ABSTRACT
Child abuse research has moved beyond the stage of describing and documenting injuries, making individual case reports and describing characteristics of the families. The children in both groups were well with no significant differences in heights or weights of the abused and comparison children. The significant differences between the study and control children in behaviour is likely to make life difficult for these children as they progress through the school system, perhaps counteracting whatever beneficial features schooling may have for them. A useful definition of sexual abuse is the one developed by M. D. Schechter & L. Roberge “the involvement of dependent developmentally immature children and adolescents in sexual activities which they do not fully comprehend, are unable to give informed consent to and that violate the social taboos of family roles.” The chapter discusses three areas of child abuse. These are physical abuse, neglect and non-organic failure to thrive and sexual abuse.
