involve: 1) physical abuse (attacks that produce physical injuries); 2) sexual abuse (fondling, intercourse, and other forced sexual contact); 3) physical neglect (living conditions in which children do not receive sufficient food, clothing, medical attention, or supervision); 4) emotional neglect (failure to meet children's needs for affection and emotional support); and/or 5) psychological abuse (actions that damage children emotionally, such as rejection and verbal abuse (Baron & Byrne, 2000).
The following table, with data generated and presented by the Children's Bureau (2003), depicts the child victimization rates from 1990 to 2001, the most recent year for which the organization collected and analyzed data.
The word bold before a number indicates an estimate or a total Reporting Year
These data, which do not distinguish between the types of abuse experienced by children, nevertheless paint a grim portrait. While the estimated number of child abuse victims peaked at over 1.032 million in 1994 and has subsequently declined to slightly more than 900,000 as of 2001, the numbers are still far too high.
The Children's Bureau (2003b) also reported that five-year trends in the rates of physical and sexual abuse per 1,000 children in the U.S. show a decrease. However, this organization also reported that children who are victimized prior to a first report to authorities are more than twice as likely as those who were not victimized prior to a first report to experience recurrence. Victims of sexual abuse were 17 percent more likely than others to experience recurrence. Younger children, those neglected or who experience multiple maltreatment forms, those maltreated by their mothers, and those who have been reported to authorities on more than one occasion are most vulnerable to further maltreatment.
Child abuse is therefore a major problem for American society in general and a challenge for social workers who ...