NCJ Number
148387
Journal
American Psychologist Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1994) Pages: 173-183
Date Published
1994
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article reviews findings on the incidence, risk factors, and effects of child victimization and suggests integrative concepts for future research in this field.
Abstract
Children suffer more victimizations than adults, including more conventional crimes, family violence, and family-related abduction. Child victimizations can be grouped into three broad categories including the pandemic (sibling assault, affecting most children), the acute (physical abuse, affecting a small but significant minority), and the extraordinary (homicide, affecting a very small group). The main status characteristic of childhood is its condition of dependency; the dependency of children creates a spectrum of vulnerability for victimizations. At the extreme end of this continuum would be crimes such as physical neglect, which occur because the child is totally dependent on an adult; at the other end would be crimes such as homicide and stranger abduction, which are not primarily defined by the victim's dependency status. The study of the victimization of children should take a developmental approach to understanding their vulnerability to different types of victimizations and their different effects. 5 tables, 4 figures, 3 notes, and 57 references