Problem of Child Abuse and How Justice Deals With It (From Verbrechensopfer, P 337-362, 1979, Gerd Ferdinand Kirchhoff and Klaus Sessar, ed. - See NCJ-72716)

• NCJ Number: 72732
• Author(s): U Baumann; J Fehervary
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: Studienverlag Dr N Brockmeyer
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: German
• Country: West Germany (Former)
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

A study describes characteristics of abused children, characteristics of abusive offenders, and factors affecting intervention in abuse cases.

Abstract

Data derive from official records of a representative sample of 167 children reported abused in Baden-Wurttemberg during 1970 and 1971. Findings indicate distribution of abuse cases over childhood years (infants, 10 percent; children under 6, 36.2 percent; children between 6 and 10, 35.5 percent). Boys and girls are almost equally threatened. Unwanted children (e.g., illegitimate children or stepchildren tend to be overrepresented among abuse cases. Most common forms of abuse are beatings with hands or an object, especially on the head. Illness, retardation, and messiness are frequently causative factors in young children, while specific factors are difficult to determine for older children. Offenders are usually between 30 and 30-and-40-year-old males (65.9 percent), of the lower classes (but may belong to any class), without previous criminal records (66.3 percent), who resort to abuse for a variety of reasons ranging from discipline problens, uncontrollable anger, and alcohol consumption to rejection of the child. Prosecutions are not the rule: 48.8 percent of the cases are dropped for lack of evidence and 19.5 percent for inadequate culpability. Only 31.7 percent of the cases are successfully prosecuted. Cases are most frequently abandoned when children are legitimate and only slightly injured, while mention of messiness as a reason for beating a child is likely to lead to court action. The offender characteristic most likely to prompt prosecution is a previous criminal record. Rejection of the child as a motive for beatings also encourages pursuit of court action. The difficulties of proving abuse are aggravated by naive physicians' misdiagnoses. Various researchers agree that court action extinguishes all hope of improving family situations. Therefore, preventive measures such as obligatory abuse reporting laws and institution of child protection centers and new laws providing assistance to children injured even under unexplained circumstances are recommended. Notes, tables, and a 63-item bibliography are supplied.