Study: Fewer kids living in violent households

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says the number of children living in violent households fell by 68 percent over an 18-year period.

The department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in 2010, about 2.8 million children lived in households where at least one member age 12 or older was the victim of a nonfatal violent crime. That represents 3.9 percent of children living in U.S. households.

In 1993, an estimated 8.7 million children, or 12.6 percent of all children, lived in such households.

The report says that the decline corresponds with the well-known drop in violent victimization among the entire population during the same period.

The report also finds that violent crime was twice as prevalent in households with children compared with childless households in 2010.