Community Violence: How it affects a child

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Being a Witness To Crime!

Jacqueline Allen!
National Louis University!

Community Violence: How it affects a child

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Abstract!

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According to a study conducted in 1995 there are significant affects to the health

of a person once having been exposed to community violence, specifically when the
individual being exposed is a within the child-adolescent age (Cooley-Quille et al. 1995).
Most studies about community violence are conducted in a way that gives a majority of
the attention to the one causing the violence/crime or to the direct victim. This paper will
highlight the little research that has been done to shed light on the affects that
community violence brings to the innocent bystanders: children and adolescents that
witness the act or that have a family member/friend that was a victim of a violent act. !

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Community Violence: How it affects a child

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Community violence can be defined as an intentional act intended to bring upon

harm to an individual or group in a community (Cooley-Quille et al. 1995). These acts

can include incidents like shootings, fights, aggression, inter-parental conflict or
domestic abuse. In a Psychological Journal article entitled The prevalence of
depression among low-income African American youth a sad toll of was taken of
children living in urban areas. According to this journal, 80% of the children reported to
have witnessed some form of community violence (Fitzpatrick and Boldizar 1993;
Gladstein et al. 1992; Kliewer et al. 1998). Studies conducted in Chicago public schools
seem to show that 70% of shootings that youth witness, involve a friend/family member,
10% being a sibling or parent. These numbers are devastatingly high. Community
violence has affected a majority of children within urban areas and its affects on their
mental health are very significant.
Among the many affects that community violence can bring upon the young
witnesses, within the child-adolescent age range, some noteworthy ones include the
following: anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, disruptive and aggressive
behavior, substance and drug use, inability and no desire to focus in school, and being
unsuccessful in academics (Cooley-Quille et al. 2001). All the studies seem to show that
when a child is exposed to community violence they tend to have trouble regulating their
emotions: they externalize behavior by being overly aggressive and internalize emotions
like anxiety and fear.
It is particularly important to understand the role that anxiety plays, which is a
common experience that could rage rampant in a child that has been exposed to this
type of violence and can lead the child into a rather vicious cycle of aggression if not

Community Violence: How it affects a child

dealt with. Anxiety within a child correlates with aggressive behavior because children
that feel anxious tend to react aggressively in situations that seem foreign or unclear to
them. For many of these children to act aggressively is a defense mechanism that they
use in times of trouble (Kashani et al. 1991). Most children having been exposed to
community violence have unconsciously learned that overly aggressive behavior can
get them what they want. They learn to keep many aggressive acts and responses
handy if they feel even a slightly hostile situation is about to arise. Generally speaking,
studies seem to show, that children exposed to violence and that act out aggressively,
view aggressive behavior as more effective in getting them what they would like as
opposed to productive ways of dealing with conflict (Bandura 1973).
One way to combat this is to educate our children-adolescents on proper and
healthy emotion regulation and to point our children to the future and how the responses
that they choose will affect them in the long run. I believe this is one way to help
children who have witnessed crime because research suggests that problems
regulating emotions does play a vital part in the issues that children that witness
community crime are facing. When a child that has witnessed a crime does not know
how to properly regulate their emotions it does not help them to cope with what they
witnessed in healthy ways, nor to handle future stressful/hostile situations. According to
Mushe-Eisenman, Poor emotion regulation may contribute to poor processing of social
cues and impulsive, aggressive behavior in ambiguous and potentially conflictual
situations (Mushe-Eizenman et al. 2004). Although working with children who have
witnessed community violence can seem as a hard task we cannot afford not to do
something.

Community Violence: How it affects a child

In the following pages I have created a group that I have names Drawing-IN .
Drawing-IN is a group that has been designed to use art activities to educate and
teach children who have witnessed crime and violence about how to identify and
process their emotions in productive ways. I believe that using art activities is a very
affective bridge to help children to be able to grasp the concepts that will be taught to
them and that the same time to allow them to express their emotions when their worlds
will not allow. This group is designed for a group of 7 children, ages 9-13 to dive deeper
and to draw in to the emotions within them in a way that allows them to better be able to
identity and regulate. This group is designed for 1-hour weekly sessions for six weeks.
Screening will take place by allowing parents to sign their child up. I will interview and
really make the commitment of the group clear to the parent. I will accept the first seven
children that I feel the group will help.

