- WASHINGTON (OneWorld) --
Young children raised in the United States, Mexico, and Portugal have the
greatest chances of dying from neglect or other forms of mistreatment among
the 27 industrialized nations that make up the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to a new report released
Thursday by a research group associated with the UN Children's Fund.
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- The 40-page report estimates that almost 3,500 children
under the age of 15 die from maltreatment, defined as physical abuse or
neglect, every year in the industrialized world.
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- UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center, based in Italy, produces
periodic "Report Cards" on the status of children in developed
countries. Report Card 5, "Child Mistreatment Deaths in Rich Nations,"
brings a global perspective to issues normally seen only through national
statistics.
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- The report found that the younger the child, the more
likely they were to die. Children under one year of age, according to the
report, are at three times greater risk than those aged one to four who,
in turn, are twice as likely to die from maltreatment as those between
the ages of five and 15.
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- Children in the southern European countries of Spain,
Greece, and Italy are the least likely to suffer maltreatment according
to the study, which found that an average of only two children per million
in those countries had died from abuse or neglect annually over the last
five years.
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- The death rate was slightly higher--about three per million
annually--in Ireland and Norway. In the Netherlands and Sweden, the death
rate was twice that--about six per million each year--while in South Korea,
Australia, Germany, Denmark, and Finland, the average was about eight per
million, the report found.
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- By comparison, the death rate in the United States, according
to UNICEF, was three times higher, at 24 per million, while in Mexico,
it came to 30 per million and in Portugal, the highest, 37 per million
children.
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- The findings are certain to be controversial, primarily
because governments do not use a uniform methodology for determining maltreatment
or even the cause of death, and because of differences across nations in
the willingness of families to report maltreatment or of police to investigate
it.
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- Recognizing these problems, UNICEF researchers used statistics
provided by the governments on both known cases of abuse or neglect as
a base-line and then added to those totals all child deaths that were recorded
as being of "undetermined cause."
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- "The assumption made is that when no other cause
can be established, the death is likely the result of maltreatment that
cannot be proven in a court of law," the study said. Using the revised
calculations, Portugal, whose government statistics found that only four
children died of maltreatment annually (placing it among the better-performing
nations), plunged to the bottom of the OECD rankings.
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- Similarly, for France, the death rate from maltreatment
rose from five per million to 14 per million when deaths due to "undetermined
causes" were added. Its ranking fell from 11 to 24, just above the
bottom three.
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- Aside from Portugal and France, however, the rankings
in the revised table remained generally consistent with those based solely
on the government's official statistics.
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- The report, also based on scores of statistical studies
on child deaths in OECD countries, found that countries with the lowest
maltreatment rates also have very low rates of homicides from assault.
Similarly, the three nations with the highest rates of child deaths from
maltreatment--the U.S., Mexico, and Portugal--also recorded the highest
adult death rates.
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- The study reported some good news. Using the same methodology
for child deaths recorded in the 1970s, UNICEF found that child deaths
from maltreatment appear to have declined in virtually all countries covered
by the report.
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- Reducing maltreatment appeared to rely, above all, on
public awareness about the problem; the frequency of visits by social and
health workers where maltreatment has been reported or is suspected; and
efforts to reduce poverty.
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- The report found that poverty and stress--along with
drug and alcohol abuse--appear to be the factors most closely and consistently
associated with child abuse and neglect.
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- It noted that seven OECD countries--Austria, Denmark,
Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden--have all adopted laws that
explicitly forbid physical punishment of children. Assessments of these
efforts suggest that they have been helpful in raising public awareness
and discussion about the issue, one of the major factors in reducing the
problem.
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- Copyright © 2003 OneWorld.net
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- http://oneworld.net/article/view/68351/1/
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