We all know that child abuse is a terrible thing. We also know - as a society - many of the conditions that make parents and other adults more likely to abuse children. And yet despite our collective revulsion at child abuse and despite the fact that we are aware of the contributing conditions to child abuse, the rates at which children are neglected or abused continue at horrifyingly high levels. Federal and state statistics indicate that child abuse and neglect collectively are either the primary or a secondary cause of over 1,000 deaths in the United States each year. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, a child is abused or neglected every 80 minutes and, within the commonwealth, a child dies from abuse or neglect every 12 days.
This paper outlines a research proposal to determine whether the use of a certain kind of anti-child abuse training in high school - using a form of "Think It Over" dolls - can effectively reduce the incidence of child abuse. This study is thus necessarily a longitudinal one and may (because of the complexity of the issue of child abuse) be less conclusive than one might like. However, an intervention strategy that reduces child abuse even to a small degree would be worth considering given the stakes involved.
Children are neglected and abused everyday in Virginia. This should in no way surprise us: Child neglect and abuse have been with us for as long as there have been human societies. Indeed, child abuse may predate our history as a species, for other primate also neglect and abuse and even kill their offspring. But regardless of any evolutionary basis for such neglect or abuse, one of the defining characteristics of our species, and the basis of all human societies, is a desire to protect those individuals who cannot protect themselves. Laws have been enacted throughout the history of humanity to protect children as well as others who need special protection, who are unable to defend themselves. And ...