Children who witness violence between their parents are at the greatest risk for becoming victims of violence themselves in teenage and young adult romantic relationships, according to a 20-year studypublished in the August issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
Witnessing violence between parents also increases the chances of a child being a perpetrator of violence in future relationships, and of having serious behavior problems (conduct disorders). And children who have been excessively punished are also significantly at risk for becoming perpetrators of violence against their partners.
According to Dr. Miriam K. Ehrensaft, who authored the study with other researchers at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute, it is not surprising that witnessing violence shows up as an indicator on both the victim and perpetrator sides. "Being a perpetrator and being a victim are highly related phenomena," said Ehrensaft.
The link between excessive punishment and a tendency toward partner violence later on is a new finding for these researchers. "We knew that punishment was related to kids' aggression in general, and a host of bad outcomes later on," "said Ehrensaft, "but we didn't know the relationship with partner violence."
Another significant finding is the route that child abuse takes to show up in partner abuse statistics. "What we figured out from this study is that child abuse works through conduct disorder," explained Ehrensaft" "If a child is abused, they are more likely to develop conduct disorder, and that then puts them in line to be a violent partner."
In New York City, approximately 10 percent of domestic violence victims treated at New York City public hospitals are under the age of 20, according to Department of Health statisticsreleased by the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence.
The City's domestic violence hotline received 10,574 calls from teens in 2002, which was up 54 percent from 2001. As of July of this year, they already received 7080 calls, suggesting another spike for 2003.
This spike does not necessarily mean that there is more partner violence among teens in New York City than before. It may just be that more of them know where to call. According to the city's domestic violence commissioner Yolanda Jimenez, "Teen hotline calls increased after the City's 1997, 1998 and 2000 public education campaigns directed towards teens, which suggests that the campaign was successful in reaching our target audience."
Violent behavior by a partner is highly resistant to treatment, the new study reports, but author Ehrensaft recommends prevention programs for children prior to adolescence, before the use of violence and coercion as a means of resolving conflicts become totally ingrained in the child. These programs would target children exposed to various types of damaging environments.
"Most existing dating violence programs aim to change attitudes about violence from men to women," said Ehrensaft. "These are generally successful in changing attitudes but not in reducing actual levels of violence between young dating partners. Also, few programs have followed teens over time to test whether the programs had long term effects."
There are several existing programs provided for adolescents in New York City (see accompanying box) and the trend is to target younger and younger children.
" The Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violencebelieves that violence prevention programs should begin as early as possible and progress through high school so that abuse does not become an acceptable norm," commented Commissioner Jimenez. "Early violence prevention can break the cycle of violence that leads to teen dating violence and adult domestic violence."
Domestic violence research is still a young field, according to Ehrensaft. "A lot of interventions have gone on using clinical experience and common sense, but only recently are we bringing science into the picture. And we really need that science to go forward and help people, just like with any medical disorder that needs to be backed by science."
Ehrensaft's next research project will likely build on this work, using science to find out what exactly is the process that puts kids with conduct disorder at risk for partner violence "We figured out that child abuse links up to conduct disorder. But we still need to do more research to find out what that process is so we can help those kids--and prevent bad relationships."
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NYC VIOLENCE PREVENTION PROGRAMS FOR YOUTH
Adopt-A-School Relationship Abuse Prevention Program ("RAPP") (In pdf format)
In 20 city high schools to promote healthy relationships intervene in the cycle of teen relationship abuse, and work to prevent destructive patterns of relationship abuse from extending into adult relationships.
New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD)
Funds organizations and programs to provide Violence Intervention and Prevention programs targeting youth who are at risk of becoming involved in violence or who have already exhibited violent behavior.
DYCD Youthline 1-800-246-4646
TTY 1-800-246-4699
Youthline is a toll-free 24-hour a day seven days a week confidential and anonymous crisis intervention and resource line for youth, their families and concerned service providers. Youthline has a paid staff of highly trained high school and college students.
