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The Growing Tragedy of
BATTERED
CHILDREN
WHY
do sorne
parents beat
and
abuse their own children?
ls permissiveness the answer to this growing, heart–
breaking tragedy?
T
liE TRUE
story of what is happen–
íng to maoy little chi ldren across
the United States and Britaio,
aod around the world, is more appall–
ing than any horror movie.
Iocreasingly, chíldren have been ruth–
lessly beaten or sadistically assaulted -
by parents or guardians.
Instruments of abuse have ranged
from bare fists to belt buckles, from
kníves to electrical cords, from hot
pokers to open fiames, from matches to
cigarette lighters, from bottles to broom
handles , from hot liquids or pans to
appliances and chair legs.
Children are daily brought into hos–
pitals, having been beaten, burned,
raped, stabbed, strangled, electrically
shocked, stamped on, or thrown vio–
lently against walls. Fractured skulls,
broken legs and arms, blackened eyes
and horribly bruised bodies are com–
monplace. Sorne have been chained in
attics, tied to beds, and even left hang–
ing by theic feet from the ceiling.
Sounds like an unreal nightmare.
Fiendish. But these crimes are occurring
today - cornmitted by parents.
Facts "Swept Under the
Carpet"
Said a social worker severa( years
ago: "Child abuse is one of the dirtiest
by
William F. Dankenbring
pieces of dirt being swept under the
American rug."
But the problem is by no means lim–
ited to the United States. Sorne years
ago an official charged that cruelty to
the young in Britain is common to every
class, income group and area of the
re:tlm. One study estimated that seven
out of every
100
British children are so
blatantly abused or neglected that social
authorities have had to intervene.
Such tragedies have been, and still
are, common in certain poor, overpopu–
Jated arcas of the world, where children
are often abandoned to die of exposure,
legally bartered and sold, or mutilated
to enhance their appeal as beggars.
In the United States, where perhaps
child abuse has been studied in greatest
detail, many authorities view the prob–
lem as one of staggering proportions.
The visible cases are merely the tip of
a hídden iceberg.
Says Dr. David G. Gil, professor of
social policy at Brandeis University:
"Estimates of various investigators
range from a few thousand to severa!
million incidents per year"
(Violence
againJt Children,
1970,
p.
12).
John W. Gardner, former Secretary
of Health, Education and Welfare,
dedared: "According to the most con–
servative estimates, at least
10,000
chil-
dren each year [in the U. S.] are so
severely mistre1ted as to require hospi–
talization. And there may be as many as
a million who are subjected to sorne
forro of abuse." Gardner pointed out
that most of the seriously abused chil–
dren are under three years of age. A
great many who die of beatings are
infants less than one year old.
Sadly, the vast majority of child
abuse cases are never reported publidy.
And all too often these children bear
the life-long scars, physically and
emotionally, resulting from beatings
they receive from their own parents!
More Common than Deaths
Due to Disease
Says Dr. Ray E. Helfer of the Univer–
sity of Colorado School of Medicine:
"More children under S die every year
from injuries inflicted by a parent
or guardian than from tuberculosis,
whooping cough, polio, measles, diabe–
tes, rheumatic fever and appendicitis
combined." He estimates that at least
60,000
children are willfully beaten,
burned, smothered and starved every
year in the United States.
Bad as the problem is, it appears to
be growing worse. The incidence of
child abuse appears to be
increaJing
-
reported cases in the United States rose