Neglect, cruelty, and battering.

Abstract

An anonymous annotation recently stated "It should be axiomatic that any injury (other than a road traffic accident) to a child under 2 must be considered to be an instance of the battered-baby syndrome."' This is, fortunately, obviously incorrect, even if a more recent estimate that 500 children die each year from battering is nearer the truth.2 The very word "battering," and the term "battering parent," add to the already con §iderable difficulties of determining which injured children have been damaged by their families. So do exaggerated estimates of the size of the problem and alarmist claims that it is on the increase. Up to a point publicity and catch phrases have been effective in drawing attention to a problem which certainly has been underestimated. Now that research is in progress it could only be hielpful if the emotional temperature were lowered. Our understanding has been increasing faster in the last 15 years since Caffey' described the periosteal changes and other injuries seen on x-ray films of children who had been swung fiercely by their ankles or their wrists.From work done independently in different parts of the world and in different social situations4"6 we know that much of this deadly or potential deadly damage can be prevented. Also that most families which have produced or permitted grave physical or emotional injury and neglect can recover and achieve their ambition of nurturing thriving children. We have learnt too that the suspicious, over-simplified, and potentially accusatory approach epitomized in my firsit quotation makes recovery more difficult and further injury more likely. We have learnt it in the process of discovering that the opposite approach of sympathetic and concerned, but controlled, curiosity is essential if recurring tragedy is to be avoided.

PROFILE OF NEGLECT: A SURVEY OF THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE OF CHILD NEGLECT—by Norman A. Polansky, Carolyn Hally, and Nancy F. Polansky; Community Services Administration, Social and Rehabilitation Service, 1975, 57 pages. Available from the Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402, for $1.20 (stock no. 017-165-00006-8)

“…When we recently wrote colleagues to inquire into stimulating new programs of work on child neglect, a surprising proportion offered descriptions of programs dealing with abuse. So the failure to discriminate between the two is not limited to amateurs; a number of experts have treated the distinction loosely (Bleiberg, 1965;Isaacs, 1972;Mulford, Cohen, and Philbrick, 1967).…”