The New York City schools have implemented violence prevention programs over the years in various elementary and middle schools. These programs include:
• Second Step developed by Committee for Children based in Seattle, WA
• Resolving Conflict Creatively developed by Educators for Social Responsibility Metro with the New York City Department of Education
• Safe Harbor developed by Safe Horizon
• Speak Your Peace developed by Center Against Domestic Violence (currently in the intermediate School for International Studies)
• Students Advocating Against Violence Initiative (SAAVI)
• Project Charlie
Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center
312 East 94th Street
New York, NY 10128
212-423-3000
STEPS to End Family Violence
1968 Second Avenue
New York NY 10029
212-410-4200
INCLUDES a group for teenage boys who have abused a girlfriend or mother.
Safe Horizon Youth Division
189 Montague Street, 6th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-624-2111 ext. 22
Center Against Domestic Violence
25 Chapel Street, 9th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-254-9143
Children's Aid Society Family Wellness Program
212-503-6837
Offers services for victims, perpetrators and children.
The Door
555 Broome Street
New York, NY 10013
212-941-9090
Serves domestic violence victims ages 12-21
Services in English, Spanish, Chinese
FACES
Maimonides Theater Network for Teens
Maimonides Medical Center
902 48th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11219
718 283 7861
This prevention program has been around for almost 20 years.
Yankee Rep Fork in the Road Players
157 East 3rd Street #D
New York, NY 10009
917 441 4171
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This is a theater group that performs a play on dating violence in high schools and teen centers.
The NiteStar Program
St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center
St. Luke's Division
1111 Amsterdam Avenue, Scrymser 1
New York, NY 10025
212-523-3599
Hetrick-Martin Institute
2 Astor Place, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10003
212-674-2400
Services for same sex relationships
Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services
120 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
212 582-9100
718-237-1337
Family Violence Hotline
NYU Child Study Center
Excellent program that works with parents of children who are at risk for developing behavior problem.
ART Programs
Additionally, there are organizations that do art with children affected by domestic violence who are in DV or homeless shelters:
(Our thanks to Christina Alex, Research Coordinator at the Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violencewho provided most of this program information.)
Lynda Crawford wrote the social services topic page for Gotham Gazette, and has written for City Limits, New York Woman, The New York Observer, and The New York Daily News.
For too many New Yorkers, the summer of 2003 has turned out to be the proverbial rainy day. Unemployment remains high, particularly among certain ethnic and age groups. There is a shortage of new jobs, which some unemployed workers blame on public priorities, such as giving federal funds meant for the recovery from 9/11 to residents of luxury housing in Battery Park City, rather using them to create jobs to replace those lost after the disaster.
In the coming year, unskilled job hunters will have fewer resources to help them compete with skilled workers for those vacancies that exist. Low-wage workers will face new hurdles in claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit, one of the few tax breaks targeted to the poor. And grandparents trying to raise grandchildren on Social Security checks or part-time paychecks may be better informed about their right to trade their privacy for government income assistance.
UNEMPLOYMENT PERSISTS
The New York State Comptroller’s Office estimates that New York City has lost nearly half of the jobs gained in the eight years of prosperity ending in December 2000. As of May 2003, the unemployment rate for the city had dropped to 8.1 percent, from its February high of 8.8 percent.
Some groups within the city are experiencing much higher unemployment rates. Among the city’s Hispanics, more than a quarter are unemployed, according to a recent poll by CBS and the New York Times. African-American men have lost the highest percentage of jobs since 2000, according to the Community Service Society. Out of every three city teenagers aged 16 to 19 who want to work, one is unemployed; this is almost double the national average. Of adults who have jobs, men aged 45 to 54 are the most likely to be laid off.
