Victims of Crime

What Is Child Abuse?

Child abuse includes:
• physical abuse,
• sexual abuse,
• emotional abuse
• and neglect (which is the failure to provide a minimum standard of care for a child's physical and emotional needs.)

In Wisconsin, child abuse is defined by Chapter 48 of Wisconsin State Statutes.

Child abuse is seldom a single event. Rather, it occurs with regularity, often increasing in violence. It crosses all boundaries of income, race, ethnicity, and religious faith. A child abuser is usually closely related to the child, such as a parent, stepparent or other caregiver.

In homes where child abuse occurs, fear, instability and confusion replace the love, comfort and nurturing that children need. Abused children live in constant fear of physical harm from a person who is supposed to care for and protect them. They may feel guilt at loving the abuser or blame themselves for causing the violence.

What Can You Do?

If your child, or any child, tells you that he or she has been abused, these are the most important things you can do:
• Respond in a calm manner.
• Listen to the words and feelings of the child, and observe his or her body language.
• Try to find out what happened, and reassure the child that he or she has done nothing wrong.
• Let the child know that you will do what ever you can to keep him or her safe.
• It is better for you not to handle the situation on your own.

Child abuse is against the law and has serious effects on victims. Your community has resources that can help even if the abuser is not prosecuted. Child Victim services are available to help children heal. PLEASE DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP - see our Resources Page for more information.

Child Abuse and Domestic Violence

Child abuse is often found in homes where domestic violence occurs. Children may be abused and threatened as a way of punishing and controlling the adult victim of domestic violence. Sometimes they may be injured unintentionally when acts of violence occur in their presence. Even when children are not attacked directly, they experience serious emotional damage as a result of living in a violent household. Children who live in abusive environments believe that abusive behavior is acceptable, but it is not. Children from violent homes have a higher risk of alcohol or drug abuse and juvenile delinquency.

The impact of child abuse

Victims of child abuse may feel that they are bad and deserve the abuse.  They usually have poor self esteem.   In addition to physical injuries that may be the result of abuse, child victims may develop eating disorders or sleep disturbances, including nightmares.  They may develop speech disorders or developmental lags in their motor skills.  Many child victims demonstrate some form of self-destructive behavior.  They may develop physical illness such as asthma, ulcers, sever allergies, or recurring headaches.  Also, they often experience irrational and persistent fears or hatreds and demonstrate either passive or aggressive behavioral extremes. 

Trauma in children can take years to manifest; therefore, it is important that victims of child abuse receive counseling as soon as possible after the abuse is disclosed. 

What are the facts about child abuse?

• Children in the United States are more likely to be victimized violently in their homes that on the streets
• Children under age 12 make up about one-quarter of all child victims known to police and at least one-half of the juvenile victims of kidnapping and forcible sex offences.  Girls are more often victims of sex offenses and kidnappings, but boys are more often victims of all other crime
• More than 70 percent of reported sex offenses involve child victims
• Only 11 percent of the child victimizers in violent crimes are strangers
• In 2001 there were 9,795 cases of substantiated child abuse and neglect in Wisconsin. 

Getting Help for Child Abuse

Children who have been abused need caring adults to help them recognize that they are not responsible for the violence in their home and to find them find ways to grow past their present trauma into healthy adults.  Caring adults must help abused children avoid a cycle of learned abusive patterns by teaching and modeling nonviolent methods of conflict resolution and helping them express their feelings in healthy ways.

Milwaukee has victim assistance programs and counselors who are trained to work with child abuse victims.  These advocates can provide information and a full range of victim support services. 

There is a list of services on the Resource Page.  The services are available to all child victims even if no one is charged with a crime.

 

The Fostering Healing Program is supported in part by Victims of Crime Act Subgrant No. 2006 -081-08 awarded by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of Crime Victim Services under a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the grantor agencies.

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