1)The Brief History (from Ancient to Modern Era) of the Concepts of ‘’Childhood’’ and ‘’Child Maltreatment’’:
From ancient times to the 17th century, the notion and the perception of ‘’child’’ and ‘’childhood’’ was not built around the ‘’the distinct and vulnerable-sensitive ‘bio-psycho-social’ developmental stages of life’’ ideation, we currently accept and held widely, accordingly to Aries (1962). This approach is empirically proven by the emergence of the modern scientific method, and its practice, which enabled the intellectual community to systematically study the fields of neuro-cognitive science, medicine (pediatry) and developmental psychology. As a byproduct of the both individual, societal and institutional unawareness throughout the longer extent of the recorded human history, the derivation of the concept of ‘’child abuse and neglect’’ has never been proposed until Aries did in the 20th century.
For instance, ‘’Infanticide’’ (the sacrificion of the babies, in order to achieve either religious, cultural, spiritual and/or superstitional goals) was a common practice for various ancient civilizations from at least 3 different continents, according to the ancient historical data as Damaskopoulou and his colleagues reported in 2022. Aries described the characteristics of child abuse in medieval era as ‘’intrusive’’ (1962).
Even within the Early Modern Era (17th century), sexual abuse of the children seems as a daily, entertaining practice for adults, according to the historical anecdotes Aries revealed, including the alleged details and context of Louie XIII’s relationship and daily interactions with his family members and other adults around him, throughout his childhood. He was a subject of severe sexual and emotional abuse – according to today’s medical and psychological evaluation standards – according to my understanding of the anecdotes of Aries, mentioned before. Specifically, the adults around him were continuously initiating physical contact with his penis and his other special body parts without asking any permission, while Louie XIII was being in the ages between 1 and 5. This abusive pattern of behaviour was not exclusive to any distinct groups of status-quo, gender or occupation, given the fact that the adults around him are ranging from the queen/king to servants and mistress’ (Damaskopoulou, 2022).
Along with Aries’ efforts to reformulate the child rearing and treating practices in a more historic and psycho-social context, a professor of Radiology at Columbia University named Caffey was had already observed and theoretically reported the physical abuse symptoms such as ‘’intracranial hematomas’’ in mid 1940’s, was later identified as the hallmarks of abuse within the medical literature (Damaskopoulou, 2022).
WHO and UNICEF have issued a report in 2024 referring international studies, regarding the statistics of, ‘’6 in 10 (%60) infant children have been routinely punished physically and/or subjected to emotionally violent behaviour’’ and ‘’1 in 5 (%20) women and 1 in 7 (%14) men had stated, they’ve been sexually abused as a child’’.
The more terminologically specific terms for the subjected phenomena in my article would be:
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Physical abuse,
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Emotional abuse,
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Sexual abuse,
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Physical neglect and
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Emotional neglect;
All of which indicates an experience, is radical enough to disrupt different aspects of child development in regard to the bio-psycho-social model of human species.
The definitions below are based on Stoltenborgh’s definitions of abuse and neglect (2014):
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PA: Any kind of actual or potential physical violence against a child, performed by its caregivers* (or anyone has a routine and/or continuous encounters with the child, e.g. teachers, relatives, neighbours etc.) via an interaction and/or a lack of an interaction.
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EA: Any kind of interactive behaviour and/or the lack of interactive behaviour, a child is being exposed to, initiated by which the caregiver or any consistent adult in the child’s environment, that causes the absence or insufficiency of the adequate developmental and supportive environment, which is required for the socio-emotional development and functionality of children.
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SA: An adult’s engagement of any kind of sexual activity with a minor (17 years of age or under) regardless of its rationale.
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PN and EN: The inability of the caregiver to provide, required physical and emotional environment, conditions and/or resources for a child to for it to express its nature and to nurture properly.
Caregiver or – an approximate and consistently present adult – is someone who has a reasonable extent of control over the events and the environment in which the child nurtures.
2) The Available and Relevant Meta-Analysis’ (Empirical Data) in the Global Literature of Child Maltreatment:
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A meta-analysis published by Pereda and his friends (2009), gathered ‘’the prevalence of abuse’’ statistics of each of 65 scientific papers (1984–2007) for their calculations, covering 22 countries, showed that:
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%7.9 of men and
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%19.7 of women,
whom were subjected either one of the 65 articles in the database, were abused prior to the age of 18.
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Another one conducted by Stoltenborgh and affiliates (2011), gathered ‘’the prevalence of child’s sexual abuse (SA)’’ statistics of each of 217 publications (1980–2008), includes approximately 10 million participants, for data, recorded overall SA prevalence estimates was %12.7 for the research based on self-reporting of the victims, and %0.4 for the research based on the data provided from informants.
Results are shown below:
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Overall SA estimates: %11.8
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SA estimates of girls: %16.4–19.7
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SA estimates of boys: %6.6–8.8
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Stoltenborgh (2014): 244 articles published between 1980–2008 are analyzed. Results are shared below:
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SA: %12.7 (M: %7.6, F: %18)
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PA: %22.6
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EA: %36.3
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PN: %16.3
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EN: %18.4
Abbreviations:
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WHO: World Health Organization
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PA: Physical Abuse
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EA: Emotional Abuse
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SA: Sexual Abuse
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PN: Physical Neglect
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EN: Emotional Neglect
References:
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Aries (1962), Centuries Of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life
https://monoskop.org/images/d/d0/Ari%C3%A8s_Philippe_Centuries_of_Childhood_A_Social_History_of_Family_Life_1962.pdf -
Damaskopoulou (2022), Child abuse: Past, present and future (Review)
https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/wasj.2022.181 -
WHO (2024), Child Maltreatment
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/child-maltreatment
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UNICEF. “Nearly 400 million young children worldwide regularly experience violent discipline at home.” 11 June 2024.
https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/nearly-400-million-young-children-worldwide-regularly-experience-violent-discipline -
UNICEF. Sexual violence. October 2024.
https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/violence/sexual-violence/#status
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Pereda (2009), The Prevalence of Child Sexual Abuse in Community and Student Samples: A Meta-Analysis
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16206765.pdf -
Stoltenborgh (2011), A Global Perspective on Child Sexual Abuse: Meta-Analysis of Prevalence Around the World
https://sci-hub.se/10.1177/1077559511403920 -
Stoltenborgh (2014), The Prevalence of Child Maltreatment Across the Globe: Review of a Series of Meta-Analyses
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267103498_The_Prevalence_of_Child_Maltreatment_across_the_Globe_Review_of_a_Series_of_Meta-Analyses