NCJ Number
207200
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 13 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2004 Pages: 246-262
Editor(s)
David Gough,
Nicky Stanley
Date Published
July 2004
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines multiple forms of violence and other criminal activities as indicators of severe child maltreatment.
Abstract
Organizations responsible for child protection typically investigate and respond to specific occurrences of child physical, sexual, and psychological maltreatment, and child neglect as events largely isolated from other family violence and criminal activities. Work at the National Research Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse suggests that in families where a child is severely maltreated, not only is violence between child-caring partners likely to be present, but there is also likely to be other types of violence and other criminal activity. A literature review found that while these studies note that protective workers take little account of violence between child carers, the failure of protective workers to consider other violence, and other criminal activity, is not mentioned. Findings are presented from a study which examined the presence of family violence and other criminal activity recorded in the child protection case files of 50 children who had been severely abused. The children, 24 males and 26 females, ranged in age from under 12 months to 17 years. The findings reveal that many children who had experienced serious abuse and/or neglect also experienced family violence and other criminal activities, and sometimes other problem behaviors. These findings suggest that severe maltreatment of children is often associated with other criminal and antisocial behavior, both inside and outside the family, and it is the frequency and severity and combinations of crime, both inside and outside the family, that may be an important benchmark in identifying severe and often intransigent child maltreatment. References and 3 tables