Abuse

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Menstuff® has compiled information, books and resources on the issue of abuse.

Disclaimer - Information is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice or professional services. Any medical decisions should be made in conjunction with your physician. We will not be liable for any complications, injuries or other medical accidents arising from or in connection with, the use of or reliance upon any information on the web.

Abuse Definitions

• Abuse - Elder
• Abuse - Emotional
• Abuse - Intellectual
• Abuse - Physical
• Abuse - Ritual
• Abuse - Sexual
• Abuse - Spiritual
• Abuse - Psychological
• Exploitation

The Big Secret
Abusive Behaviors
Reporting Abuse
About Male Sexual Victimization
Myths about Male Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse of Boys
What To Do
Smacking Hurts Parents Too
National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information
Information on Child Abuse
Stand for Children
Double-Standard Treatment for Child Abusers
Breakdown of Substantiated Cases of Child Abuse
Protecting Children from Abuse & Neglect
False Allegations
Impact from False Charges
Snippets on Child Abuse & Neglect
The Story of the Blue Ribbon
Things You Can Do to Prevent Child Abuse
Newsbytes

• Abuse Claims in Scout-Police Program
• How Harmful is Childhood Trauma?
• Psychological, Physical Abuse Equally Harmful To Health
• Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community
• Catholics more obsessive?
• Mom Strips for Her 10-Year Old Daughter's Birthday Party Guests
• Substance Abuse - "Abolish CSAP!" The right reaction to the Sommers CSAP Outrage
• Sexual abuse in girls leads to later substance abuse

Stop Being a Victim
Resources
Related Issues: Talking With Kids About Tough Issues, Abued Boys, Children, Circumcision, Gangs, Hazing, Incest/Molestation, Malstreatment, Ritual Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Sexual Harassment, Violence, Domestic Violence, Women's Violence and Prisons.
Books - Abuse - Boys, Abuse - Children, Abuse - MPD, Abuse - Ritual, Abuse-Sexual, Circumcision, Anger, Forgiveness, Violence, Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence, Sexual Harassment, and Women's Violence
Journals & Periodicals - on Child, Elder, Emotional, Religious, and Sexual Abuse and Trauma
Bumper Sticker - Make the World Safe for Children

Definitions of Abuse

• Emotional: Major caregiver refuses to let child express feelings, shames a child for his/her feelings or demonstrates improper expression of his/her feelings in front of the child. Denying noncustodial parent unencumbered visitation. (Book.)
• Intellectual: Attacks on the child's thinking process, over-control of the expression of the child's thoughts and failure on the part of the major caregiver to teach logical thinking and problem solving.
• Physical: includes abject, use of implements, face slapping, shaking, hair pulling, head banging, tickling into hysteria, lack of appropriate physical nurturing and intrusive procedures. Request for information on services: for men battered by men; men battered by women, for male batterers and for female batterers. See the issue of Abuse - Physical and Domestic Violence and resources for Alternatives to Violence".
• Sexual: "Physical sexual" involving intercourse, oral sex, anal sex, masturbation of the child, having a child masturbate an adult, sexual touching (fondling), sexual kissing and sexual hugging; "overt/explicit" involving voyeurism or exhibitionism; "covert" involving verbal sexual abuse or lack of appropriate boundary setting with the child; "Emotional sexual" involving emotional enmeshment by the parent, child witness to sexual abuse or not providing appropriate and healthy sexuality information Request information on services: men molested as children; men incested as children; men raped as children or adults (by a male; by a female); women molested as children; women incested as children; women raped as children or adults (by a male; by a female); partners of male incest/molestation survivors; partners of female incest/molestation survivors. See Issues on Incest & Molestation, and Sexual Abuse.
• Spiritual: Major caregiver disrespectful of child's reality and demands to be the child's Higher Power; perfection demanded of the child; child is over controlled; child is ignored, neglected or abandoned; child is indulged; religious addiction of the major caregiver; abuse at the hands of a religious caregiver; major caregiver does not follow stated family rules or values; and shifting rules or hidden rules in the family. Request information on services for people ritually abused as a child (including circumcision). See Issues on Ritual Abuse and Circumcision.

We all probably have one or more examples of at least one of these in our lives.

