The Impact of Child Abuse on Infants and Toddlers
Most people are shocked to learn that more than four children die each day in the United States as a result of child abuse in the home. Even more startling is the fact that the vast majority of these victims are under the age of six years.

Why do infants and toddlers make up the majority of child abuse fatalities?

What are the factors that play into caregivers critically harming these children?

What is shaken baby syndrome?

Child Sexual Abuse
There are a number of myths surrounding child sexual abuse. For example, the "dirty old man" who sexually molests a child is often only 12 years old, himself.

What are the most common misconceptions?

How common is child sexual abuse?

What are the critical steps every adult should know to take immediately after a child discloses that he or she has been sexually molested?

The Silent Epidemic of Neglect
Most people think of physical abuse and sexual abuse as the most common forms of child abuse. Yet neglect is the most commonly reported type of abuse.
 
Further, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau states that maltreatment deaths are more often associated with neglect (38.2%) than with any other type of abuse. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau. National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) Summary of Key Findings from Calendar Year 2000 (Washington, D.C.: April 2002).

What are the various types of neglect?

Why do caregivers neglect children to the point of great suffering, permanent disability and even death?

How common is neglect as a form of child abuse in your community?

Methamphetamine Labs and Child Abuse
In many states, adults who are arrested during meth lab busts also are charged with child abuse when children are found living in these homes. Substances generated by cooking the drug can dissolve flesh in seconds. Fumes are so toxic that small amounts can collapse the lungs. If mishandled, red phosphorus converts to yellow phosphorus and can spontaneously ignite.

In calendar year 2001, law enforcement agencies busted 326 meth labs involving 75 children in Arizona, alone. Many of these children—some of whom arrive high from breathing the fumes in their homes—are taken to the Childhelp Children's Center of Arizona for medical examinations and referrals.

In addition to the risk to the children's physical health from exposure to meth, some of the children also are endangered by the presence of firearms in these homes. With schooling a low priority, children living in these chaotic environments often fall behind their peers. Some of the children seen at the center knew how to make meth but they didn't know their A, B, C's.
The Link Between Child Abuse and Substance Abuse
Recent findings point to the critical role substance abuse plays in creating and perpetuating the cycle of child abuse:

• Nearly one-half of substantiated cases of child neglect and abuse are associated with parental alcohol or drug abuse. SOURCE: Child Welfare League of America: Alcohol and Other Drug Survey of State Child Welfare Agencies. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America, 1998. Online at http://www.cwla.org/programs/chemical/1997stateaodsurvey.htm
  
• In the January 2002 edition of Psychoneuroendocrinology, Carl Anderson, Ph.D., research associate in McLean Hospital's Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Laboratory and Brain Imaging Center, and his colleagues found that repeated sexual abuse affects the blood flow and function of a key brain region related to substance abuse, the cerebellar vermis. This part of the brain has been recently implicated in the coordination of emotional behavior, is strongly affected by alcohol, cocaine, and other drugs of abuse, and may help regulate dopamine, a neurotransmitter critically involved in addiction.
  
• Damage to this area of the brain may cause an individual to be particularly irritable, and to seek external means, such as drugs or alcohol, to quell this irritability," said Anderson.

McLean Hospital (http://www.mcleanhospital.org/) is the largest psychiatric teaching facility of Harvard Medical School, an affiliate of Massachusetts General Hospital and a member of Partners HealthCare System.

Abuse Affecting Teens and Pre-teens
Discussions with Arizona teens during school presentations, as well as calls to the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline,
1-800-4-A-CHILD®, indicate that the prevalence of blended families (children from different marriages) has seemingly increased the incidence of sibling abuse. As these children will tell you, the reality of family life with stepbrothers and stepsisters often isn't the same as it was portrayed on the "Brady Bunch" television series.

In addition, a significant number of teens (boys as well as girls) are at risk of abuse by their dates. Research released in 2001 which analyzed data from Minnesota ninth and 12th-graders indicated that one in 10 girls and nearly one in 20 boys reported being raped or physically abused on dates.

A separate study by the Harvard School of Public Health  published in the August 1, 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association suggested that approximately one in five high school girls has been physically or sexually abused by a dating partner.