Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children

["vernon brooks carter" <vbrooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The last two paragraphs are excerpts from the Third NIS. What the NIS-3
shares with the 1998 NCANDS is a significant amount of the data comes child
protective services. The second excerpt reports that non CPS reporters were
all trained in the standard NIS definitions of abuse and neglect. I haven't
looked at the other studies you mentioned, but my guess is the standards
aren't the same. Therefore, I don't think it is a valid to compare those
studies unless the reporters are similar and they are using similar
standards.

I agree there is probably some underlying bias in any study, national or
local. In regard to sexual abuse, from a non random, anecdotal perspective
of a male New Hampshire child protective worker, I have found that female
perpetrators are under reported. The reason for the the under reporting in
some instances, is the myth that males would enjoy sexual contact with an
older female person. Unfortunately, when they are detected, there are very
few services available in the state of New Hampshire for female offenders.


The NIS-3 offers an important perspective on the scope of child abuse and
neglect. The NIS includes children who were investigated by child protective
service (CPS) agencies, but it also obtains data on children seen by
community professionals who were not reported to CPS or who were screened
out by CPS without investigation. This means that the NIS estimates provide
a more comprehensive measure of the scope of child abuse and neglect known
to community professionals, including both abused and neglected children who
are in the official statistics and those who are not.

The participating sentinels in the NIS-3 were 5,612 professionals in 800
non-CPS agencies who remained on the lookout for maltreated children during
the study period. They were trained in the standard NIS definitions of abuse
and neglect at the outset, and they submitted data forms on any children
they encountered who were maltreated during the study data period.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Becky Bolen" <bbolen@bu.edu>
To: "Child Maltreatment Researchers"
<CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 1:18 PM
Subject: RE: Male vs Female Abuse towards children


> Actually, I just looked at this data for child sexual abuse. I used those
> random community, state, or national prevalence studies that categorized
> child sexual abuse by both relation and gender of the offender.  I
compared
> their aggregated information to the NCANDS done in 1998. Here is an
excerpt
> that addresses this:
>
> The third NIS conducted in 1993 found that 87% of abuse committed by
> parents involved a male and 28% involved a female (Sedlak & Broadhurst,
> 1996). This finding implies that 13% of all abuse was perpetrated solely
by
> mothers and that another 15% of all abuse involved both a mother and
> father. In the most recent national incident study done through the NCANDS
> in 1998, 51% of child sexual abuse cases identified by child protective
> services were committed by parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human
> Services, 2000c). In more than half of these cases, mothers were charged
as
> the sole offender (4% of all abuse) or as co-offenders (23% of all abuse).
> Yet in her random community prevalence study of 930 women, Russell (1983)
> found that only one respondent was abused by her mother, whereas 44
> respondents were abused by their fathers. Thus, only 2% of all parental
> abuse was committed by mothers (or 0.2% of all abuse). Further, no mothers
> were reported as offenders in Wyatt's (1985) or Saunders et al.'s (1999)
> studies or the Los Angeles Times Poll survey (Finkelhor, Hotaling, Lewis,
&
> Smith, 1990). Of the 7812 respondents across these combined studies, 1971
> incidents of abuse were reported. Of these, 163 were cases of paternal
> abuse and one was a case of maternal abuse. Thus, the prevalence of
> maternal abuse for the combined samples was 0.01%. Further, mothers
> accounted for only 0.6% of all parental abuse and 0.05% of all abuse.
Given
> the random nature of these retrospective studies and their community- or
> nation-wide focus, it is difficult to believe that the much larger
> percentage of abusive mothers in the NIS-3 (28%) and the NCANDS (27%) does
> not imply some type of bias.
>
> This excerpt is taken from: Bolen, R. M. (in press). Child sexual abuse:
> Its scope and our failure. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.
>
> Becky Bolen
>
>
> At 12:59 PM 12/5/00 -0700, you wrote:
>
> >I'd also caution that you keep in mind the following potential caveat
with
> >any analysis of administrative data on the subject: Is there any bias in
the
> >reporting of child maltreatment that would skew perceptions of the
identity
> >of perpetrators? In other words, are women more likely than men to be
> >reported even though the incidence of female vs. male perpetration may be
> >closer to equal? Further, to what extent do perceptions of gender roles
> >influence one's reporting of child maltreatment? I'm not sure of the
answers
> >to the above, but perhaps another member of the listserv could address
that.
> >
> >Dana Hollinshead, M.P.A., M.A.
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: lfontes@mail.javanet.com [mailto:lfontes@mail.javanet.com]
> >Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2000 12:36 PM
> >To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
> >Subject: Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children
> >
> >
> >In this discussion of male versus female abuse of children, Let's not
forget
> >sexual abuse, inducing terror (through abusing the other parent) and
child
> >abandonment (having no or only sporadic contact with a child might be
> >considered a form of indirect neglect)
> >Lisa fontes, Ph.D.
> >
> >
> >
> >Original Message:
> >-----------------
> >From: Joseph A Vorrasi jav9@cornell.edu
> >Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000 13:03:07 -0500
> >Subject: Re: Male vs Female Abuse towards children
> >
> >
> >Jeannine,
> >
> >
> >National surveys indicate that, relative to fathers, mothers use more
> >physical aggression against children.  This trend can be partially
> >explained by the simple fact that, on average, mothers have a greater
> >*opportunity* to abuse their children, given the propensity for children
> >to spend more time with their mothers than with their fathers.  The
> >statistics you seek, along with a discussion of them, can be found in the
> >following book:
> >
> >
> >Straus, M. A., & Gelles, R. J. (Eds.). (1990). <underline>Physical
> >violence in American families: Risk factors and adaptations to violence
> >in 8,145 families</underline>. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction.
> >
> >
> >Good luck,
> >
> >
> >Joe Vorrasi
> >
> >
> >
> >At 11:23 AM 12/5/00 -0500, jeannine turchiano wrote:
> >
> > >In all of the research I have been doing I cannot find any statistics
on
> >who does more of the child abusing in the US is it women or men?? Do you
> >have any stats of perhaps you can direct me to a website that would have
> >this information.
> >
> > >
> >
> > >Thank you very much- Jeannine
> >
> > >
> >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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>
> Becky Bolen, Ph.D.
> School of Social Work
> 264 Bay State Road
> Boston University
> Boston, MA  02215
> bbolen@bu.edu
> 617-353-3925
>