Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Child Abuse Statistics Infographic

An Infographic from Instant Checkmate to share in conjunction with National Foster Care Month:

Child Abuse in America Infographic

What statistics surprised you the most (or the least)? 

One statistic which I thought would be slightly higher is that "30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children."  As a foster parent I've witnessed firsthand how cyclical abuse and neglect tend to be.  More power to those brave individuals who are willing to break the cycle!

 

3 comments:

Annie said...

The thing that most puzzles me - not about these statistics, exactly - is why some children are just like targets. So many children are abused repeatedly.

Because they are not being cared for properly by their caregivers (and abusers can see that?) or is it just some strange attraction, or vulnerability, or what???

I have a close adult family member who fits this category - physically abused by babysitter, stepfather, then sexually abused by teacher and older boys.... Why?

Here I am with an adopted daughter who was abused as a young child in her home country, and her baby! So that statistic doesn't surprise.

CCmomma said...

wow- i wish those numbers were fake. Remember that ABUSE can be anything from visually seeing images all the way to full contact from the perp and even death. MOST abuse is not the latter, Kids are exposed too WAY to much stimuli visually and socially- watch your kids, care for them and as a foster parent- help them and love them b/c they have been through Hades and back. Poor kids.

Annie said...

Yes; and since we have gone through FIVE (yes,FIVE) investigations of abuse due to our daughter's tendency to false accusations, I can see how the statistics, of reporting, at least, can be skewed. Add to that, we are both adoptive and foster parents, so each time, the way our state does it, there have been TWO different and parallel investigations. That brings the numbers up! And, of course, the only abuse was what occurred years ago in Russia.

This is an aside, of course, but I can say that those investigations have been ABUSE for my other children. The only time my youngest son has ever sobbed - sobbed for nearly an hour and couldn't be comforted - was the first time he was interviewed. I have no idea what they said to him, so I couldn't help him. It was one of the worst things I've experienced as a mom - knowing my child was being emotionally hurt by someone, and having absolutely no way to stop it.