Survey: 1 In 20 Parents Committing Child Abuse

Gallup Numbers Much Higher Than U.s. Data

December 07, 1995|By Joseph A. Kirby, Tribune Staff Writer.

NEW YORK — Nearly 1 in 20 parents disciplined their children so severely in 1994 that they were committing physical abuse, according to a nationwide Gallup poll released Wednesday.

The study's projections show that annually 3 million children are the victims of physical abuse and 1.3 million children each year are sexually abused.

These figures are substantially higher than any child-abuse statistics reported by the federal government or national organizations that monitor child abuse.

A 1993 report by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the most recent report available, showed that more than 200,000 children were the victims of physical abuse--one sixteenth the number projected by the Gallup poll study.

Data from the federal government indicate that 130,000 children are sexual abuse victims each year--one-tenth the Gallup poll numbers.

Gallup and child advocacy officials said the findings were the result of a broad definition of what constitutes physical abuse.

According to the Gallup study, one of the most prevalent forms of parental discipline is striking a child somewhere other than his buttocks or face with an object, such as a belt or brush. However, that is not always considered physical abuse by some child advocacy officials.

Under this poll's definition, the once-common punishment of some parents and Catholic school nuns--striking a student's hands with a ruler--would be abusive. However, human service officials said that unless the act was performed repeatedly or it caused an injury, the adult would not be cited by an agency for physical abuse.

Still, several of the 1,000 parents surveyed admitted committing other acts that the poll and human service officials classify as physical abuse: Kicking or hitting a child with a fist; shaking a child age 2 or younger; throwing or knocking down a child; purposefully burning or scalding a child; and choking a child.

"There is still controversy over whether there should be corporal punishment and what is physical abuse," said David Moore, a vice president of the Gallup Organization. "But this poll shows that no matter the definition, child abuse is still a serious problem."

The Gallup poll also found that 1.9 percent of those surveyed said their child had been the victim of some sort of sexual abuse by an adult or another child during the past year. The poll did not specify whether the parent was the adult who committed the abuse.

National statistics indicated that approximately 100,000 children were sexually abused in 1994, officials said.

There were 138,255 reported cases of physical abuse to children in Illinois in 1994, according to the Department of Children and Family Services. There are approximately 67 million children in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the Gallup poll found evidence for a theory espoused by some human service advocates called "the cycle of violence." The theory maintains that a parent who was physically abused as a child is more likely to abuse their children.

While the survey found that parents who were severely physically abused as children are more likely than other parents to physically abuse their children, those parents were not more likely to use less-serious forms of physical punishment, such as spanking.