Re: Severity scores

[Brett Drake <brettd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 7 Feb 1997, Kym Kilpatrick wrote:
 
> Dear Brett & all,
> I would be very interested in some of the studies that you commented upon
> re different dynamics in abuse subtypes and etiological theory. Can you
> post some details re these studies?

We *very* briefly (like 3 pages total) overviewed etiological theory, as
it relates to poverty and child maltreatment, in

Drake, B., Pandey, S.  (1996).  Understanding the relationship between
neighborhood poverty and specific types of child maltreatment.  _Child
Abuse and Neglect_ 20(11), 1003-1018.

This study found differences in the ways that sex/phy/neg relate to
poverty (pretty much like everyone else using CPS or criminal data) 

The references we cite might provide a helpful starting point (e.g. 
Belsky, Giovannoni, etc...).  You really may want to look at specific
reviewers / researchers / theorists in subfields, (e.g. Polansky in
neglect, Finkelhor in sexual abuse, Gelles in physical abuse, etc...).  We
did a pretty good bib, you might want to start there.

A quick and dirty thumbnail sketch:  Sexual abuse is often etiologically
explained by perpetrator psychological and family dynamic factors, pysical
abuse is often related to stress and antisocial traits, and neglect to
limited resources, or more commonly, a sort of generalized parental
disengagement associated with massive poverty or major drug/ETOH abuse or
something similar.


-Brett Drake
Washington University