The purpose of this article is to find out the significance of international perspectives for research on child abuse and neglect. Child abuse is not a new phenomenon. Increased international communication and exposure has brought awareness in many that child abuse is a phenomenon intrinsic to all human society since the beginning of time. Abuse…

War is so devastating that if at all possible, it should be avoided. But if reasoning and negotiation fail to yield peace between nations and countries and war results, the loss to children must be minimized. In the last decade, two million children have been killed in wars and conflicts, 4.5 million have been disabled and 12 million have been…

The replies to a survey of more than 1,000 undergraduates concerning childhood sexual encounters are reported. Linear structural equation modeling is employed to analyze which characteristics of the sexual encounters with other children were associated with more positive or negative responses by the subjects. Approximately 42% of the subjects…

The problem of child sexual abuse has gained an increasing amount of national attention in the past decade. Intra-familial sexual relations, incest, appears to be the predominant form of child sexual abuse. Seventy to 80 percent of sexual abuse occurs with affinity systems--families, relatives, friends, and neighbors. Child sexual abuse has been…

In order to inform policy and programs, research on child abuse must be not only methodologically rigorous, but also practically feasible. However, practical problems make child abuse research difficult to conduct. Definitions of abuse must be explicit and different types of abuse must be assessed separately. Study samples should be as…

The view that child maltreatment is the result of a breakdown in normal family communication processes suggests that difficulties in verbal interaction may be found in nearly all interactions between maltreating parents and their children. To explore this possibility, a comparative study was made of the conversations of maltreating mothers and…

With mandatory reporting of child abuse, children are becoming involved more frequently in the judicial system, a system that is often unresponsive to the needs and limitations of young children. This investigation explored the effect of courtroom environment on the quality of evidence children offer and the level of system-induced stress that…

Until recently the literature on the impact of child sexual abuse has consisted disproportionately of retrospective studies of adults. Research on children allows for a developmental perspective and includes the first efforts at longitudinal studies of sexual abuse victims. This literature also has important relevance to other theory and research…

In "Kids at Work," Russell Freedman explores the world of child labor during the years 1908-1918 when Lewis Hine, "teacher-crusader," worked as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC). Hine's writing and the photos he gathered from across the country revealed a "shocking reality that…

Increasing numbers of reported cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) are leading to greater numbers of such children being placed in foster care. Findings suggest that sexually abused children and their families have a multiplicity of problems that form the basis for removal from the home. In addition, sexually abused children are returned to the home…

The number of child sexual abuse prevention programs incorporated into school curricula has increased steadily in the past decade. This longitudinal study evaluated the effects of a school-based, child sexual abuse prevention program on child abuse reports in nine school districts over a five-year period. Districts had been randomly assigned to…

The University of South Carolina (USC) Child Abuse and Neglect Interdisciplinary Training Project provides students with the opportunity to gain advanced knowledge and skills for work with maltreated children and families through didactic courses, practica, and community placements. The project involves interdisciplinary collaboration between…

This paper examines the moral presuppositions of public policy and professional practice concerned with the sexual victimization of children by adults. It begins with an overview of the problem of child sexual abuse and a set of 10 generalizations drawn from research on both clinical and non-clinical samples of victims. Three responsibilities…

To identify specific dimensions of communicative disturbances among adults and children in abusive/neglecting families, 10 mother/child pairs from problem families were matched with 10 control pairs. Each mother was videotaped with her 4- to 15-year-old child for 15 minutes while playing a game under nonstressful conditions. Subjects'…

Survey information shows that sexual abuse of children is widespread, being reported by 19% of the females and 9% of the males in the sample. Most sexual victimization took place within the child's family, not with strangers, as "child molesters" have traditionally been stereotyped. While the problem cuts across social and economic lines, it seems…