Successive Generations of Child Maltreatment

Abstract

Families were identified, in north-east Wiltshire (UK), (population 200 000), in which there was a pattern of two or more generations of child maltreatment and where there were also two or more children maltreated in the current generation (born between 1960 and 1980). These children had high rates of mental handicap, backwardness, and antisocial behaviour, and there were also characteristic patterns of emotional disturbance. The post-neonatal death rate for the 294 index children was very high, but higher still for their brothers and sisters. Some of the deaths, and at least 11 cases of violence-induced mental handicap (VIMH), were caused by characteristic types of child abuse – particularly violent shaking and throwing of infants, and secret suffocatory practices. There were very strong indications that larger numbers of children than the 11 proven VIMH cases had also suffered blunting of the intellect, physical complications such as epilepsy, and educational problems, as well as emotional and social maladjustment as the consequence of ill-treatment and neglect. Within the families, for children remaining at home, forms of ill-treatment and poor quality care persisted and ultimately affected most, or all, of the children in each family unit. Many families were chaotic, and within each family unit there were children frequently in care who suffered multiple placements, and who needed sustained specialist support throughout their childhood, encompassing a huge range of professional and other social support services. Such detail was generally underplayed or not accessible, and its full significance for children in each family could only be assessed by combining direct personal clinical involvement with record linkage methods, depending in turn on good co-operation from all agencies concerned wholly or partly with child protection.