Child Abuse: Causes and Underreporting

Child abuse is a rampant problem in America. The numbers of reported cases have risen the past few years. However, there are still problems getting school counselors and emergency room medical workers to report abuse because it often goes unnoticed. A school counselor might not have a good enough relationship with their students to report. The students will most likely not report abuse to a counselor with whom they do not have a good relationship (Bryant, Milsom, 2005). A nurse in an emergency room may not realize that the child who was brought in with a head injury was a victim of abuse, rather than just an accident. And because the nurse does not want to cause a police investigation of a completely normal family who merely did the right thing by bringing their hurting child into the emergency room, he or she does not report the incident (Weinbach, 1975).

Prevention seems to be the best answer for child abuse. If a parent is taught how to deal with their own emotions and the proper behaviors for a child of a particular age, they are less likely to commit actions of abuse against their child. The problem of reporting could also be helped through education. If hospitals kept case files on children, they are more likely to notice a pattern of injuries in a particular child that should call for an investigation. Not all odd injuries are abuse "children do, on occasion, fracture an arm while climbing into a moving clothes dryer, but they rarely do it a second or third time." (Weinbach, 1975). However, if the injuries continue, it is a possibility that the child is being