By Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D.
November 15, 2006
Between eighty and ninety percent of physical child abuse is committed by parents and other caretakers (step-parents, nannies, etc), depending on which study one consults. In Colorado in 2005, 30,000 children were reported to have been neglected or abused, as stated at www.childabuse.org, and 9,000, or just over a third, were substantiated. While neglect is the largest category, at nearly 47%, it was followed by physical injury abuse, and then a combination of both, with an average of twenty deaths of neglected and abused children per year in that state.
Seventy-five percent of these fatally injured children were under the age of four, and across the country, the leading cause of death of children less than one year of age is some form of abuse. The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that in 2002, children this age made up 41% of the child fatalities from abuse. The child's dependency, size, pressing needs, and inability to defend itself, hide or run away puts him or her at highest risk among those with a tendency to abuse (with slightly more male than female children suffering from fatal attacks). They're also not as resilient as older children.
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Even so, studies from Colorado and North Carolina estimate that as many as 60% of deaths resulting from abuse or neglect are not recorded as such. This is due, in part, to the fact that some death certificates are miscoded, many coroners have no training in recognizing the signs, medical personnel overlook subtle clues to abuse, some social workers keep the material confidential, and some murdered children's bodies are dumped or secretly buried.
In some cases, an inept nanny or inexperienced mother simply mishandled the child and may have caused damage by just shaking too hard, pushing or inadvertently dropping. However, the type of injury that causes severe brain damage or chronic bruising and breakage indicates other types of problems — and they're largely veiled in the secrecy of the home. Not all abusive caretakers are alike, so let's look more closely at the type of person who could have inflicted the kinds of injuries found during the autopsy of eleven-week-old Jason Midyette. Reportedly, his skull was crushed and twenty-seven other bones were broken. Some breaks appeared to have been healing, an indication of earlier maltreatment in his short life.
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