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Child maltreatment is rarely a one off incident and is always harmful. Children who are abused or neglected get the message that they are of little value.
The nature and severity of the maltreatment, when intervention occurs and how effective it is, the age and maturity of the child, and the resources or supports children can draw on, all influence the short and long term impact of experiencing maltreatment. Maltreatment is known to increase the risks of experiencing a range of problems including:
- substance addiction
- crime
- homelessness
- poor physical health
- educational failure
- poor employability prospects
- depression, relationship problems
- suicide.
As a result past victims of abuse and neglect are grossly over-represented in the following demographics:
- perpetrators of crime and violence,
- and in the populations of our prisons,
- economically and socially disadvantaged members of our society.
Current evidence suggests that some children who have been abused or neglected will go on to perpetrate abuse or neglect as adults, although the majority of maltreated children do not. The best research estimate of this 'intergenerational maltreatment' is that around 30% of maltreated children will end up abusing or neglecting children themselves .
This shows that preventing child abuse must be approached as a multi-generational task. We are nearer to the beginning of the task than the end - in this way, we are the pioneers.
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