Violence against parents an 'alarming trend'

[TexasLawyer]

April 13, 2007, 2:59PM
Violence against guardians an 'alarming trend'

By PAIGE HEWITT
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Many times the victims are bruised in a fight or shoved down stairs. Others are stabbed with scissors. Last November, one was beaten to death with a hammer. And the suspects, in more than 1,800 cases documented in Harris County over a recent 2½-year period, were their children.

One longtime prosecutor in the juvenile courts said he was "floored by the numbers" after a survey found 1,831 young people had been charged with assaulting a parent or guardian. Another called it an "alarming, alarming trend."

Assistant District Attorney Bill Hawkins, chief of the division that prosecutes offenders age 10 to 16 in Harris County, said office chatter last year suggested there might be a sharp increase in the number of children attacking parents. Because those cases are not routinely tracked by the courts or police, his office inventoried juvenile cases filed between January 2003 and last June.

"Those are just the (felony and Class A misdemeanor assault) cases where charges were accepted," Hawkins said. "That does not include Class C misdemeanors. Plus, there is a much larger figure that is not reported."

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http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4711186.html

[Monkeyman]

1. I just look at my son a certain way gone into his room

But this crap sucks