mitigate the effects of the violence on these children.

When police respond to a family violence call, they are responsible for holding the perpetrators accountable and for advocating for victims. The Oakland Police Department's report acknowledges that the city currently fails at both tasks. Specifically, with regard to advocating for victims, the report says, "too little advocacy is provided (only three advocates for the whole city); services are offered too late to be of use (it can take as long as three weeks after an incident for an advocate to get a case); and only victims who are best able to navigate through the web of different agencies get good help."

With Safe Passages' Early Childhood Committee as the forum bringing the players together, a strategy emerged. At the heart of the effort is the significant expansion in the number (and role) of family advocates who respond to domestic violence cases shortly after the police do.

"Currently there is too much of a gap between when police arrive on the scene and when the family gets connected to services," says committee chair Andrea Youngdahl, director of Oakland's department of aging, health and human services and Urban Health Initiative Fellow. "Police can only stay so long; they stabilize the situation and make an arrest, but then move on. They can't really tend to the support and service needs of the children and rest of the family."

Michael Holland, deputy chief of investigations for Oakland PD who heads the department's involvement in the strategy, agrees. "There's not enough support for these kids," he says. "Arrest and prosecution has failed to improve the situation, and we need to address it from the perspective of how we can prevent these problems on the front end."

The committee's goal is to have 12 advocates. It's not there yet, but about seven advocates will be on board by September.

"Previously, advocates' contact with families was two to three weeks after an incident," says Holland. "Now we'll have advocates working with families within two hours."

The Family Violence Law Center will hire and train the advocates, who will be housed at the police department. This arrangement is important for a couple of reasons. First, conversations between families and advocates are confidential, so the advocates can't be police department employees. "More important than prosecution is the taking of effective actions to keep victims from abusive situations," says Holland.

Plus, co-locating social and police services will encourage cooperation and trust among the agencies.

Once on the scene, the advocates are equipped to help in a variety of ways.

"Advocates may arrange, for example, for shelter, for an assessment of the children by Childrens Hospital, for early childhood education program enrollment, for services from the social services agency Alternative Response System for kids not served by child protective services," says Youngdahl.

The committee is initiating the strategy citywide, as opposed to starting with a pilot effort in a single neighborhood. "It's politically difficult to start an enticing program like this one only in a small area," says Holland. "There's no reason to target, just do the whole city. The best practices are sound and kids need the services. You don't have to prove what's already proven."

The Oakland strategy is based on similar efforts underway in other cities. According to the Oakland PD report, "Communities that have provided high-quality victim advocacy have observed two desirable outcomes: improved victim outcomes and satisfaction, and improved criminal justice outcomes. In one study of an advocate program, researchers reported that one in four victims who worked with advocates had no physical abuse in two years after the intervention, compared with only one in ten from a control group."

The effort is getting initial funding from the City of Oakland and Every Child Counts (funded by the state's Proposition 10 measure).

In addition to adding to the number of advocates hired, the Early Childhood Committee will seek to enhance the strategy in the future by involving other topics, such as coordination of the courts, the early childhood mental health community, social violence beyond the family, and homeless and foster kids.

Also, the committee will work to identify and capitalize on other "identification points" for domestic violence. The police department is an obvious one, but with training others could be Head Start or the schools or the hospital.

According to Laura Pinkney, Safe Passages' executive director, this effort is an example of systems change. "As a result of this partnership, the police department now has a family intervention that works and is based on best-practices," she says. "Plus, we now have coordination among what were previously 'silos' of services for kids in the same target population. And, we are ensuring that in the carrying out of Proposition 10, youth violence is being addressed."

The effect of exposure to violence on children

According to the report "Domestic Violence and its Impact on Children" for the Children's Defense Fund, the emotional toll on children who witness threats or violence against others can be substantial, especially when those involved are familiar to the child and the violence takes place in the home, a place where victims should feel safe. Research in this field is in its infancy, but a review of existing literature includes:

• A comparison of delinquent and non-delinquent youths found that a history of family violence or abuse is the single most significant difference between the two groups as to whether they are delinquent.
  
  
• Numerous studies have shown that children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to be violent. Studies also suggest that children's exposure to domestic violence may generate attitudes justifying their own use of violence.
  
  
• Male children who witness violence are at an increased risk of becoming perpetrators. Growing up in a violent home is the strongest predictor of becoming a batterer.

Although these statistics are of great concern, experts note that many children exposed to domestic violence do not show greater problems, and that this should be kept in mind when interpreting the data. Also, among protective factors for kids exposed to violence is to have someone intervene to improve the situation, another argument that speaks to the need for Safe Passages' early childhood strategy.