Male Child Abuse and Fatalities - The Numbers

I found these links at The Spearhead, a site that I read regularly and often disagree with either in part or in whole. The contributors are often very angry (perhaps some of the stats below are WHY they are angry) and extremely anti-feminist. But they do seem to care about men, their health, their rights as fathers, and some of cultural bias against men (although they focus on the biases and injustices perceived to come from women far more than others).

A recent post (linked to above) focused on the fact that boys of all ages die more frequently than girls as a result of abuse. Based on what I know of child abuse, this makes sense - but we seldom here about male children being killed (far more often by mothers than by fathers). When the media covers such a story, it is usually about a female child.

Age and Sex of Child Fatalities, 2006

This table compares the age and gender of children who died from maltreatment for only those States that reported fatalities in the Child File. The first column lists the single-year ages ranging from birth to 3 years. Then the ages are grouped together: 4–7, 8–11, and 12–17. Next the population, number of victims, and rate of fatalities per 100,000 are presented for boys and for girls. Then the boys and girls are added together for total fatality victims. A total of 1,129 children died as a result of abuse or neglect, as reported by States in the Child File only.

AGE	GIRLS
	POPULATION	NUMBER	RATE PER 100,000
<1>	1,462,500	215	14.7
1	1,457,529	61	4.2
2	1,458,173	58	4.0
3	1,437,652	30	2.1
4-7	5,647,666	43	0.8
8-11	5,603,650	25	0.4
12-17	8,983,687	22	0.2
Total	26,050,857	454	Blank Cell
Rate	Blank Cell	Blank Cell	1.7

AGE	BOYS
	POPULATION	NUMBER	RATE PER 100,000
<1>	1,531,444	284	18.5
1	1,525,624	108	7.1
2	1,527,348	82	5.4
3	1,504,541	42	2.8
4-7	5,902,038	91	1.5
8-11	5,868,580	29	0.5
12-17	9,430,198	39	0.4
Total	27,289,773	675	Blank Cell
Rate	Blank Cell	Blank Cell	2.5

The numbers for who is the abuser generally do not reflect what we see in the media or in the popular culture. If it's a family member, we seem to assume it must be the father, but it's not - when it's a parent it is more often the mother.

Figure 4-2 Perpetrator Relationships of Child Fatalities, 2006

This pie chart indicates that 27.4 percent of child fatalities were perpetrated by the mother acting alone. Such nonparental perpetrators as daycare providers, foster parents, or residential facility staff were responsible for 14.6 percent of fatalities.

The numbers are no better from 2008:

Table 4-5 Perpetrator Relationships to Child Fatalities, 2008
Child Maltreatment 2008

Relationship to Child	Child Fatalities
	Number	Percent
PARENT
Mother	358	26.6
Mother and Other	119	8.9
Father	170	12.6
Father and Other	19	1.4
Mother and Father	289	21.5
NONPARENT
Daycare Staff	25	1.9
Foster Parent (Female Relative)	1	0.1
Foster Parent (Male Relative)	1	0.1
Foster Parent (Nonrelative)	2	0.1
Foster Parent (Unknown Relationship)	3	0.2
Friend or Neighbor	3	0.2
Legal Guardian (Female)	1	0.1
Legal Guardian (Male)	Blank Cell	Blank Cell
More than One Nonparental Perpetrator	28	2.1
Other Professional	1	0.1
Partner of Parent (Female)	4	0.3
Partner of Parent (Male)	36	2.7
Relative (Female)	32	2.4
Relative (Male)	18	1.3
Staff Group Home	2	0.1
Unknown or Missing	232	17.3
Total	1,344	Blank Cell
Percent	Blank Cell	100.0

Based on data from 41 States.

It bothers me that we generally assume men are the perpetrators and girls are more often the victims. NO CHILD should be abused - but there is some not too subtle sexism involved here - against boys and men.

When was the last time you saw a male child on Nancy Grace or one of those other shows that make celebrities out of missing children (always white, generally blond and blue eyed)? Surprisingly, however, more missing boys are mentioned on network news than missing girls - I wouldn't have believed it before reading the study linked to.

Bu then there is this commentary that comes from Sociological Images:

Commenter eruvande pointed out that when discussing the case of an 11-year-old boy, Shawn Hornbeck, who was kidnapped, beaten, and sexually abused for 4 years, Bill O’Reilly implies that he must have liked the situation or wanted to be there, because otherwise he could have escaped:

When Van Susteren points out the case of Elizabeth Smart, who also seemed to have opportunities to escape and didn’t “choose” to take them, O’Reilly refers to her as a “little girl,” although she was 14 when she was kidnapped.

I am trying to imagine a similar response to a girl. Although we often still blame women for being raped, it seems to go the other way when it comes to childhood sexual abuse/kidnapping: girls might get to be innocent victims, but boys ought to have been tough enough to get away. If they didn’t, they must have liked it.

Unbelievable, really.

No, really, it's fucking unconscionable.

Tags: men, boys, abuse, death, media, culture, discrimination, Male Child Abuse, Fatalities, statistics, US Dept of Health and Human Services, children, child abuse, girls, gender bias, mothers, fathers, The Spearhead