VI. Appendices Appendix

Appendix D: Substance Abuse by Parents; Witnessing Domestic Violence

Alcohol and/or drug abuse during its mother’s pregnancy, can predispose a child to hyperactivity.D1 AlcoholD2 and drug abuse by a parent after the child is born has the potential for further damage. The potential for violent behavior by an alcoholic or drug abusing parent is increased;D3 the parent’s ability to provide nurturing, discipline, and positive reinforcement for a child is decreased.

Domestic violence, with or without alcohol abuse, also reduces a child’s resiliency to violence. “We also know that children exposed to violence early in their lives from child abuse and the witnessing of domestic violence are at greater risk for involvement with violence as they grow up. We need to begin to more aggressively screen for violence in families in every setting, provide the resources, services, and counseling necessary to address the problem, protect the victims, and reduce the longer-term consequences of the exposure.”D4

Appendix D Footnotes:

D1. “Cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs of abuse, which are taken by an increasing number of pregnant American women, may also reset the chemical balances in the brains of their fetuses. Drug use in pregnancy already is linked to an increased rate of hyperactivity in children. Ronald Kotulak, Inside the Brain at 72 (1997).

D2. “Nearly 14 million Americans are dependent on alcohol. Their inability to control the amount they drink costs the nation more than $100 billion annually in medical care and lost work. One out of four hospital patients has an illness brought on by drinking. Alcohol accounts for one out of every twenty deaths in this country. “One of the overwhelming statistics that should impress everybody is the fact that about 60 percent of all violent acts, whether murders, child abuse, family abuse, assaults, or felonies are associated with the consumption of alcohol,” said psychopharmacologist Klaus Miczek of Tufts University. “If you want to make a dent in the violence problem, alcohol wouldn’t be a bad place to start.” Ronald Kotulak, Inside the Brain at 115 (1997).

D3. Supra note 2.

D4. Howard Spivak and Deborah Prothrow-Stith, The Next Tragedy of Jonesboro, BOSTON GLOBE, April 25, 1997, pg. D7.