Schools more aware of abuse incidents, but many still undetected

Finkelhor D. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2011;165:9-15.

The percentage of victimization incidents that are reported to school, police or medical authorities is improving but is still considerably underreported, according to results of a study published online.

Between January and May 2008, David Finkelhor, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire, Durham, and colleagues conducted a national telephone survey involving 4,549 children aged 10 to 17 years and the parents of children aged 0 to 9 years. Participants answered questions about five types of victimization: conventional crime, maltreatment, abuse by peers and siblings, sexual abuse and indirect exposure to violence (such as witnessing abuse).

A total of 58.3% of the children and teens reported at least one direct victimization in the past year, including bullying. Of these, 45.7% had at least one victimization that was known to authorities. The incidents about which authorities were aware tended to be more serious — for instance, officials knew about 69% of the cases of sexual abuse by a known adult, 73.5% of kidnappings and 70.1% of gang or group assaults.

“However, even emotional bullying (51.5%), neglect (47.8%) and theft (46.8%) were often known to authorities,” the researchers wrote. The episodes most infrequently reported to authorities included peer and sibling assault, dating violence, sexual exposure/flashing and statutory rape.

School authorities were more likely to be aware of victimization events, with 42.3% being aware compared with 12.7% among police and 1.8% among medical authorities. This result “is understandable given how much time children and adolescents spend in school and interact with school professionals,” the researchers wrote. “Although police and medical authorities may conclude from these results that they are seriously underinformed about victimization, it is not clear how much victimization of children and adolescents merits the specialized involvement of these professionals.”

The findings represent an improvement from a comparable survey conducted in 1992, in which 25% of cases of victimization among children aged 10 to 16 years were known to authorities compared with 50.6% among this age group in the current study, but Finkelhor and colleagues noted, “the study also shows that a considerable portion of childhood/adolescent exposure to victimization is still unknown to authorities.”

The researchers said outreach must be particularly enhanced toward boys, Hispanics and higher-income groups because underreporting of victimization was more common in these peer groups.

“Boys are less likely to have their victimizations known to authorities, probably reflecting the ‘boy code’ of self-sufficiency that stigmatizes help-seeking, a code that some educational programs are trying to counteract,” the researchers wrote. “Hispanic children and adolescents are less likely to have their victimizations known, perhaps reflecting Hispanic concerns about how authorities will treat them.”

The researchers added that higher-income groups may be less likely to disclose victimization because of the perceived negative effect that disclosure would have on the families.

In an accompanying editorial, Andrea Gottsegen Asnes, MD, MSW,and John M. Leventhal, MD, of Yale University, commented on the sheer volume of children who had reported at least one incident of victimization within the past year, noting that the rate “speaks to the enormity of the problem. … We must recognize the scope of the problem of childhood/adolescent trauma and begin to look at it head on without blinking. Society then can and must accept the crucial connection between childhood/adolescent trauma and downstream social ills and act to maximize multidisciplinary collaboration and mental health resources to help children and adolescents before they become troubled, unhealthy adults.”

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.

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