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January 26, 2005
Child abuse/neglect can be more common than you think
By Officer Laurence Rotondi
Recently over the years, alarming statistics have come out about sexual child abuse and neglect. Sexual abuse is one of the most traumatic injuries a child can suffer. Most children never tell anyone about what has happened to them. The information below came from District Attorney Martha Coakley's office.
No one wants to believe that there are adults who injure children. Sadly there are... and abuse does happen - all too often in a child's own family. Supported investigations, physical evidence and successful prosecutions demonstrate that as many as one million children are abused each year in the United States. Of these cases, 25 percent involve serious physical abuse. Another 15 percent involve sexual abuse. These are the reported cases. It is impossible to estimate the number of cases that go unreported, but studies indicate that the actual number of children abused each year may be as high as one in three girls and one in six boys.
While most of us have learned that child sexual abuse is perpetrated by strangers, the facts don't support this premise. Records from the Middlesex Child Abuse Division, which investigates approximately 800 cases of child abuse each year, tend to support national statistics and show that:
95 percent to 97 percent of child victims are acquainted with their perpetrators.
In most cases, the child abuser is a family member or someone entrusted with the intimate care of the child.
The six most common offender categories in order of frequency are: father, uncle, mother's boyfriend, mother, stepfather, brother.
The most common crimes against children are rape and indecent assault and battery.
Males are less likely to disclose abuse than females.
70 percent of reported victims are female.
Girls are most commonly abused between the ages of 13 and 18.
Boys are most commonly abused between the ages 6 to 12.
The approximate average length of prison stay for the typical convicted child abuser is 3 years.
Hotline for DSS Child Abuse - Malden which services Stoneham: 781-388-7100
Remember - think safety.
Officer Laurence Rotondi is the safety officer for the Stoneham Police Department, Massachusetts
Posted by Nealus at January 26, 2005 02:02 PM
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