Violence, Effects on Development

G. Anne Bogat & Kerry L. Leahy & Janeen A. Demarte & Alexander von Eye

Since the early 1990s, the amount of research on the effects of community violence on children and adolescents has increased dramatically, and a number of excellent review articles have been published (Jonson-Reid, 1998; Margolin & Gordis, 2000; Overstreet & Mazza, 2003; Salzinger, Feldman, Stockhammer, & Hood, 2002). Although our understanding of violence exposure has increased, many questions still remain. Exposure to community violence can be defined in two ways. The first, most narrow definition indicates that an individual has directly witnessed or experienced an act of violence in his or her community. The exposure can be chronic (e.g., living in a community with high levels of violent crime) or acute (e.g., witnessing a sniper episode). The second, broader definition encompasses the perceived fear of violence in the community where one lives. The second definition is rarely used, even though there is some indication that the threat of violence might act ...

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