NCJ Number
186143
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 9 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 2000 Pages: 311-320
Editor(s)
Margaret A. Lynch,
David Gough
Date Published
2000
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study looked at patterns of child abuse in a pre-school population using a sample of children in a local cohort in Avon, England, who were investigated for abuse or placed on the Child Protection Register (CPR).
Abstract
Of 14,138 children in the cohort, 329 were investigated for suspected child abuse and 163 were placed on the CPR over an 8-year period. Physical injury and neglect accounted for 31.7 percent and 29 percent of registrations in the study group, respectively. These proportions were similar to those for children of all ages in Avon. In contrast, sexual abuse accounted for 10.9 percent in the cohort compared to 21.1 percent for all ages. Emotional abuse represented just 1.8 percent of investigations but 25.1 percent of all registrations in the cohort, compared to 14.4 percent of registrations for all ages. In the study, 255 parents (1.8 percent) reported physical abuse of their children by themselves or their partners at some stage in the first 3 years; 772 (5.4 percent) reported some emotional abuse. The author concludes the importance of the emotional abuse of children is increasingly being recognized by professionals but even more so by parents whose concerns related to both physical abuse and emotional abuse are not being identified by existing child protection procedures. 11 references and 3 tables