Authorities Often Aware of Previous Incidents of Victimization

UNH Research: Authorities Often Aware of Previous Incidents of Victimization Among Children and Adolescents
1-8-2011

(PressZoom) - DURHAM, N.H. – Almost half of U.S. youth who experience violence, abuse or crime have had at least one of their victimizations known to school, police or medical authorities, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center.

The research is reported in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

“Childhood/adolescent abuse is frequently described as a hidden problem, and victimization studies regularly have shown that much abuse goes undisclosed,” according to lead researcher David Finkelhor, director of the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center, and his co-authors. The article is co-authored by Richard Ormrod and Heather Turner, also with the UNH Crimes against Children Research Center, and Sherry Hamby of Sewanee: The University of the South.

“The hidden nature of childhood victimization has multiple sources. Clearly, children and adolescents are easily intimidated by offenders and fear retaliation. However, families, children and adolescents often wish to deal with crime and victimization informally. They sometimes fear the consequences of disclosure to authorities in the form of interviews and police and court involvement.* In other cases, they do not perceive that victimizations as something that would be of interest to authorities,”**  the researchers said.   FULL STORY

* As well they should
** People do not "perceive" a lot of this so-called "victimization", because in the real world it's not a crime nor abuse as any normal person sees it.