In the last decade alone, over 2,500 studies of child abuse have been published (PsychLit database, 1992). In general, these studies have focused on the following areas: (1) Incidence and Type of Abuse; (2) Factors that place children at risk for abuse; (3) effects of child abuse; and (4) interventions aimed at preventing abuse. The review of literature presented here examines a sampling of studies in each of these primary areas of research inquiry. The review ends with a summary of the major findings.
Types of Abuse. In 1973, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act legally defined child abuse and neglect as follows:
Child abuse and neglect means the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, neglect treatment, or maltreatment of a child under the age of eighteen by a person who is responsible for the child's welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby. . .
In 1974, this Act was further amended to include pornographic photographing, rape, incest, prostitution, and other forms of sexual exploitation that harm children's health or welfare.
Incidence. A great deal of the child abuse literature has been devoted to computing incidence rates for child abuse. Indeed, rates have been computed for institutional abuse (Powers, Mooney & Nunno, 1990), specific types of abuse such as incest (e.g. Banning, 1989), abuse rates committed by state (e.g. Harries, 1988). However, it is the overall incidence rate that gives the real scope of the problem. In this regard, it is estimated that an estimated 500,000 children are, yearly, beatened, burned, thrown, kicked, and battered without losing their lives; while, daily, one to two children die at the hands of abusive caretakers, usually their parents (Vadasy, 1989).
While these statistics are alarming in themselves, it is perhaps more alarming to realize that incidences of abuse are actually under-reported. For ex...