USE OF SEPTEMBER 11 FEDERAL AID IS PROTESTED
Unemployed workers protested repeatedly in downtown Manhattan during July and August, against the use of federal grants by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is distributing the funds to residents of lower Manhattan. The workers called for 60,000 new jobs to be created, using $1.2 billion in federal aid. The corporation has helped distribute $17 billion already to businesses, organizations and residents involved in the rebuilding effort, but has not directly funded job creation.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation controls about $280 million in federal rent subsidies and grants available to downtown residents in the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center. Low-income Chinatown tenants can apply for grants, but many have been rejected because they lack formal written leases or their landlords have failed to repair building violations. The corporation has $50 million left over from these residential funds, with which it plans to subsidize middle-income housing units within future luxury housing developments in the downtown area.
DEEP CUTS MADE TO JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS
Last year, the city had a $151 million budget for job training and employment services. This sum included $57 million in federal Workforce Investment Act funds that the Giuliani administration had failed to spend. This year, the city has only $58 million for job training, and will have to sharply scale back its programs.
On July 16, Mayor Bloomberg formally transferred adult workforce programs from the city’s Department of Employment, which has been eliminated, to the Department of Small Business Services. The three programs transferred include the city’s three existing One-Stop job centers, and a fourth which has not yet been developed; these offer job hunting assistance to all New Yorkers, regardless of income. There is also the Individual Training Account program, which gives job hunters vouchers to pay for training at approved private providers; these have been put on hold until September. Third, the city holds contracts with 39 organizations offering job training and employment services to special populations and dislocated workers. Among others, “special populations” include former prison inmates, people with disabilities, and those with limited English language skills. The contractors have been told that their funds will be cut by two-thirds in the coming year.
THE WORKING POOR GET A SHORT BREATHER
Low-income working people -- such as childless adults earning less than $10,710 in 2002 -- are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which reduces their federal income tax obligations. The lowest-paid among them get a small check even though they owe, and pay, no taxes at all. The tax credit has become one of the largest sources of federal aid to the poor, with $32 billion in claims for last year. New York City households received $1.2 billion from the tax credit. Currently, one in 64 people who claims the Earned Income Tax Credit is audited.
The Internal Revenue Service believes that one in every three or four claims is not legitimate, often because children whose parents live in separate homes are claimed by both households. The agency announced in June 2002 that it would begin a pilot enforcement program in August 2003, under which 45,000 people would have to prove that their children lived with them for at least half of the year, before they could file claims for the tax credit. Opposition by advocates for the poor led the Internal Revenue Service to postpone the enforcement pilot until January 2004.
Eventually, anyone who files a claim for the Earned Income Tax Credit will have to provide such proof for each child listed as a dependent, except for married parents and single mothers. The requirement will affect grandparents, foster parents, stepparents, and single fathers.
The current application process requires 53 pages of instructions and worksheets. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs estimates that 230,000 eligible city residents are not claiming the tax credit each year, for a combined loss of nearly $500 million. Many more spend part of the tax credit on the services of tax preparers who fill out the forms.
RED TAPE HOBBLES NONTRADITIONAL FAMILIES
When children live with relatives other than two parents or a mother, their adult guardians face extra paperwork whenever they deal with authorities on behalf of the children. The forthcoming Earned Income Tax Credit demand for proof of the child’s residency, described above, is one such requirement.
Census data indicate that nearly one in four of the grandparents raising grandchildren in New York City is living in poverty. Many raise their children’s offspring with no support from the formal foster care system. Often they are not aware that they qualify for welfare, food stamps and services such as home care, day care, and counseling. Another option that grandparents may not know is that they—or any relative—can apply for formal foster parent status.
Child welfare workers will have to tell grandparents that they can become legal foster parents to their grandchildren, if Governor George Pataki signs a bill recently passed by the state legislature. Grandparents who choose this option receive a monthly stipend for each child, and the legal right to make decisions about the children’s schooling and medical care.
