Children As Victims of Violence: a National Survey

Overview

Journal Pediatrics

Specialty Pediatrics

Date 1994 Oct 1

PMID 7936846

Citations 53

Authors

D Finkelhor

Affiliations

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Abstract

Objective: The goal of this study was to gain a more comprehensive perspective on the scope, variety, and consequences of child victimization, which has been obscured by a fragmentation into specific problems like sexual abuse or kidnapping.

Methods: Two thousand children aged 10 to 16 years were interviewed in a national telephone survey of children.

Results: In the previous year, a quarter of the children had experienced a completed victimization, one in eight had experienced an injury, and one in a hundred required medical attention as a result. Nonfamily physical assaults were the most numerous. Contact sexual abuse occurred to 3.2% of girls and 0.6% of boys. There were also substantial numbers of incidents of attempted kidnappings and violence directed to children's genitals.

Conclusion: The victimization of children occurs to a greater extent than has been previously reported and is poorly represented in official statistics.

Implication: The authors argue for a more comprehensive interest in children's victimization including better national statistics about the problem.

Citing Articles

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Association of sociocultural stressors with bipolar disorder onset in Puerto Rican youth growing up as members of a minoritized ethnic group: results from the Boricua Youth Longitudinal Study.

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Scorza P, Corbeil T, Wall M, Monk C, Suglia S, Wainberg M Child Abuse Negl. 2022; 131:105687.

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Bayly B, Hung Y, Cooper D J Youth Adolesc. 2021; 51(5):927-939.

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