NCJ Number
186919
Editor(s)
Beth M. Schwartz-Kenney,
Michelle McCauley,
Michelle A. Epstein
Date Published
2001
Length
289 pages
Annotation
Experts from 16 countries discuss the issues of child abuse and neglect in their countries, including the history of child abuse and neglect, legal definitions of abuse, the prevalence of abuse, children's role in the legal system, and penalties for abusing a child.
Abstract
In addition, authors review the resources available for investigating allegations of abuse, for treating victims and occasionally perpetrators, and for obtaining statistics on abuse and neglect. Similar topic headings are used in each chapter to help readers compare issues across countries. A brief demographic description of each country is provided at the beginning of each chapter. The countries included in the survey are Australia, Canada, England, India, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, and the United States. The chapters show an overlap in the problems faced by each country regardless of its economic resources, political structure, or whether the majority of the people live in urban or rural regions. For example, many authors note that their societies have only recently acknowledged the existence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect. Many chapters show the ongoing struggle to find adequate definitions of child abuse and the need to draw distinctions between acceptable traditional child-rearing practices and inappropriate child maltreatment. Many authors express frustration with the lack of monetary, organizational, and informational resources for dealing with newly recognized child abuse and maltreatment problems. Even countries with a long history of addressing these problems apparently have difficulty funding the governmental and social agencies needed to prevent and treat the problem and collect adequate information on the prevalence of child abuse and maltreatment. Chapter references and a subject index