“Why is the problem of violence against children so much more acute in the US than anywhere else in the industrialized world?”, asks Michael Petit, President of Every Child Matters.”
Thus begins the BBC News website’s article, entitled “America’s Child Death Shame” Here are a few of the salient facts:
Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members…. nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada’s and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year.
One reason is that teen pregnancy, high-school dropout, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty – factors associated with abuse and neglect – are generally much higher in the US.
Further, other rich nations have social policies that provide child care, universal health insurance, pre-school, parental leave and visiting nurses to virtually all in need.
In the US, when children are born into young families not prepared to receive them, local social safety nets may be frayed, or non-existent. As a result, they are unable to compensate for the household stress the child must endure.
In the most severe situations, there is a predictable downward spiral and a child dies. Some 75% of these children are under four, while nearly half are under one.”
The entire article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15193530