Breakdown of Substantiated Cases of Child Abuse

• Neglect - 47%
• Physical abuse - 25%
• Sexual Abuse - 15%
• Emotional Abuse - 4%
• Other - 10%
  

Protecting Children from Abuse & Neglect

The nation's fight against the heartbreaking problem of child abuse and neglect is led not by Solomon but by child protective services (CPS), the government agency that employs the caseworkers described above and that is changed with investigating and responding to allegations of child abuse and neglect. Child protection is a function of state government that is ruled by state law but supported by significant federal funding and - in many states - carried out by local government entities. For simplicity, the generic term "CPS" is used here to refer to these varied state and local agencies.

Compared to the schools that most of us attended and to the police departments we see in our communities and on TV dramas, CPS is a mysterious agency. We know it is there to tackle the "national nightmare" of child abuse and neglect that most of us cannot bear to think about. Few of us want to know the details. But without public attention to those details, there cannot be a consensus on the expectations, boundaries, powers or budgets that should frame government efforts to protect children from harm by their parents or caretakers.

The flurry of recent reports indicate that CPS is overmatched by the scope and complexity of its task. The spread of substance abuse among parents, rates of family breakup, deepening pockets of poverty, and cuts in government services have intensified family problems and reduced options for helping. In 1995, nearly 3 million children were reported to CPS as possible victims of child abuse or neglect - triple the number of reports made just 20 years ago. CPS has the dubious distinction of being among the most maligned public agencies. In 1991, the National Commission on Children charged: "If the nation had deliberately designed a system that would frustrate the professionals who staff it, anger the public who finance it, and abandon the children who depend on it, it could not have done a better job than the present child welfare system."

Expected to straddle two core values of U.S. society - the protection of children and respect for the privacy of the family - CPS is accused of both "unwarranted interference in private life" and "irresponsible inaction" when children are truly threatened. It is called incompetent, "confused, mismanaged, and staffed with untrained workers." An inadequate knowledge base undermines the actions of its staff. But, because children's lives are at stake, CPS cannot stop its work while the public debates its mission, or while researchers discover which interventions might help which families. This plane must be fixed while it flies through the air.

There are no easy or inexpensive answers to any of the questions. Instead, the path toward more effective protection for children will require public debate over appropriate societal goals related to child maltreatment. It will demand a new emphasis within CPS on prioritizing, decision making, and creating partnerships with service providers. It will require an ongoing commitment to capacity building and practical research. And it will take significant government resources to create and sustain a safety net for poor families and a service system for troubled families.

