More than 81 percent of perpetrators of child abuse are parents. Another 6 percent are relatives of the victim.*
Children under age four accounted for 34 percent of victims of child abuse and nearly 80 percent of all child fatalities.*
Significantly more child abuse victims in the U.S. (about 33 percent) have died exclusively from neglect than from physical abuse (about 23 percent). Of the children who died from multiple kinds of abuse, nearly 70 percent suffered from neglect.*
*SOURCE: CHILD MALTREATMENT 2010, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
In confirmed cases, caregivers who were themselves victims of domestic violence were at the greatest risk of abusing children.**
**SOURCE: 2008 CANADIAN INCIDENCE STUDY OF REPORTED CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Every year, 3.3 million child abuse reports are made involving six million children, but experts estimate the total number of incidents is much greater once unreported incidents are included. Five children die from abuse in the U.S. every day — the worst record in the industrialized world. Sadly, approximately 30% of child abuse survivors abuse their own children.
Source: Childhelp.org
Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse involves words, acts, or omissions that are likely to harm a child’s emotional stability or mental health, and lead to substantial behavioral changes or developmental delays. For example, it includes:
• humiliating, belittling, or ridiculing a child
• unreasonably restraining, confining, punishing, or isolating a child
• intimidating, frightening, threatening, or terrorizing a child
• withholding affection, or refusing to acknowledge or speak to a child
• exposing a child to domestic violence
• exposing a child to alcohol or drug abuse
• encouraging a child’s criminal or delinquent behavior
Physical Abuse
The term “physical abuse” refers to any intentional act that causes serious physical harm to a child by any means, including:
• striking, kicking, choking, shaking, throwing, or biting
• burning, binding, stabbing, whipping, or using a weapon
Injuries from physical abuse may not always be visible. For example, shaking a baby is a form of physical abuse that can result in significant internal injuries.
On the other hand, it may be a sign of physical abuse if a child is injured and the explanation seems implausible or does not match your observations (for example, a parent explaining the child’s recurring black eye by saying the child “ran into a doorknob again”).
Although parents are generally permitted to use reasonable, age-appropriate physical force (corporal punishment or spanking) to discipline their children, excessive punishment that causes physical injury is considered abuse. Using force against a very young child or teenager, striking a child’s head, or hitting a child in anger (rather than to educate or correct a child) may also be physical abuse.
Most parents do not want to hurt their children, and some may not even recognize abusive behavior as abuse. If parents grew up with abuse in their own families, they may have learned to consider it acceptable behavior.