I read that claim that one in a thousand children are abused and I thought ‘No. Thats rubbish; Its made up.’
And I reckon most people who read that article will think the same. Think about how many people you know. Think about how many you know well enough to talk about this stuff. If you know ONE person who has been abused then the real rate must be higher than one in a thousand.
I checked the numbers in the document Andie linked too.
5% PER YEAR are investigated.
1% PER YEAR are found to have been maltreated
0.4% PER YEAR are found to have suffered physical or sexual abuse.
And if what Andie says about repeat cases being rare is true (a big if obviously), then we’re looking at child abuse rates which are about 40 times higher than Andie says.
You know, I really don’t get it. What is the point of writing an article AND JUST MAKING STUFF UP?
Last thing. Think again about the people you know who suffered abuse as a child. How many of those reported it? How many of those would have turned up in the statistics?
