Re: Child abuse (Was Re: Is the death penalty Extropian?)

Dick.Gray@bull.com
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 10:25:13 -0700

"den Otter" <neosapient@geocities.com> writes: <<<
- ----------
> From: Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org>

> On Sun, Nov 29, 1998 at 02:45:57PM +0100, den Otter wrote:
> >
> > Well, it is true that many of society's problems are caused by parents
> > abusing their kids. In fact, afaik, child abuse is a much bigger
problem
> > than all other crimes combined.
>
> Er, I'd take exception to that assertion. Do you have any figures to back
> it up?

http://www.thundernet.org/abuse3.html
"In 1996 more than 3 million child abuse reports were made [3.1 million]. The actual incidence of abuse and neglect is estimated to be 3 times greater the number reported to authorities." See also: http://www.gcca.org/stat/index.html
>>>

I visited both sites and I'm not impressed. www.thundernet.org is an explicitly Moral Majority-type Christian site; the other backs up its claims only with material produced by bureaucratic "children's welfare" organizations (gov't affiliations unspecified). Both sites have obvious axes to grind. I want to see some independent, impartial, non-government, non-religious studies on the issue. I also want to see the exact definition of "child abuse" being used; these sites lump together all sorts of things as "abuse", without distinction.

Consider the source, mates.

Dick