Dear Sir;

In your editorial “Child Abuse In Medical Practice” [₁] The emphasis was on medical practice to spot offenders. It seems quite impressive that such idea work even in advanced societies. In the issue of The Internet Journal of Health an original paper comes from the Middle East about child abuse. [₂] You indicated that:

“This is a very difficult subject to tackle in this journal. Knowing that such topic is a taboo topics in most society and in situation where are social disruption or war or social interest this phenomenon would take larger scale. In starting with this topic in this journal we hope to expand awareness and data collections from all around the world to appear for best wellbeing of children of the world.”..

Soon the news came about the Austrian major dungeon story of Josef Fritzl' s de-famous act which shocked the entire country and amazed the World audience.[₃]. It was a story of long child abuse extended to an eleven old child which was incarcerated and sexually violated on deliberate bases lead to production of seven children from incestuous relationship. The society harbored such hideous story was caught unattended with all law and order welfare and complete social structure, It seems the medical practice left the lid from the horrible details when the mother-daughter fell seriously ill and came to the notice of medical attention. The father was convicted and sentenced for rape in 1967 [₄]. This is the issue of long term child abuse extend to offsprings Children-grand children and the lesson from this story should be corrective as the possible as could be.. : “The victim Kerstin Fritzl, the eldest of Josef Fritzl's “downstairs family,” has slipped into a coma from which she is unlikely to recover. “She is suffering from multiple organ failure,” said a hospital spokesman. “That means her chances of survival are very low. Police say they will consider bringing murder charges against Fritzl if the girl dies”. [₅]

UNICEF, As part of nations declaration of principles, uses the term ‘child protection' to refer to preventing and responding to violence, exploitation and abuse against children and teens up to 18 yrs – including commercial sexual exploitation, trafficking, child labor and harmful traditional practices, such as female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage. UNICEF's child protection programme also target children who are uniquely vulnerable to these abuses, such as when living without parental care, in conflict with the law and in armed conflict. Violations of the child's right to protection take place in every country and are massive, under-recognized and under-reported barriers to child survival and development, in addition to being human rights violations. Children subjected to violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect are at risk of death, poor physical and mental health, HIV/AIDS infection, educational problems, displacement, homelessness, vagrancy and poor parenting skills later in life.[ ₅] Among many other programme, UNICEF supports the international Child Rights Information Network. In 2007, UNICEF's Overview of child well-being in rich countries, showed the UK and the USA at the bottom of a league of 21 countries. [₆]. Recent reports indicating many conflict area as Iraq and Gaza and other underdeveloped societies like Malawi, Yemen and Jamaica as places for child rights abuse

This is a global approach which may look to the other way toward legal and social regulations. It may constitute a strategic planning but it has no space for individual tragedy.

The definition of child abuse [₇] goes like this: Child abuse is defined as the physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment or neglect of children by parents, guardians, or others. While most child abuse happens in the child's home, large numbers of cases of child abuse have been identified within some organizations involving children, such as churches, schools, child care businesses, and in particular native residential schools,[₈] or in government agencies.[₉] It also sometimes occurs almost anywhere (eg kidnappings, random murders etc.)

According to a recent UNICEF report on child well-being the United States and the United Kingdom ranked lowest among rich nations with respect to the well being of their children. This study also found that child neglect and child abuse are far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are present. There are many forms of abuse and neglect and many governments have developed their own legal definition of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. In the United States, the Federal Government puts out a full definition of child abuse and neglect and creates a summary of each State definition. [₆, ₉]

The scope of child abuse is large and continuous in generating the necessary laws to prevent it or at least to create awareness for prevention.

Still the civilian disturbances, wars and lawlessness are the most evident nursing grounds for such evil phenomenon. The industrious societies with well organized media would make one case so prominent that it take the social attention for good length of time. But those societies in remote and outside of scope of such media attention would harbor more horror stories of child and human abuse by fellow countrymen or direct members of family. Unfortunately there were never [statistics] or notorious stories. The series of notorious child abuse stories in Austria are related in some analysis to a mixture of social pattern of racist society and overprotection of privacy stemmed from imperial views of middle class assumption and police inefficiency [₁₀]

This story would indicate the psychological profile of male abuser and the entrapment of woman in the situation as linked to her children for protection and fear of battering of the abuser [₁₁].Viewing child abuse through prospective of woman battering in an old study, reveals that both problems the cause of conflicts over gender identity and male authority. Research data indicate that men, not women, typically commit serious child abuse. A study of the mothers of child abuse victims shows that battering is the most common context for child abuse, that the battering male is the typical child abuser, that the battered mothers have no distinctive pathology in their backgrounds. This may lead to, punitive responses to the battered mothers. The child abuse establishment assigns responsibility for abuse to mothers regardless of who assaults the child, and responds punitively to women.