How Domestic Violence In One Home Affects Every Child In A Class Scott Carrell quoted on NPR
NPR, September 3, 2016
Every Monday morning at Harvie Elementary School, in Henrico
County, Va., Brett Welch stands outside her office door as kids
file in.
“The first thing I’m looking for are the faces,” says Welch, a
school counselor. She’s searching for hints of fear, pain or
anger.
“Maybe there was a domestic incident at the house that weekend,”
says Welch. “That’s reality for a lot of our kids.”
“It’s a sad story,” says Scott Carrell, economist at the
University of California, Davis, who has studied this for over a
decade.
But, he says, there’s one thing he and his colleagues —
economists Mark Hoekstra and Elira Kuka — found that can improve
the situation “not only for that family but for all the child’s
classmates.” What was it? Reporting domestic violence when it
happens.
Elira Kuka is a PhD candidate in the Department of Economics at
the University of California, Davis. Her research interests lie
in public economics and public finance.
