ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 21, 1996 TAG: 9610220006
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
THE FBI'S latest report, showing the crime rate at its lowest level in 10 years, is welcome news. This newspaper headlined the front-page story: ``U.S. safer now than in a decade.''
There's no evidence, however, that American children feel safer. This is not surprising. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, children are killed with guns at the rate of 15 a day in this country. The number of juveniles murdered in 1994 was 47 percent higher than in 1980. Children ages 12 to 17 are five times more likely to be murder victims than over-35 adults.
And, in a study commissioned by the nonpartisan Children's Institute International, nearly half of the 12- to 17-year-olds surveyed thought their schools are getting more dangerous - even though many schools have become fortresses, with metal detectors, security guards and drug-sniffing dogs.
As The Christian Science Monitor recently put it: ``The great majority of children and young people today, regardless of their home address, have not been shot, abused or joined gangs ... . But the prevalence of violence in or near young lives, or their fear of violence, is now the common denominator, despite new figures showing that violent crime has dropped ... .''
Last Monday, we published letters responding to a Readers Forum question: ``What significant issues are the candidates ignoring?'' None of those letter writers mentioned crime and violence and the fear of them in children's lives. But numerous law-enforcement officials recently banned together to complain that political candidates are ignoring this issue and the necessary responses.
Among responses cited: child-abuse prevention programs, early-intervention and counseling initiatives for at-risk kids, organized after-school activities. Most candidates, while talking tough on crime, don't focus enough on prevention efforts aimed at kids.
Perhaps the first-in-a-decade drop in the overall crime rate will prove a trend. Maybe in another 10 years, violence and the fear of it won't be a common denominator in the lives of kids. But the number of teen-agers in America is about to swell rapidly, as baby boomers' children grow older, and that in itself argues for more planning and prevention.
Tough-on-crime candidates would do well to take a cue from Fraternal Order of Police President Gilbert Gallegos. ``When the peak hours for juvenile crime are between school dismissal and 6 p.m.," he says, "it's common sense to cut crime by providing after-school programs. When being abused doubles a kid's risk of growing up to be a violent criminal, it's common sense to provide the parenting education that prevents abuse, and to quit shortchanging child-protective services. And it's just common sense to invest in the early-childhood programs that dramatically cut the risk that kids will grow up to be criminals.''
It sure makes sense to us.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB