Patently Rubbish (the name is certainly not a description of the blog), has a must-read post exploring some of the statistics on child abuse.

For once, Sarah Montague on the Today programme showed her mettle. While acknowledging the seriousness of some forms of abuse – sadly reflected in the higher rates for girls – she explored what the researchers meant by abuse, and what types and frequencies of experiences they had looked for in respondents to their survey. This revealed that a recollection of a single instance of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse during the respondent’s entire childhood qualified. Systematic or chronic abuse is therefore a subset of the headline figure – one that was sadly not quantified in the report.

Among the people I knew in my teenage years I wouldn’t be surprised if the proportion who’d suffered abuse which fits that description was over 50% – although I did tend to know a not-exactly-average crowd of goths and other assorted misfits, which (according to stereotypes) would tend to unfairly bias that statistic.1

The relationship between parent and child is one of the most complicated relationships in the world – and it is nigh on impossible for those without children to understand the actions or thinking of those who do. Currently I imagine my 3-year-old daughter, if she could articulate the concept, would claim to have been emotionally abused by a father who wouldn’t let her watch Finding Nemo twice in one day – especially if I then went on to withhold her broccoli until she’d eaten more chicken. On the flip side there are many stories of children who have suffered terrible abuse but will consistently attempt to rationalise and excuse their parents – often blaming themselves for the abuse. Children are not generally the most objective observers of their parent’s behaviour.

I don’t see how anyone could intentionally harm a child, but clearly others have no such qualms. They represent a danger to children and a danger to society and should be stopped. On the other hand, distorted statistics lend nothing to the debate, and before we go further to try and stop ‘abuse’, a clearer definition of abuse needs to be created.

  1. My anecdotal knowledge based on friendships with victims of abuse also bears out [cref 853 IDS’s assertion] that abuse is more likely when living with an adult who isn’t a natural parent, although according to some that’s just cargo cult thinking. [↩]