However, some grandparents who know about kinship foster care decide not to get involved with it. If they apply to be legal foster parents, the child welfare system will investigate their background and living situation, and gain the right to take the children away from them for breaking rules that natural parents do not have to follow. Once a child is in state custody—which must happen before grandparents can become foster parents—the system will seek to find a permanent home for him or her. The grandparents will be urged to adopt their grandchild, taking away their own children’s parental rights, or face losing the child to an unrelated adoptive family.
Linda Ostreicher, a former budget analyst for the New York City Council, is a freelance writer and consultant to nonprofits. She is currently on the staff of Bronx Independent Living Services.
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The one thing they did not do is let voters know where they stand on any issues -- not on housing, not on crime, not on taxes.
That is because the two women are facing off for Civil Court judge, a job which is supposed to be non-political. "Judicial candidates are not allowed to take positions on issues," said Jacob Walthour, Simpson's campaign manager and her husband. "They must remain independent, objective and fair."
While the office itself is supposed to be removed from politics, getting into such an office in New York City could not be more political.
Simpson and her opponent, Jimenez, who is already a Housing Court judge, have hired political consultants, accused one another of "carpet bagging" since both recently moved to Brooklyn, and attacked each other in the press. (Electing Simpson would give Brooklyn Democratic boss Clarence Norman "a new lease on life," says one side; Jimenez has surrounded herself with "shady characters," charges the other.) In other words, they have acted like politicians.
But tough campaigning is the least of the problems in New York's judicial system.
In the last year, three Brooklyn State Supreme Court Judges have been removed from their seats for bribery and other illegal activity. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is currently investigating Brooklyn Democratic Party Chairman Clarence Norman, looking into whether the party is selling judgeships.
Even if there were no scandals, the city's court system is so confusing and complex that it takes a New York State Supreme Court Justice to explain them (see "Guide to the Courts" by Justice Emily Jane Goodman).
Some say the system needs a complete overhaul. Others say that this will never happen, thanks to politics. Indeed, a plan created by the top judges of the state to reform and restructure the court system has been stuck in the state legislature for five years.
Meanwhile, the battles rage on.
BROOKLYN'S JUDICIAL MESS
"If you want to study how not to pick a judge," a recent editorial in the New York Times began, "the borough of Brooklyn is available."
Last year, former Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron pleaded guilty to taking bribes to fix divorce and child custody cases and is currently serving a sentence of three to nine years in prison. This summer, Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was indicted on charges that he fixed a divorce case in return for money and gifts. And Justice Reynold Mason was removed from the State Supreme Court for illegally taking money from an escrow account on a rent-controlled apartment in Flatbush, and using the money to make child support payments and political contributions.
The Brooklyn D.A.'s investigation of Clarence Norman includes a look at allegations that Norman demanded money from candidates for office in return for his endorsement. Candidates have told prosecutors that the party bosses demanded cash payments and required them to hire specific consultants. Anyone who does not go through the process, the candidates allege, is almost assured of defeat.
Beyond the specific charges of illegal activity, many say the entire system of electing and selecting judges is a game of political patronage.
For example, in order to become a State Supreme Court Judge in Brooklyn, a candidate must be selected by Chairman Norman. Those candidates are then referred to a screening panel that is also appointed by Chairman Norman. The 42 Democratic District leaders, who often have strong ties to the party, then screen the candidates. Finally, the judges are selected by a judicial convention, made up of various friends, relatives, business partners and employees of the party overseen by Chairman Norman.
Only after this process, does the voter, who often has no idea who the candidates are or how they were chosen, select a State Supreme Court Judge, who will serve on the bench for 14 years.
"There's a general feeling out there that the party has become a laughingstock of the state," Alan Fleishman, a Brooklyn Democratic district leader, told Newsday.
Brooklyn is not unique. Every borough runs in a similar fashion, which means that the city's judges are often selected more for their loyalty to the party than for their qualifications.
