Facts You Rarely Hear About Child Abuse

Compiled by Laurie A. Couture, M.Ed, LMHC © 2003

Fact: The first publicly documented victim of child abuse in the USA required protection under the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1871, as there was no such protection agency for children until 1874!

Fact: Mandatory child abuse reporting laws were not put into effect until the late 1960’s when Vincent Fontana and C. Henry Kempe brought public and professional attention to the epidemic of the "battered child syndrome".

Fact: It is legal in all 50 states for a parent to spank, hit, belt, paddle, whip or otherwise inflict punitive pain on a child, insofar as the corporal punishment does not meet the individual state’s definition of "child abuse". It is illegal in all 50 states for an adult to strike or to otherwise inflict any type of punitive pain upon another adult citizen, including spouses, domestic partners, employees, teachers, senior citizens, patients in psychiatric facilities, military trainees and prisoners.

Fact: Most child abuse prevention programs/literature do not even mention that corporal punishment is the foundation of most physical abuse, nor is its elimination discussed as a prevention method. Most child abuse prevention and parenting literature does not specifically state that corporal punishment is abusive and unacceptable.

Fact: The United States and Somalia are the only two countries in the United Nations who refuse to ratify The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, "the most comprehensive children's rights treaty in existence" (Stohl, 2002), which includes an anti-corporal punishment clause.

Fact: Minnesota is the only state in which parents tried for child abuse cannot defend their abusive actions by claiming they were exercising their right to corporally punish their child (www.stophitting.com).

Fact: The states of Nevada and Oklahoma recently renewed their laws allowing parents the right to strike their children (www.stophitting.com).

Fact: Boys are the victims of the majority of parental corporal punishment; their punishments are more severe, more frequent and more aggressive than punishments administered to girls (Straus, 1994; Kipnis, 1999; Kindlon and Thompson, 1999; Newberger, 1999; Hyman, 1997). Both mothers and fathers are more likely to hit their sons than their daughters, with mothers doing the majority of the hitting of both sons and daughters. Fathers are least likely to hit daughters (Straus, 1994; Bartollas, 1997).

Fact: It is legal in 23 states for public and private schools to paddle or use other forms of corporal punishment on a child. Teachers have criminal immunity from child abuse charges in states where school corporal punishment is legal.

Fact: Sweden was the first country to fully protect children against assaults by adults. In 1979, Sweden formally banned parents from using any form of corporal punishment on their children. 10 other countries have followed suit.

Fact: The sexual abuse of boys has been overlooked for decades. However, recent exposure of the pervasive sexual abuse and rapes of children in the Catholic church by priests and church servers have uncovered the sexual abuse of nearly 1000 boys abused from the 1950’s- present that were previously not included in statistics. Boys are less likely to report sexual abuse than their female peers.

Fact: All sexual abuse of all children is disgusting and egregious. However, the mental health and social services communities have demonstrated a clear gender bias against male victims of sexual abuse. Decades worth of "help" literature, trainings and textbooks continue to use a pronoun bias, referring to victims as "she" and perpetrators nearly in all cases as "he". The false impression is given that the sexual abuse of boys is less important to discuss, less harmful to victims and a rare occurrence.

Fact: Although crime statistics reflect that girls are sexually abused in higher numbers than boys, victim reports indicate that boys and girls are sexually assaulted in almost equal numbers., and both sexes are at equal risk (Struve, 1989 and Dimock, 1988 as cited in Hunter, 1990 Abused Boys and The Sexually Abused Male Vol. 1 and Renvoize, 1993 in Innocence Destroyed). It is vital that sexual assault prevention programs stay gender neutral so that all children are educated and protected, and all victims are identified for help.

Fact: Mental health and social service professionals have shown a clear resistance to accepting that women sexually perpetrate against children. In early 1984, Newsweek magazine did a feature on the sexual assault of children (May 14, 1984, pp. 30-36) that mentioned a clear gender bias in identifying victims and perpetrators. While the crime statistics have been updated to reflect that far more girls and boys are sexually abused by men than previously believed in the 1980’s, the 1984 statistic- 2% of all sexual assaults of children are committed by females- has not been updated to reflect current knowledge from victims reports. Victim reports, including studies done of college students (Knopp and Lackey, 1987; Johnson and Shrier, 1987; Fretz, Stoll and Wagner, 1981, as quoted in Males At Risk, Bolton, Morris and MacEachron, 1989), indicate that between 31% and 60% of child sexual abuse victims of both sexes were sexually abused at one time by a female.

Fact: Girl and boy victims of child abuse tend to express their victimization in different ways. Girls tend to "act-in", and exhibit symptoms of depression, self mutilation, and sexually provocative behavior. Boys tend to "act-out", and exhibit symptoms of aggression, violence and rage. However, some children exhibit the entire range of acting both "in" and "out".

Fact: The overwhelming majority of violent criminals, both male and female, have histories of severe physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse. Unfortunately, the USA invests most energy and funds into crime punishment rather than child abuse prevention efforts.

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