Child Abuse Prevalence
(excerpt from Creating New Possibilities Workshop 1)
If you have suffered child abuse, you are not alone!
We know that child abuse is extremely prevalent even today. The question remains: how prevalent? Social stigma around child abuse means that it gets swept under the carpet time and again. We know how many cases of abuse are being reported and how many cases are substantiated each year. However, it is impossible to know how many children are being abused every day but are too afraid to say anything about it. While the prevalence of abuse does not make it normal or acceptable, there is little doubt that abuse occurs commonly.
In response to the growing awareness around child abuse, several laws have been set in place to try and protect children from further abuse. In every state in Australia mandatory reporting laws have been introduced (Higgins, Bromfield, & Richardson, 2007). These laws have mandated that professionals who work with children are legally obliged to make a report about any child they suspect is in danger of abuse. These laws differ from state-by-state, but are in place Australia-wide in some form. In spite of the laws around mandatory reporting, statistics suggest that child abuse remains prevalent.
In 2006-7, 309,517 suspected cases of child abuse and neglect were reported. 58,563 of these cases were substantiated (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008). The report found that girls were about 3 times more likely to be the subject of a substantiated sexual abuse claim than boys. But boys were generally more likely to be the subject of a substantiated claim for physical abuse than girls. In addition, the rates of substantiated abuse or neglect decreased as age increased (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2008).
Many other indicators also flag how common child abuse is. One of these is the numbers of calls to the Kid’s Help Line. Kid’s Help Line is a free, confidential and anonymous 24 hour counseling service for children and young people aged 5-25. Of calls made to the Kid’s Help Line, “Worry about a family member” was the most common reason for the call. 5% of calls were about child abuse or neglect (Kid’s Help Line, 2006). Research on a sample of randomly selected Australian women revealed that 20% of participants had experienced child sexual abuse (Fleming, 1997). Of those women, 71% were aged less than 12 years at the time of their abuse and only 10% of cases were ever reported. Andrews, Gould and Corry (2002) reported on the overall findings of 7 studies and found that 5.1% of males and 27.5% of females had experienced some level of child sexual abuse. The onset of abuse occurred at a mean age of 10. In 75% of cases the offender was known to the child, with 40% of cases involving an offender who was a family member.
Statistics seem to suggest that child abuse is on the rise, but it may be that reporting has increased rather than there being an actual increase in incidence. Perhaps adults are simply more aware of the warning signs of abuse now than before. Hopefully, as we gain more knowledge about child abuse, the rate at which it occurs will start to decline.
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