From the U of Washington:
----------------------------

Once again the USA shows its true colors by its stellar performance in the
Child Maltreatment Deaths Olympics, in the just released UNICEF report 'A
league table of child maltreatment deaths in rich nations', Innocenti
Report Card No.5, September 2003.  Among rich countries, only Mexico has a
higher death rate from child abuse than we do.  Mexico, you may recall, is
the only rich country that has more child poverty than the world's richest
and most powerful country (guess who?).  The report and press release is
available at:  http://www.unicef-icdc.org/

Figure 12 there shows child abuse rates in the US in 1993 by family income
and the rate for families with incomes <$15,000 is 11/1000, whereas for
incomes >$30,000 it is 0.7/1000 or almost a 16 fold difference.

Interesting how this report escaped the attention of the the US media.
One of  our pophealth subscribers found a mention on the BBC, and put me
on the trail.  There it was stated that child abuse was linked to
inequality.

On page 23 we read:  " no national strategy to prevent or reduce the
maltreatment of children will achieve major gains without addressing the
question of economic poverty which, as we have seen, is the close
companion of physical abuse and neglect.This is not the place to discuss
national anti-poverty strategies (the proportion of children living in
absolute and relative poverty in the industrialized nations was the
subject of the first Innocenti Report Card). But in the difficult recent
climate of increasing poverty and inequality in the United States, Leroy
Pelton has put the case bravely and well:

There is overwhelming and remarkably consistent evidence ... that poverty
and low income are strongly related to child abuse and neglect and to the
severity of child maltreatment ... Approximately 40 to 50 per cent of all
child abuse and neglect incidents occur within the less than 15 per cent
of all US families with children who live below the poverty level ...
Perhaps an empowered and superiorly competent person can ward off poverty,
its deficits and/or stresses that can arise therefrom. But the environment
is real, not just a matter of perception, and can overwhelm people ... In
short, we must address the poverty conditions that leave children abused,
neglected, or otherwise harmed in the short run if we are to increase
individual competencies and inner resources in the long run."

Do we deal with poverty by throwing a crumb to the poor, or enacting a
maximum wage law (proposed by FDR Roosevelt in 1943), so the New York
Stock Exchange czar doesn't have to resign and still get his $140 million
pay check this year?

Stephen

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