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Drawing-IN:
using art activities to educate and teach children who have witnessed crime and violence about
how to identify and process their emotions in productive ways. !

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WEEK ONE - introduction to group (get acquainted - ice breaker games/food) !

Introduction to how we are going to use art to learn about how to deal with emotions!
Group Rules Activity: allow the group to come up with rules that we all agree upon!

WEEK TWO - Emotions! (Anger/aggression, Joy, Fear, Sadness/depression) (PAINT out each
emotion activity - - paint on one side of paper and on other side write words to describe what its
like when you/someone would be feeling the emotionalso on this side of that side of the paper
I will provide an easy to understand definition that they will write out) - - make into a booklet.
(items needed: paint, paint brushes, tarp, string, whole puncher) !

WEEK THREE - Self Talk - - affects our feelings which affect our behavior !
Split group into two: Have both teams decorate and color many envelops/boxes. Make them !
beautiful!!!!
Team #1: write positive statements/positive potential action on a piece of paper! !
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Community Violence: How it affects a child

Team #2 Write negative statements/negative potential action on a sheet of paper (negative
thoughts we may have about ourselves) (dont share with the other team what statements the
other team is writing!
Have each group put there letters into the envelopes/boxes !

Teach group about what self-talk is..how its kinda like receiving a message in the mail and we
can choose to accept it or not. go through each piece of mail and decide as a group if it should
be received or not. Have a stamp that says REJECTED on it and allow each child to stamp the
pieces of mail that they choose not to receive!

WEEK FOUR - Drawing-IN to not Act out: (Body tracing project) - - learning to deal with Anger/
aggression/sadness. !
*Get with a partner and trace each others bodies on a big piece of paper* !
*On your Head: use colors/draw write our productive actions/self-talk to do when you feel angry/
sad/aggressive/depressed!
*Stomach: gut response to sadness/anger/depression/aggression!

(Make a list in these places: On your head: write/draw productive and thoughtful ways of
expressing these emotions, In your stomach write/draw unproductive and negative gut reactions
that one may have when expressing these emotions (split group up to make pros/cons of a few
of these)!

Close with miracle question: If you could wake up tomorrow and be anything you !!
wanted what kind of person would you be? On there legs and feet have the pre-! !
teens write out the kind of person they want to be and where they want to go as !!
adults.!

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WEEK FIVE - HOPE - - Bring something to the session that you will present to everyone (song/
picture/etc.) that makes you feel peaceful and safe..!

Clay project - - of handprint - - what do you want your life to be marked by? This ! !
was introduced last week you can use what you wrote on your legs and feet ! !
during the body tracing project to help you decide what it is that you would like to !
writeone sentence or statement that marks the type of person that you want to !!
be known forthis will serve as a reminder to who and how you want to be when !
things get hard for you !

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WEEK SIX - Termination - - How are we going to use this at home: Make a play: split group up
in two and have them each make up a play: talk about what we have learned how we can take
what we have learned and be uncommon people (people that teach others what we have
learned and people that use what we learn!!) . Everyone go around and say the statement that
you wrote out on your Clay hand print.!

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Community Violence: How it affects a child

Work Cited!

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Bandura, A. (1973). Aggression: A social learning analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. !
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Cooley-Quille, M. R., Turner, S. M., & Beidel, D. C. (1995). The emotional impact of childrens !
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exposure to community violence: A preliminary study. Journal of the American Academy !
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of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,34, 13621368.!

Fitzpatrick, K. M., & Boldizar, J. P. (1993). The prevalence of depression among low-income !
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African American youth. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,61, 528531.!
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Kashani, J. H., Deuser, W., & Reid, J. C. (1991). Aggression and anxiety: A new look at an old !
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notion. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,30, 218!
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223.!

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Mushe-Eizenman, D. R., Boxer, P., Danner, S., Dubow, E. F., Goldstein, S. E., & Heretick, D. M.
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L. (2004). Social-cognitive mediators of the relation of environmental and emotion !
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regulation factors to childrens aggression. Aggressive Behavior,30, 389408.