Bullying and other forms of child abuse

Every year more than three million cases of child abuse are reported across the United States (Ludwig, as cited in Wahler, et al., 1997). Violence against children exists in many forms. The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center (NYVPRC) (1997) reports that violence among young people in the United States is more common than in any other industrialized nation in the world.

Violence perpetuated by children upon themselves is another alarming problem. Peters (1985) believes that 5,000 to 6,000 teens successfully commit suicide each year. With only ten percent of all attempts being successful, this puts the number of suicide attempts around 500,000 per year.

There is a history of abuse denial. As late as 1960, Dr. Kempe and Dr. Helfer coined the term
"the battered child" when they presented a paper at the American Academy of Pediatrics. The ten years following, many states created laws to mandate and collect reports of child abuse. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act wasn't passed until 1973!

Despite the legisaltion, the general publlic was unaware of this issue eventhough reports of abuse and neglect had been filed for over 2,000,000 children - an average of 3 children were being killed every day.

Finally, in 1987, the problem received public attention and the above statistics came to light with the Lisa Steinberg incident. Lisa was killed by her father, a successful attorney. Her mother, a well-known writer of children's books, watched. She waited too long to call for help or get medical attention.

The term "peer abuse" has not even entered common vocabulary and yet bullying is not a new kind of abuse.

We all grew up knowing and believing the message of the nursery rhyme Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me. How did that work out for you?

Everyone has heard (may even have used) the saying that boys will be boys. What a lazy response to justify not doing anything about abusive behavior that perpetuates the illusion of entitlement!

Most of us had to study Lord of the Flies, written by Sir William Golding after WWII. It is the story of a group of English school boys stranded on an island and how they deteriorate to a culture of contempt and abuse of each other. It seems that our culture relegated the novel to the realm of fiction.

Perhaps the biggest lie that has been perpetuated by persons who are unwilling to see the devastation bullying causes or to intervene and establish boundaries is the beleif that bullying is a rite of passage. People I know who propagate this today were bullies as children and are still that way today.