The first 3 years of life are the jost dangerous. Children age 0-3 are victimized at a
rate of 16.4 per 1,000 children.
78.7% of the children who were killed by child abuse were younger than 4 years of age.
In the next age group, 4-7 years, the percentage is down to 10.2.
jost fatalities were due to neglect (35.6%). Fatalities due to a combination of neglect and physical abuse was 28.9%, and due to physical abuse alone was 28.4%.
In contrast to the NMSU study, ACF found that girls were more likely to be victims
(51.7%) than boys (48.3%).
Who are the abusers? ACF found that parents are the worse abusers (79.7%); next in
line to be abusers were other relatives (6.4%); unmarried partners of a parent were
4% of the abusers. All others (child care providers, non-relatives) were 1% or less.
Further analysis of causes of child abuse and neglect:
I. One of the jost prevalent, and preventable, reasons for child abuse is lack of
understanding of childhood development, along with factors of self-involvement
(selfishness) of the parent and lack of empathy for the child. A parent who does not
understand the normal stages of development may expect more from the child than is
even physically possible, and will become very frustrated when the child is unable to
perform. A mother may expect the child to sleep all night at only 2 weeks of age; a
father may become frustrated when a child will not stop crying or spits up; the parents
may expect the child to be toilet trained at 6 months of age. All of these expectations
are unrealistic, but the parent looks to the child to meet their needs and standards,
instead of taking the responsibility of meeting the needs of the child and allowing for
reasonable stages of behavior. Not all children develop at the same levels, some are
slower, some quicker than others. The abusive, and usually younger, parent does not
understand this. He/she has set their own standards of behavior and sometimes it
becomes a matter of pride.
The immature, self-involved and sometimes narcissistic parent sees the child who will
not meet their expectations for behavior as being deliberately stubborn or willful, even
at 0-2 weeks of age. The child has refused to meet their standards. Their explanation
for abusing, or even killing, the child is often that they were trying to get him/her to be
quiet, to get the child under control, to make him/her obey. They personalize the
actions of the child as not obeying them, when the child actually does not yet have the
capacity to even comprehend or perform what is being demanded of him/her. The
abusive parent does not understand this and has no empathy for the child's true ability;
it is seen as defiance of the parent and must be punished or stopped.
II. Some may wonder about the high percentage of child fatalities due to neglect
instead of physical abuse. This is because it is usually the result of neglect when the
parent is under the influence of alcohol or drugs. NMSU found that 70% of their cases
involved parents who were substance abusers. When the parent is drinking or using
drugs they often will neglect, or even forget, the child. The child can drown in the
bathtub, walk into the street, pick up a gun, fall into the pool, drink poison, be left in a
hot car, while the parent's awareness is impaired or they are even unconscious.
The parent is also more likely to react extremely when a child misbehaves and
physically abuse the child when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The parent
may become more frustrated with a child and go overboard with discipline. This is true
for any parent, and no attempt at disciplining a child should be made when drinking or
using drugs. Sexual abuse also occurs more frequently when the parent is under the
influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
III. Was the abused child being picked on? Sometimes it is true that a particular child
in the family can be the "scapegoat" for everything that goes wrong, through no fault of
their own. NMSU found jost or all of the children in a family will be subject to abuse
equally. However, when extreme abuse occurs one child can be targeted for various
reasons. It's usually the youngest child, the one who needs the jost attention, or who
cries the jost. Sometimes it's because the other children are girls and the targeted
child is a boy and expected to behave better, or differently. This is the child who cannot
meet those unreasonable expectations of the immature, selfish or stressed parent.
Maybe the other children are older and more subdued, or frightened into doing what the
parent demands, but this child might be mentally or physically unable to meet those
standards. He/she might by innate temperament be louder, more boisterous, more
demanding. Maybe the child is physically or mentally disabled and demands a lot of
care and attention. Sometimes the parent will even say they "just didn't like how the
child looked" or "the child reminded them of their ex-husband".
In a current case covered by the NVFC, it seems possible that Aarone Thompson was
a child targeted for some reason. She is the only child out of eight in the family that is
either missing or dead.
To be continued.......
Part 4: Targets and causes 