Snippets on Child Abuse & Neglect

• In 1877, New York State passed a law to punish wrongs done to children, giving anticruelty societies a mandate to identify children who were being mistreated by their families.
• Children of the "unworthy poor" were saved from developing slothful ways by separation from their parents through indenture or placement in institutions.
• Reports of child maltreatment grew exponentially: Between 1976 and 1993, the number of children officially reported as abused or neglected rose by more than 347%
• A CPS staff member must draw conclusions regarding the validity of the allegations, the identity of the perpetrator, and the condition of all the children in the home.
• Common resources tapped by caseworkers are emergency medical services, domestic violence shelters, substance-abuse treatment, emergency housing, mental health evaluation, child care, and ongoing counseling.
• Two essential ingredients justify intervention in the lives of families: a child is in need of protection, and the parents or caretakers are unwilling or unable to provide that protection.
• A 1995 Gallup Poll of 1,000 parents yielded the estimate that 3 million U.S. children were victims of physical abuse by their parents, or about 44 per 1,000 children.
• The National Incidence Study found that neglect is by far the most common form of maltreatment, harming an estimated 879,000 children in 1993.
• Current estimates indicate that between 50 and 80$ of families involved with child protective services are dealing with a substance-abuse problem.
• As they get older; children who have been abused and neglected are more likely to perform poorly in school; to commit crimes; and to experience emotional problems, sexual problems, and alcohol/substance abuse.
• Service funding is fragmented and inadequate; access to services is limited; programs emphasize problems rather than family strengths; and interventions seldom focus on the family as a unit.
• In 1993, legislation was passed that earmarked federal funds specifically for family support services and increased the funds available for family preservation services (Public Law 103-66). This was a major achievement because it designated a specific federal funding stream to support family-centered services.
• Not every family can or should be preserved; children must be removed when families cannot assure their safety.
• The limited evidence available suggests that family support programs have inconsistent effects both on children's development and on family functioning.
• Intensive family preservation workers usually carry caseloads of only two to six families, see families from 4 to 20 hours per week, and can be reached by the family 24 hours per day.
• Accurate risk-assessment techniques are needed to identify the cases in which chidden cannot be protected in their homes and in which out-of-home placement is clearly warranted.
• Better data collection systems could connect assessment information, intervention, and service experiences with family and child outcomes, to learn which families do best with which services over time.
• From 1986 to 1989, the foster care caseload in New York State grew from 18793 to 47145 and in Illinois the foster care caseload more than doubled from 1986 to 1992.
• To safeguard children in out-of-home care, better screening, training and education for caregivers may be needed prior to placement, even when the children are going to live with family.
• Informal kinship care - life-in, daily care provided by relatives outside of the child welfare system - is provided to about 1.8 million children in the US today, or 2.2% of the child population.
• Analysis of a California data set show that, after two years, 43% of children from kin placements and 50% of the chidden from foster care placements had returned home.
• Many kinship caregivers are reluctant to consider adoption, since they reject the notion of terminating the parental rights of their relatives, and argue that they are already "family" to the child.
• In 1995, New York spent $111.94 per capita for child welfare services, while Georgia spent only $11.81 per capita.
• The foster care payment and adoption assistance programs provide the only uncapped funding for child welfare services, in which reimbursements to states rise and fall with demand.
• The incidence of abuse and neglect is approximately 22 times higher among families with incomes below $15,000 per year than among families with incomes of more than $30,000 per year.
• At the same time as pressures on the child welfare system are likely to increase, fewer federal funds will be available to support child welfare services - other than out-of-home care.
• Work-based public assistance programs can function as part of a comprehensive web of supports for families and children, and complement the functioning of the child welfare system.
• The goals of welfare reform, which is focused on adult self-sufficiency, compete with the goals of the child welfare system, which focuses on safe, nurturing child rearing.
• More than 70% of reported cases are closed by the end of the investigation because the report was screened out by the hot line or the investigator recommended closing the case.
• CPS agencies tend to prescribe specific procedures that must be followed in each case rather than encouraging a customized approach that takes into account the differing needs of families.
• At the end point of the reforms, it is envisioned that CPS, in partnership with the criminal justice system and other agencies, will respond more effectively to protect children in the highest-risk cases of abuse or neglect.
• In Missouri and Florida, CPS agencies limit authoritative investigations to the most serious cases of suspected abuse or neglect, and provide assessment- and service-oriented responses to other families.
• Since 1994, across the five Missouri reform sites, 80% of the cases have been referred to the assessment track and only 20% to the investigation track.
• If CPS shares responsibility for child protection with community partners, does it also share accountability when things go wrong?
• Reformers will have to devise new ways to track accountability. Child protection is a very high-risk business, and society's demands of the child protection system are high as well.
• To make sure that caseworkers are capable of exercising these new responsibilities, agencies undertaking reform will have to provide more staff training, upgrade caseworker job requirements and pay scales, and consider reducing caseloads.
• Poor children, because they are less likely than their wealthier peers to receive dental services, are at the highest risk of suffering the pain and consequences of untreated dental disease.
• By at 17, almost 80% of youths will have experienced at least one episode of tooth decay, making this form of disease one of the most commonly experienced.
• A small proportion of children experienced a disproportionate share of dental disease. Some 80% of all cases were found in just 25% of 5 to 17-year-olds.
• A shortage of dentists who will accept Medicaid patients is one of the most frequently cited reasons for states' failure to deliver EPSDT dental services to poor children.

Source: The Future of Children, a publication of the Center for the Future of Children, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. See also "Maltreatment".

The Story of the Blue Ribbon

Bonnie tied a symbolic blue ribbon to her van as a signal to her community to involve everyone in the battle to stop child abuse.

She chose the Blue Ribbon to symbolize the bruised and battered bodies of her grandchildren.

Today, the Blue Ribbon is recognized as a national symbol of child abuse awareness. Tie a blue ribbon to your car antenna, on your book bag, or display it at your workplace as a reminder that child abuse can be prevented.

Things You Can Do to Prevent Child Abuse

Help yourself. Take time out. Don't take it out on your kid. Take a deep breath. Know who to call for help, and keep the numbers next to the phone.

