Dr. Garbarino: I think the first thing we have to recognize is that child abuse and delinquency bear a striking family resemblance. We know that many children who are abused become juvenile delinquents, but we also know that delinquent behavior often precipitates abusive treatment at the hands of parents and other adults. We also, know that the same kind of environment that produces child abuse tend to produce juvenile delinquency as well.
I think we need to recognize that most children and young people experience occassional incidents of severe physical or psychological discipline or punishment, and we need to recognize that most youths engage in some sort of delinquent or delinquent-like behavior, but our primary concern is that a chronic, serious pattern of abuse and a chronic, serious pattern of delinquency, particularly aggressive delinquency go hand in hand.
Senator Spector: Dr. Garbarino, you are saying, then, in your professional opinion, that there is a direct causal connection between child abuse and delinquency?
Dr. Garbarino: Yes, I think that is well established. The experience of being abused produces anger. It produces difficulty in relating to other people. It isolates the young person from their peers and from other adults, and those kinds of feelings and social skills tend to lead a kid into an escalating pattern of delinquent behavior.
Senator Spector: Is that part of the chain which eventuates in the commission of major crimes, such as robberies and burglaries in adolescents and later in adulthood?
Dr. Garbarino: I think it is fair to say that it is, for two reasons. The first is that many of these kids are going to be difficult to help, to divert out of the escalating cycle, and we know that most of the most serious adult aggressive crimes come out of an escalating pattern of increased delinquency and aggressive acts. The other part of the equation, is that often in the initial response to delinquent behavior, whether it's petty thievery, petty aggressive acts, vandalism, and so on, often parents and institutions that deal with youth respond to them in an abusive manner.
Senator Spector: Who responds to them in an abusive manner?
Dr. Garbarino: Who responds to them in an abusive manner? The parents and the institutions.
Senator Spector: How do the institutions respond to them in an abusive manner?
Dr. Garbarino: We know that when kids are sent off to reform schools, detention homes, and so, there the likelihood of their being physically and sexually abused at the hands of staff as well as other inmates is quite high.
Senator Spector: So they are on a cycle. They are abused by their parents. They become angry. They in turn, commit minor crimes and are spent to institutions which are really training schools for more crime?
Dr. Garbarino: Training schools for crime and for more anger.
Senator Spector: Dr. Garbarino, you said earlier that there was conclusive evidence of a connection between child abuse and criminal conduct or delinquency. Why are you sure?
Dr. Garbarino: I am sure because without exception, to my knowledge, studies that have examined the life history of people involved in serious aggressive crime find the experience of abuse, sometimes going very early into their lives, certainly in early childhood and almost universally in adolescence.
And I think that connection is so prevalent that it warrents the conclusion I drew earlier.
Senator Spector: Yes. Well robbery is an assaultive crime.
Dr. Groth. I look at this in terms of developmental issues, but I don’t want to be misunderstood in what I am saying about the adult offenders. I am not saying that explanations are excuses.
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Dr. Musk. At least one in five women will say that they were and we presume that the incidence is much higher, but at least one in five will admit to being physically abused.
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Dr. Musk. I think the question being asked is, "Does physical and sexual abuse cause crime?"
Senator Spector. Yes.
Dr. Musk. In some people it does, yes.
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Senator Spector. How can we deal with this problem? What is your best sugestion as to what the Senate and Congress can do?
Dr. Musk. I think two things, first the problem has to be handled at the local level, and second there has to be resources available at the local level, for prevention programs. ....
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... As a preventive measure, increased funding to local agencies at the community level might help.
Psychiatrists caution that there is no one type of youthful killer. But murderous children often come from families where they see or experience much violence.
“The young murderer doesn’t come from a typical American family,” said Dr. Benedek, “The average American parent doesn’t need to fear being murdered.”
Nevertheless, experts say there is more homicidal behavior among youths than is reported. “We see only the tip of the iceberg of violence by children,” said Lester Adelson, the chief deputy coroner of Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
.... An article “Children Who Kill–A Family Conspiracy?” in the Journal of the National Association of Social Workers,
“Children Who Kill–A Family Conspiracy?” Douglas Sargent, M.D. 01/01/1962 Eight-year-old Art, with the help of his 7-year-old brother, shot and killed his father while the parent sat reading the Bible in his cabin in the woods. The father, an eccentric recluse, had been
Another researcher who has found a high incidence of brain damage among homicidal children is Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a psychiatry professor at the New York University School of Medicine. However, Dr. Lewis and her colleagues believe the violent, often homicidal father is the most significant factor in explaining the child’s homicidal aggression. Often the homicidal child has witnessed his father’s violence against the mother. The researcher also found that homicidal children were much more likely than others to have mothers who had been psychiatrically hospitalized and fathers who were alcoholic. This study, which compared homicidal children under 12 to other children brought into psychiatric service, appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry in February.
Dr. Lewis said in an interview that one reason that one reason there may be more homicidal behavior among children is the cutback in mental health facilities in recent years. As a result, she said, “you have more and more extremely disturbed people who are trying to raise children with very few supports.”
In studying violent children, Dr. Lewis has found that about four-fifths have witnessed extreme directed at themselves or others, usually in their own homes. This is true for only 20 percent of nonviolent children, she said. “It curdles your blood to hear what the parents have done,” she said.
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