Report finds high rate of abuse in rich nations

One in 10 children may be suffering from abuse in high-income countries, many more than child protection statistics suggest, U.K. and U.S. researchers said.

As many as 16 percent of children in developed countries are hit, punched, beaten or burned, while at least 15 percent of girls and 5 percent of boys have been subject to some form of sexual abuse, Ruth Gilbert from the University College London Institute of Child Health wrote in Wednesdays Lancet.

Maltreatment may also include emotional abuse, where children are persistently made to feel worthless, unwanted or scared, damaging the child's emotional development. Neglect, where parents don't meet the basic emotional or physical needs of their children, affects as many as 15 percent of children and may potentially be even more harmful.

Neglect is at least as damaging in childhood and adult life as are physical or sexual abuse, Gilbert wrote. However, neglect fails to capture the attention of the press, the public or researchers — put another way, neglect is neglected.

Neglect is the largest component of agency reports of child maltreatment, according to Gilbert, who worked on the paper with Cathy Spatz Widom from City University of New York and John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. In the U.K., neglect accounts for 44 percent of abuse, in the U.S., 60 percent; in Canada, 38 percent; and in Australia 34 percent.

As many as 155,000 child deaths, or 13 percent of all child deaths due to injury, are a result of abuse or neglect, the World Health Organization estimates. Biological parents account for four out of five cases, stepparents for 15 percent.

Maltreatment often has damaging effects on educational achievements, school attendance and behavior in adolescence, Gilbert wrote.

Maltreated children are at increased risk of perpetrating crime and violence as adults, thereby perpetuating the cycle of violence at considerable cost to themselves, their families and wider society, Gilbert wrote.

Abused children later in their life are more likely to be arrested for prostitution or paid sex, misuse alcohol and drugs and suffer from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder than their peers, Gilbert found.

They also are more likely to be obese and twice as likely to attempt suicide.

Child abuse is often not recognized and often professionals fail to report maltreatment because they want to be sure. As a result, abuse is often underreported, Gilbert wrote in a second paper. Both papers are part of a series on child abuse published by the Lancet.