When baby cries...Learn what to do if your baby won't stop crying. Never shake a baby - shaking a baby may result in severe injury or death.

Call Child Protective Services (or talk to your therapist, lawyer, health care professional, etc.) if you suspect abuse. The number is on the inside cover of your yellow pages if you suspect abuse. It often happens in public, almost daily in your local grocery store.

For more information, call 1.800.CHILDREN (244.5373)

Newsbytes

How Harmful is Childhood Trauma?

Psychological, Physical Abuse Equally Harmful To Health

Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community

Contrary to what we might want to assume, childhood sexual abuse is not limited to the gentile population. It is also a Jewish issue, and one that needs to be addressed. In the United States one of every three to five women, and one out of every five to seven men have been sexually abused by the time they reach their eighteenth birthday (Editor: Not counting circumcision.). Unfortunately, due to the fact there has been little research on this issue in the Jewish Community, we don’t know how prevalent it is. Most mental health providers around the world who are based in Jewish Communities, will admit that they have survivors (of childhood sexual abuse) of Jewish origins as part of their caseload.

One of the major problems in discussing the issue of Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Jewish Community, is that doing so threatens the cultural perception of the wholesomeness of the Jewish family. The time has come to break the taboo and allow the Jewish Community to face reality and to begin the healing journey. While this process is taking place, we will also be able to compile valuable statistics on the prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in our community. It is important to note that when we refer to the Jewish Community, we are including everyone from the unaffiliated, Reform, Conservative, through the Orthodox, "Charedi" and "Chasidic" communities.

It may be surprising that despite Israel’s world-leading status in treatment of Post Traumatic Stress, the study of childhood sexual abuse in Jewish Communities around the world is still in its infancy. Over the past two years I've been working with years Na'ama Yehuda (of New York). Our dream is to create an international organization to address the issue of childhood sexual abuse in Jewish Communities international.

As you might have noticed, the first phase has already begun, by the updating of my web page for Jewish Survivors of Childhood Trauma and Domestic Violence. hometown.aol.com/vickipolin/Page26.html

The goal is to develop an International data base/web page. The second phase will be to develop and implement an international conference on childhood sexual abuse. The third phase would be developing a treatment center and on going educational programming in Israel, the United States, and throughout the world. Our long term goals is to have network of researchers, development self-help groups and an international speakers bureau. If you are interested in joining forces, please contact me at: VickiPolin@aol.com

Catholics more obsessive?

Mom Strips for Her 10-Year Old Daughter's Birthday Party Guests

Stop Being a Victim

Sexual abuse in girls leads to later substance abuse

The study, which involved more than 1,400 adult female twins, found that the sibling who was abused had a consistently higher risk of psychiatric disorders, such as depression and bulimia, despite being raised in the same family and having the same genetic makeup as her sister.

"These results strongly suggest that...childhood sexual abuse and subsequent psychological disorders and substance abuse is indeed causal," Dr. Kenneth S. Kendler, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health in an interview.

Kendler and colleagues, from the Medical College of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, examined the psychological impact of different types of childhood sexual abuse ranging from exposure and sexual suggestions to unwanted intercourse. Their findings are published in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

In the study, women had psychiatric evaluations and answered detailed questions about their sexual experiences as children. The women's parents were asked about their history of psychiatric disorders and their relationships with family members.

Just over 30% of women reported some form of childhood sexual abuse, with 8.4% reporting that they had unwanted intercourse. These women had the greatest risk of being diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder or substance abuse problem, results show.

"The strongest association was confined to those exposed to the most severe forms of sexual abuse," Kendler explained.

He noted that the relationship was only slightly less when other factors, such as psychiatric problems or substance abuse among parents, and family income were taken into account.

Sexual abuse was also more strongly linked with substance abuse than with psychiatric disorders. Kendler speculated that sexual abuse might affect certain personality traits that involve impulsiveness and predict drug abuse in girls.

He also suggested that sexual abuse may lead some girls to become sexually active at an earlier age and seek out older boyfriends who might, in turn, introduce them to drugs.

Future studies, however, should help clarify the association between sexual abuse and the increased risk of substance use, Kendler noted. www.healthcentral.com/News/NewsFullText.cfm?ID=42714&storytype=ReutersNews

Stop Hurting the Ones You Love Or Stop Letting the Ones You Love Hurt You!

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