New Book Examines Issues Regarding Child Victimization

While media attention has focused recently on the sex scandal in the Catholic Church, researchers report that there is an additional type of abuse and neglect that children suffer in the name of religion, most often at the hands of their own parents.

A chapter in the book "The Victimization of Children: Emerging Issues" reports the results of a study which show the negative implications that religion-related physical abuse have on the long-term psychological and spiritual well-being of its victims, long after the body has healed.

In addition to the subject of religion-related abuse, the book, edited by Sam Houston State University criminal justice professors Janet Mullings and James Marquart and doctoral student Deborah Hartley, addresses some of the most recent topics in crime against children including the victimization of youths on the Internet; children as victims of war and terrorism; children with disabilities---abuse, neglect and the child welfare system; fetal homicide---emerging statutory and judicial regulation of third-party assaults; and legal and social issues surrounding closed-circuit television testimony of child victims and witnesses.

The editors of the book are a part of the Crime Victims' Institute housed at the university in Huntsville, Tex. While conducting research for their program they noticed that there was a lack of information regarding contemporary issues that child victims are facing.

In addition to presenting the problems as they relate to child victimization, the book offers responses and interventions.

"There is a need for information about where we are now and where we are going," said Marquart, who heads the institute.

"We selected and contacted experts in the areas of law, sociology, criminal justice, psychology and health services, and asked them to submit information on their most recent research so that we could make the information available," said Marquart.

"The collected information should be valuable not only to undergraduate and graduate students who are preparing for careers to meet the needs of child victims, but the book should be a useful resource for practitioners in victim services, social work, mental health, public health, and criminal justice," said Marquart.

The book also offers information for parents, teachers, and others who are interested in issues dealing with the protection of children and teenagers.

In the book, studies show how information has changed. For example, the chapter on the Internet explains that researchers discovered that offenses and offenders seem more diverse than previously thought. The study revealed that perpetrators are not necessarily the stereotypical adult male looking for sex. Many offenses, including threats and harassment, came from other youths, and females committed a substantial amount of the offenses. The study also showed that youth and parents rarely report the Internet offenses, possibly because the Internet is so new and most people do not yet know who the policing authorities are.

The book also discusses the difficulty of dealing with religion-related abuse. The study on this issue concludes that physically abusive actions taken against a child for religious reasons are generally not severe enough to attract the attention of authorities. Also, the victims themselves often do not consider the actions to be abusive, because they feel like the treatment was sanctified or justified as punishment for something they did that was wrong. However, because the surveys show that the abuse may have long-lasting negative consequences for psychological well-being and research in this area is so new, the authors strongly encourage additional study before the problem escalates to more damaging consequences.

The book is receiving critical praise from academicians who have previewed its contents.

"This book helps bring the study of child victimization into the twenty-first century. It helps illuminate important issues in child victimization that are still mostly unrecognized," said one reviewer.
Another reviewer called it "a fascinating, illuminating and often troubling collection of research on child victimization, abuse and neglect…."

The book will be available from Haworth Press in spring 2004.

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Media Contact: Julia May
Feb. 25, 2004
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