There are certainly many factors that contribute to crime, and from the perspective of law enforcement, we have to treat them with equal seriousness. It's our duty to consider every strategy at our disposal to ensure that our communities are safe.

There's no question that involvement in crime often traces back to negative experiences during childhood. One of the most painful examples of this is children who are abused or neglected in their home.

While many children who experience abuse lead normal lives, research shows that survivors of abuse or neglect are significantly more likely to commit crimes and to abuse their own kids as adults.

New Mexico's law-enforcement agencies are working to keep our kids out of harm's way and to bring abusers to justice. But we need help on the prevention side. Too many kids are falling victim to this tragic cycle of abuse and violence — more than 6,000 in New Mexico in 2007.

This is an area where we could make great strides for public health and public safety through common-sense prevention measures. The current effort to reform our nation's health care system is a window of opportunity to save innocent children from the tragic and painful consequences of abuse, give them a healthier start to life, and give us a better shot at preventing crime.

Voluntary home-visitation programs have been proven to prevent child abuse and neglect by sending trained professionals to work with expectant mothers and new parents, helping them learn about the needs of young children and good-parenting skills.

The visits help improve children's health, wellness and nutrition, which is why they should be part of health-care reform; the visits also help prevent child abuse and neglect, and hence, crime in the long run, which is why my colleagues and I believe they are a worthwhile investment.

A study of the Nurse-Family Partnership, a home-visiting program that employs nurses, found that mothers who received the visits were half as likely to abuse or neglect their children as those who did not benefit from the program.

The benefits of the home-visiting program also extended to the community at large through reduced crime. Children with mothers who received the visits were 60 percent less likely to be arrested by age 15, compared to similar children whose mothers did not benefit from the intervention.

If we can take steps to prevent child abuse and neglect, it will not only have a dramatic impact on fostering healthier families, it will also bring significant savings to taxpayers.

Another study of Nurse-Family Partnership found that the program saved $18,000 for every family who received the nurse visits through reduced crime, welfare and other costs.

It's rare that we can find such potential for taxpayer savings, but when you consider the cost of locking up career criminals, it becomes clear that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

There is no excuse for abusing a child, but I would much rather provide resources and advice early on than deal with hardened criminals later.

We need a commitment to home-visiting to foster healthy families, break the cycle of abuse today, and make New Mexico a safer place tomorrow.

Faron W. Segotta is the chief of New Mexico State Police.