THE LONG RUNNING DEBATE -- APPOINTED VS. ELECTED
The "Tweed" County Courthouse that sits behind City Hall is a reminder of the historical links between corrupt politics and the courts in the city.
Built between 1862 and 1870, the old county courthouse with its arched windows and sunlit rotunda was supposed to cost $250,000. It ended up $13 million over budget, much of which was stolen by Tammany boss William M. Tweed and used for his Democratic political machine. (The building underwent another $100 million renovation beginning in 1999 and today houses offices for the Department of Education.)
The scandal surrounding the Tweed Courthouse helped spark two efforts for judicial reform in New York.
At the same time, citizens began to think that the system of elected judges, set out in the state's 1846 Constitution, wasn't such a good idea. The introduction of appointed judges became an attempt to keep the political parties out of the judicial system and streamline the system. In 1870, the Association of the Bar of New York City was founded to provide standards for lawyers and judges.
Today in New York City, judges are selected through a mix of elections and appointments. The mayor appoints local judges in Criminal and Family Courts. Elected judges serve on Civil, Surrogate's, and Supreme Courts.
But the fundamental argument is still unresolved. Should judges be appointed or elected by the people?
Advocates of appointment argue that judges cannot be independent if they are worried about raising campaign funds, presenting a public image, and are involved in a political process that is often corrupt. Most voters, they say, have little interest in or knowledge about judges running for seats.
Advocates of elections argue that judges should answer to the law and the people it sets out to protect, not the policymakers who appoint them. They criticize the mayor and the governor for using their political will in selections and say that appointed judges do not reflect the ethnic composition of the city.
And court positions still have plenty of connections to elected politicians, powerful lawyers, and local political parties vying for bragging rights. Although the starting salary of $125,600 a year for a Civil Court judge doesn't compare to what a lawyer can make in private practice, a local judgeship carries the prestige that can launch a career in politics or lead to promotions to higher courts.
With so much at stake, true reform is difficult.
NAVIGATING THE CITY SYSTEM
Jonathan Lippman, the Chief Administrator of State Courts, has called the New York City courts "the most complex, arcane court system in the country."
The city's court system, which produces about half of all the cases in the state, is a maze of trial divisions.
One example of how unwieldy the system can be is in how family issues are handled.
Child custody and visitation are handled in Family Court, but divorces can only be addressed in Supreme Court. So a family in a divorce can find itself bouncing back and forth between both courts, spending twice as much time and money than if it went through the same case living in the suburbs. Adoptions can be handled in either Family Court or Surrogate's Court depending on the conditions. If criminal charges such as abuse are involved in a domestic case, then it can spill over into Criminal Court.
THE LONG, HARD ROAD TO REFORM
In response to the Brooklyn judicial scandals, some changes have been made.
In July, the Brooklyn Democratic Party released the names of the 27 candidates running for State Supreme Court for the first time in the city's history; in the past these names were kept secret. And the party was also looking at new ways to appoint independent lawyers to the judicial screening panel.
But many legal reform groups say the whole system must be overhauled and favor a kind of third way known as merit or nomination systems.
A merit system uses nonpartisan commissions of lawyers and non-lawyers to find applicants for judgeships. The commission then submits the applicants to an appointing authority. For re-appointments, the judges are evaluated by commissions or voted on in an uncontested election.
In New York, judges in the Court of Appeals are selected through what its backers call a merit system, what its critics call a system of political appointment. But even proponents of a merit system concede that they won't be a widespread part of the New York courts anytime soon.
As far as the overall court structure, Chief Administrator of the State Courts, Jonathan Lippman and Chief Judge Judith Kaye first introduced a plan to reform the New York trial courts system in 1997. Numerous good government and judicial reform groups have supported the proposal.
Five years later, the proposal is still sitting in Albany.
"Judgeships are the last bastions of political patronage," said Barbara Reed of the Fund for Modern Courts. "They allow local party leaders to maintain control."