Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children

[dick sobsey <dick.sobsey@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The male/female abuse question doesn't have one simple answer. It partly
depends on the precise question and the reason that it is being asked. For
example, if one were to ask are more children abused by male or female
babysitters, the answer is simple: more children are abused by female baby
sitters. However, hiring a male babysitter instead of a female babysitter
increases the risk for abuse, particularly physical and sexual abuse.
There is also some reason to believe that the abuse done by male
babysitters is more likely to result in serious injury.

While more maltreatment is ascribed to mothers than fathers, most of it is
neglect. Starting with the simplistic notion that every child has a
biological mother and a biological father and that when neglect occurs
neither the mother or father are meeting the child's needs, the child is
actually being neglected by both parents but the mother is more likely to
be considered to be at fault.  To some extent this is a bias against women.
THere are probably other places where there is a bias against men. For
example, I think that male day care workers are much more likely to be
suspected of sexaully inappropriate behavior than females if they do
anything that someone might consider borderline.

In spite of our trend toward both parents taking equal responsibility for
children, current studies still suggest that on avreage children spend much
more time in the care of mothers than in the care of fathers. Some recent
studies suggest that the number average number of hours in teh care of
mothers is still about 3 times the number as in the care of fathers. When
the gender of other caregivers, extended family members, babysitters,
daycare workers, is added in this gap gets even bigger.  When comparing
risk for children, this difference is too big and too important to ignore.
To do so would be like sayingthat motorcycles are much safer than cars
because fewer people are killed or injured on motorcycles than cars. To get
a meaningful comparison, you would have to compare the rates based on the
number of hours people spend in each activity or the number of miles
travelled.

As a result, I think the only thing that the research tells us is that both
males and females can engage in abusive or neglectful behavior.  Decisions
about who children are safest with are best made on the basis of the
individuals and not on their gender. Going back to the earlier example, if
I had to choose a babysitter  for my children solely on the basis of
gender, I would choose a female without hesitation. However, it would be a
pretty poor way to choose a caregiver. There are some females who are
dangerous, and there are many males who are wonderful with children.

In our own study of homicides of children with disabilities, we found more
mothers than fathers impliacted, but there were plenty of both. Most
horrible was the fact that in a lot of the cases both parents were
implicated. The motehr father difference was partially offset in that among
children with disabilities killed by nonparental offenders, the majority
were clearly male.


Dick Sobsey, Director
JP Das Developmental Disabilities Centre
University of Alberta
6-123 Education North
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2G5  Canada
phone: (780) 492-3755
fax: (780) 492-1318
dick.sobsey@ualberta.ca