Violence and Childhood: How Persisting Fear Can Alter the Developing Child's Brain

Violence and Childhood: How Persisting Fear Can Alter the Developing Child's Brain - A Special ChildTrauma Academy WebSite version of:

The Neurodevelopmental Impact of Violence in Childhood
Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D.

The ChildTrauma Academy www.ChildTrauma.org Web Version DRAFT
Perry, B.D. (2001b). The neurodevelopmental impact of violence in childhood. In Schetky D & Benedek, E. (Eds.) Textbook of child and adolescent forensic psychiatry. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, Inc. (221-238)

Violence in Childhood: Scope of the Problem - Violence in the Home

Childhood is a dangerous time. For infants and children, survival is dependent upon adults, most typically, the nuclear family. It is in the family setting that the child is fed, clothed, sheltered, nurtured and educated. Unfortunately, it is in the familial incubator that children are most frequently manipulated, coerced, degraded, inoculated with destructive beliefs and exposed to violence.

The home is the most violent place in America (Straus, 1974). In 1995, the FBI reported that 27% of all violent crime involves family on family violence, 48% involved acquaintances with the violence often occurring in the home (National Incident-Based Reporting System, Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 1999). Children are often the witnesses to, or victims of, these violent crimes.
Violent crime statistics, however, grossly underestimate the prevalence of violence in the home. It is likely that less than 5% of all domestic violence results in a criminal report. Intra-familial abuse and domestic battery account for the majority of physical and emotional violence suffered by children in this country (see Koop et al., 1992; Horowitz et al., 1995; Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1995). This violence takes many forms. The child may witness the assault of her mother by father or boyfriend. The child may be the direct victim of violence - physical or emotional - from father, mother or even older siblings. Straus and Gelles (1996) have estimated that over 29 million children commit an act of violence against a sibling each year. The child may become the direct victim of the adult male if he or she tries to intervene and protect mother or sibling. While these all cause physical violence, an additional destructive element of this intra-familial toxicity is emotional violence - humiliation, coercion, degradation, and threat of abandonment or physical assault. http://www.childtrauma.org/ctamaterials/Vio_child.asp