DIFFERENT FORMS OF CHILD ABUSE

Hilary Lapsley, in The Measurement of Family Violence: A CriticalReview of the Literature, Social Policy Agency (NZ), 1993, presents the following table on p.28, reporting the results of a study by the US National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect:

Table 2

Incidence of Different Forms of Child Abuse

Maltreatment..............................................Number of......................Incidence rate

Total, all maltreated children.......................652,000..............................10.5

Total, all abused children.............................351,100................................5.7

Physical assault............................................207,600................................3.4

Sexual exploitation..........................................44,700................................0.7

Emotional abuse............................................138,400................................2.2

Total, all neglected children...........................329,000................................5.3

Physical neglect..............................................108,000................................1.7

Educational neglect.........................................181,500................................2.9

Emotional neglect..............................................59,400...............................1.0

Severity of injury/impairment

Fatal.....................................................................1,000.............................0.02

Serious..............................................................136,900...............................2.2

Moderate..........................................................410,300...............................6.6

Probable............................................................101,700...............................1.6

Link to some more recent US child abuse data on the Men's Issues page:

Child Abuse and Neglect Statistics from the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, April, 1995

and another link to some official US data.

Stuart Birks

Last modified 23 July, 1996