Children as Victims of Violence

SF Examiner article:

The newspaper article reported that 15.6% (14.0-17.2, 95% CI) of
participants had been assaulted; however, it does not further qualify,
leaving one unaware that this figure refers only to "completed nonfamily"
assault. I believe the article should have reported the most important
finding of the study, that being that some 25% of all children reported
completed victimization and over a third had experienced attempted
victimization. These results are stated early in the results, and in the
abstract. Also, it was found that 1 in 8 children experienced physical
injury and 1 in 100 required medical attention. If these data are accurate,
then approximately 6 million of America's youth are suffering from
completed abuse of some form, 2.8 million will be injured, and a quarter
million will need medical treatment for abuse.

Due to its brevity (around 110 words!), the newspaper article omitted many
findings that I found quite interesting, and disturbing. For example, in
Table 5, pp 417, the percent of children victimized in the Pacific and
Mountain region was 62.7% and 64.6%, whereas average was around 52%. Also,
differences were found between the social classes; the biggest difference
being from < $20k/year to $20-50k/year--general victimization was 7.3%
lower, and all other assaults were lower in the middle income bracket.
However, there was also not much difference between the middle bracket and
the highest one, >$50k/year.

If this data is accurate and representative of our family structure, then
the conclusions are nothing less than disturbing and should set off further
research into child abuse. Moreover, intervention should be made more
readily available for children of such violence.

Suggested Question:

1.  What problems are associated with interviewing by telephone?

2.  According to the journal article, the statistics of reported abuse
has been understated by as much as 85%.  Why is this? Suggest possible
ways of assessing the real figures, and methods of gathering data.