child homocides

[dw432@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

A review of Department of Justice statistics concludes the majority  
of child maltreatment is committed by the mother (female primary 
caretaker with 54% female acting alone, 24% acting with the male). 
This trend shifts however, with increasing age. While men probably 
have a greater incidence of violent behavior, younger children remain 
relatively protected because men are so often not around. The twin 
peak incidences for child homocide are ages less than two and greater 
than thirteen. Caretakers are responsible for most deaths under two. 
Focusing our interventions on non-paternal males in the home skews us 
from a greater, more brutal truth. I suspect many of the women who end 
up abusing and neglecting their children are themselves victims of a 
previous generation, now engaged with violent men, in a series of 
revictimizing relationships, in a violent life where they can see no 
way out (see Widom). 
http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/2000_5_2/contents.html
http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_5_1/contents.html


Doug Waite, MD
New York City