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Data shows how exposure to violence impacts Indiana kids

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – New research shows the number of Indiana children who have witnessed or been a victim of a crime in their own neighborhood is higher than the national average. The data is from a yearly research project from the Indiana Youth Institute.

It shows 10.5 percent of Indiana children under the age of 17 have witnessed or been a victim of neighborhood violence, compared to 8.6 percent nationally. The data also showed an increase in homicides among young people. According to IYI, the number of homicide deaths among children ages 1-19 jumped from 35 in 2012 to 65 in 2013.

Experts said the exposure to violence can negatively impact kids their entire life, but some groups in Indianapolis, like Shepherd Community Center, are working to change that. Shepherd Community center sits in one of the neighborhoods IMPD says is the city’s most dangerous, near New York and Sherman.

“Probably a majority of the kids in the neighborhood that surround us here have been exposed to violence in some way or another — either directly, or indirectly,” said Andrew Green with Shepherd Community Center.

For some children, the violence isn’t just in their neighborhood. It’s in their home. IYI reports 10.1 percent of Hoosier kids over 6 years old have seen an adult in the home assault someone else.

“It’s just not something that most people would think would be a part of every day life. However, depending on where you live — violence can be a part of your every day life,” said Glenn Augustine, IYI interim CEO.

That was especially true during 2015. It was Indianapolis’ deadliest year ever, with 144 homicides. Even if children didn’t see those crimes happen, they heard about them. Sometimes the young murder victims, like DeShaun Swanson, were their age.

“When children are exposed to violence at a young age and never get the opportunity to really deal with that, they may become the perpetrators later on in life,” said Augustine.

“You just see the fact that kids end up growing up without much hope for a future story. Without much hope for what’s next beyond today. When you’re seeing violence in front of you, when you’re hearing about violence at school, you start to think that’s what’s in store for your life and you can’t see much beyond that. So it ends up impacting kids immediately with their own behavior, potentially from what they see happening around them. Even just in their emotional mindset of this is the expectation of what happens in life is violence,” said Green.

That’s why Green and others at Shepherd Community Center work to get children thinking about their future.

“Whether it’s doing an art project about what would you like to be when you grow up, just having conversation with kids about what is a future story look like beyond high school for you. Beyond what’s happening in this immediate situation what can you dream about that’s positive?” said Green.

Green and Augustine said children need help dealing with their feelings and emotions after witnessing violence.

“Recently, we were asked to help in one of our local schools here because they had a student who had been murdered. We were asked to come in and support kids as they dealt with that trauma — one of their classmates being murdered. You think about what kind of impact, and how does a kid process that if they don’t have someone around to talk about that with them?” said Green. “To think through what kind of impact that has on them, whether in their own behavior or in their own thoughts. So having opportunities like that to come along students and kids in our neighborhood, to give an outlet to process what violence and exposure to violence looks like and think of a different route going forward.”

Augustine said it’s important for parents to encourage their children to talk about their feelings, but he said not to pressure them. Augustine also suggested having children draw pictures if they don’t want to speak about the issues.

“It’s one of those areas where parents are key as communicators to talk to their children about what’s happening in life, and try to get their children to express their emotions, so parents can assess whether this is a situation a parent can handle themselves or whether they need to try and get a professional involved so they get the child the treatment that they need,” said Augustine.

24-Hour News 8 will look at more issues covered in the 2016 Data Book all this week on Daybreak. You can read the research here.