RE: Male vs Female Abuse towards children

["Thomas R. Chibucos" <tchibuc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for some food for thought, Andrew.

I think it is safe to stay that there clearly must be a interaction effect
of time spent doing....whatever....and a wide range of other variables,
whether we're talking about child abuse or any other human social
phenomenon.  Is "time doing" the CAUSATIVE factor?  Clearly, not--just as
age is not the CAUSATIVE factor of anything.  Both "age" and "time doing"
are indices are many other processes.

Question: In terms of decreasing the likelihood of abuse, does it matter
whether we know what the processes being indexed are?

Well, from a scientific explanatory basis it does.  But, I would argue that
this is not essential to achieving some degree of fairly significant
prevention.  There is clearly a positive correlation between "time with
child" and frequency of abuse.  For example, if one simply statistically
blocks on sex of perpetrator and examines levels of perpetration of abuse
WITHIN male or female groups the association between "time with" and
negative outcomes is strong.  While "time with" may not explain much of the
variance in abuse perpetrated by extremely dysfunctional adults, it is a
very useful construct for understanding, and helping reduce the negative
impact of, various other personal and situational factors that impact the
treatment of children.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu
[mailto:owner-CHILD-MALTREATMENT-RESEARCH-L@cornell.edu] On Behalf Of
Andrew Percy
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2000 5:05 AM
To: Child Maltreatment Researchers
Subject: Male vs Female Abuse towards children


I would like to pick up on one point that has been made in
relation to the relative rates of male and female perpetrated
abuse. Several replies have mentioned that you need to factor in
the differing amounts of time children spend with male and
female carers when considering child maltreatment statistics.
This would only be necessary if the amount of time spent with the
child was a causal factor in the perpetration of the abuse. I am
not aware of any research which addresses this issue. However, I
would have assumed that other risk factors, such as the
personality of the carer, would be more important determinants of
child maltreatment than time spent with the child.

To use the previously mentioned analogy of car and motorcycle
fatalities, number of hours spent driving needs to be considered
when interpreting fatality statistics because it is a useful
indicator for a number of causal processes. The longer you drive
the more likely you are to commit an error, to meet a bad driver,
to fall asleep at the wheel etc. You would also need to consider
that fact that motorcycles offer less protection in the event of
a crash and that motorcycles usually travel faster than cars and
speed is a major determinant of accidents.

But can the same be said for the relative time spent in the care
of males and females and risk of child maltreatment? I would
suggest probably not. If a child lives with a violent father,
the amount of time the child spends with the father relative to
time spent with the mother is likely to have little impact on
their risk of abuse provided they have some contact with the
father.



Andrew Percy
----------------------
Andrew Percy
Research Statistician
The Centre for Child Care Research
Queen's University Belfast
5A Lennoxvale
Belfast
BT9 5BY
Tel: (028) 9027 4610
Fax: (028) 9068 7416