More youths arrested for hitting parents

Monday, August 28, 2006 A court official said children just don't follow the rules set by parents. CLEVELAND (AP) — Parents, judges and educators are concerned about the number of juveniles charged with domestic violence in Cuyahoga County, which has nearly doubled in the past decade. In the county, which includes Cleveland, the number of teens charged with domestic violence went from 504 in 1996 and to 977 last year, and some wonder whether many more cases aren't being reported. More kids sit in detention for abusing a household member than for robbery, assault or drug dealing. Some experts say parents have become more willing to report their children as abusers. Others say authorities are more apt to prosecute teens, rather than send them to counseling. Whatever the explanation, most experts say adolescent-to-parent abuse remains underreported. Researchers place the instances of children abusing parents — physically, mentally or emotionally — as high as 18 percent in two-parent homes and 30 percent in single-parent homes. An example Lisa Elek, an only child, was young when her parents divorced, and her mother remarried nine years ago. Shelly Court cleans houses and is a student at Lorain County Community College. "I just look at her sometimes and get annoyed," Elek, 14, said of her mother. "We've had so many fights." Court said her daughter started slipping from her control as a preteen by smoking and staying out past curfew. After Elek struck her mother last fall, a juvenile court magistrate placed her on probation and ordered Elek to observe a strict curfew, submit to random drug testing and attend school every day. "I see the same things over and over again," Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Magistrate Peter Murray said. "These kids simply don't want to follow the rules set by their parents." Jerome Price, of the Michigan Family Therapy Institute, attributes the problem to a power shift between parents and children. "It started in the 1960s when people began to view children as people with rights," Price said. "They should have rights, but we went too far and gave them equal rights." Complicating the issue, he said, is that corporal punishment fell out of favor but nothing replaced it as a tool for parents to control their children. Along with the imbalance of power came an acceptance of "bad" teenage behavior, said Bethel University researcher Nancy Eckstein. Parents often view these cases "as a temper tantrum gone awry" and hope their teens will "grow out of it." These parents frequently start with rules and guidelines, Eckstein said, "but they get tired and worn down" and eventually give up. Juvenile public defender Salvatore Amata, whose office every year represents hundreds of juveniles charged with domestic violence, said experts might be overthinking the problem. What happens Kids are often arrested, he said, because it's the simplest solution for police, even though most fights are "mutual combat." It's against the law for kids to hit their parents but it's not against the law for parents to hit their kids, Amata said. Amata doesn't think society should be saddled with the blame. The parents he meets on the job often aren't ideal. "They are often overworked, overwhelmed and don't spend much time with their kids," or have themselves been abused or battered in front of their children. "So when they — parents — try and exert themselves, they get this reaction," Amata said. Juvenile prosecutor Carmen Naso agrees that the reasons behind the violence may be more personal than societal. In the past, many of these kids were labeled unruly and sent to counseling. But these days if a kid hits a parent, he won't get a break, Naso said. Most police departments have stringent rules about making an arrest if there are signs of violence in the home. "Twenty or 25 years ago, the preferred course was keeping the peace — not making an arrest," Lakewood Police Chief Tim Malley said. Court officials and counselors say there must be better approaches to the problem. Amata proposes a safe place where children could go to cool down and be linked with counselors instead of sent to court. The court is also developing a program to work with families before and after a juvenile appears in court, said Juvenile Court Administrator Ken Lusnia. "It's very important for us to intervene quickly with domestic violence," he said. "But unlike offenses where the court traditionally focuses on the juvenile, with this we really need to focus on the whole family."