What people should know about child abuse Part I

Child abuse is still an unfortunately large problem in our society today. Just recently a child abuse case against a dormitory employee at the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls made headlines. Oprah released this public statement, “Nothing is more serious or devastating to me than the allegation of misconduct by an adult against any girl at the academy.” This case is still under investigation.

This blog will be a two part series. Monday’s blog will deal with how to recognize abuse and solutions, while today’s will be an introduction on the scale of the problem.

Here are some of the daunting statistics from US Department of Health and Human Services Child Maltreatment report in 2004: These are only estimates and vary year to year and according to research.

• Child protective services across the country found an estimated 896,000 children to be victims of maltreatment (i.e. neglect or abuse).

• An average of nearly 4 children die every day as a result of child abuse or neglect.

• Children of all ethnicities and races experience child abuse.

• Children of all ages experience abuse and neglect, but the younger children are more vulnerable. 41 percent of all abuse-related deaths reported in 2002 involved children younger than 1 years old and those younger than 4 accounted for 76 percent of deaths.

• 61 percent of child maltreatment victims suffered neglect; 19 percent were physically abused; 10 percent were sexually abused; and 7 percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated. In addition, 18.9 percent of victims experienced “other” types of maltreatment.

• 52 percent of child maltreatment victims were girls and 48 percent were boys.

• Approximately 40 percent of child victims were maltreated solely by their mothers; another 19 percent were maltreated solely by their fathers; 18 percent were abused by both parents. Child victims abused by a non-parental perpetrator accounted for 13 percent of the total.

Additional Resources:

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families published a Child Maltreatment manual in 2005 that has collected case level data on all children who have received assessment or investigation by Child protective services.

• Child Welfare Information Gateway also has statistics including pie charts.

I know these are difficult to read and most don’t want to, but I believe that steps in dealing with most difficult issues start from knowledge and understanding.