Child Abuse Is Underreported

Child abuse is underreported. According to The National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, there were 1,054,000 cases of child abuse and neglect reported and confirmed in the year 2000 (Hopper, 2005). That number seems high, but in congruence to how many cases aren't reported each year the figure is small. There is no known number of how many child abuse cases there are in the United States, because figures are only based on what is reported.

"The main reason why child abuse is underreported is that it often occurs in the home" (Besharov, 1996). Once a child goes outside of the family and into a public setting he or she is usually too embarrassed or afraid to tell people that their parents or loved ones hurt them. Children are told by their parents what to say in the event they're asked about how they got a bruise or an injury. The children normally respond back by saying they fell or that they don't remember how they got hurt. I found this true when I worked at a daycare. With the pre-school aged children, some of them would say they didn't know how they got an injury. However, there was one case where a little boy had hand print marks on his legs. We asked him how it happened and he told us that "mommy hit him." When we brought this to the attention of the directors, they simply said that his mother would never do such a thing. So that case went unreported. Douglas Besharov, from the U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, explains that the more serious the case it, the more often it is reported. Hopper says that about 85 percent of fatal or serious abuse is reported, 72 percent of sexual abuse is reported, around 60 percent of the moderate physical abuse is reported, and only 25 percent of neglect cases are reported each year.

In the article "Child Abuse Is Underreported or Misreported", Besharov discusses two national studies performed for the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. The studies used "stratified samples of broadly representative sample of professionals who serve children" (i.e. physicians and teachers). During they're regular encounters with the children; some children appeared abused or neglected. It was found that most of these professionals failed to report such crimes. While it isn't only up to the professionals that deal with children everyday, outside adults are more than able to pick up the telephone and call the Child Abuse Hotline. Reasons as to why outside adults don't report child abuse are different depending on the situation. The most common factor that is considered before calling in a case is because outside adults feel that it is none of their business. Another common reason why outside adults don't intervene is because they simply overlook the signs of child abuse. Some signs of physical abuse include broken bones, unreasonable explanations for the injuries, and fearful behavior of the child towards the parent (Douma, 1999). Also, outside adults normally think that if the abuse was reported, the child would be worse off in that the parent or guardian will abuse the child even more. This is where the outside adults are very wrong. By not tending to their "social responsibility" of reporting child abuse, Kim says "allowing another innocent child to stay imprisoned in suffering and making the seriously underreported problem of child abuse worse, not better." Outside adults also don't report incidences of child abuse because they do not want to break up families.

A question that boggles everyone's minds is, why exactly do parents abuse children? While there will never be a clear answer, researchers have concluded that parents have emotional problems and/or substance abuse problems. Henny H. Kim then comments that, "parents who abuse their children obviously have emotional or mental problems, and certainly aren't about to report their own crimes to the authorities or get the psychological help necessary to stop their abnormal behavior." Kim also wrote another article titled "Emotionally Unstable Adults Perpetuate Child Abuse." In this article, Kim discusses how depression is a substantial issue in the cause of child abuse. A newborn child depends on its mother to be fed, nurtured, caressed and spoken to affectionately in order to grow and stay healthy. Aside from not providing emotional comfort and support, a depressed parent (not just a mother)