WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials said Wed nesday that most children in the United States are exposed to violence in their daily lives — but a leading criminologist warned that the government- sponsored survey may be lumping serious and minor incidents together.
More than 60 percent of children surveyed were exposed to violence within the past year, either directly or indirectly, according to data compiled by the department. The survey’s authors defined exposure to violence as being a victim, or having witnessed violence, or learning about violence against a relative or friend, or hearing about a threat to their school or home.
That approach raised questions for some.
“What concerns me when you hear numbers like this is that in their attempt to be inclusive, which is commendable, the definition of violence becomes so broad that the results lack real meaning,” said James Alan Fox, criminal-justice professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “If you broaden the definition of violence so much, then most people will be included.”
Nearly half of all children surveyed were assaulted at least once in the past year, and about 6 percent were victimized sexually, the survey found. One in every five of those between the ages of 14 and 17 reported they had seen a shooting.
“Those numbers are astonishing, and they are unacceptable,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in Chicago, where he was meeting with local officials to discuss the disturbing beating death of a high school student by other teens.
“We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which today’s victims become tomorrow’s criminals.”
Among the survey’s other findings:
• Nearly one in every 10 children said they saw one family member assault another in the past year.
• More than half of the children, about 57 percent, reported having been assaulted at some point in their life.
• Thirteen percent reported having been physically bullied in the past year.
The results were based on telephone interviews of 4,549 kids and adolescents ages 17 and younger between January and May 2008.
The attorney general and Education Secretary Arne Duncan were in Chicago on Wed nesday to meet with local officials, parents and students to discuss the vicious beating death of a 16-year-old high school student last month.
