NCJ Number
194950
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: January-February 2002 Pages: 1-18
Date Published
2002
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article presents a study of abuse reporting and victimization of disabled children in Great Britain.
Abstract
Using a series of questionnaires and interviews, the authors gathered data from the Chairs of the Area Child Protection Committees concerning the formal tracking and recording of incidents of child abuse and neglect involving disabled children living in Great Britain. The authors note that under current practices, there are no reliable records concerning the level of abuse victimization among the disabled and further there is a lack of data concerning the types of interventions that are utilized when abuse cases involving disabled children are presented to authorities. The authors identified four goals for their study, specifically to study data recording practices in disabled children abuse cases, to compare the outcomes of abuse interventions for disabled versus non-disabled children, to develop an estimate of the abuse victimization rates for disabled children, and to develop recommendations for improved practices for child protective authorities in dealing with disabled children. The authors found that recording practices were not uniformly employed and that additional research would be needed to develop a good estimate of abuse victimization rates. The authors further found that for several abuse and neglect intervention types there was a trend towards fewer interventions for disabled children than for non-disabled children. Finally, the authors presented local level and national level suggestions for improved practices for providing abuse intervention to disabled children. 2 tables, 4 appendices, 17 references