Australia: There were 1,505 cases of abuse of children in WA in 2007-08 - 427 of them were carried out by mothers and 155 by fathers. "While there are some abusive fathers, there are in fact a larger proportion of violent and abusive mothers"

2009-09-18T09:43:37+00:00

Its even more impressive sounding when you look at the percentages. Mothers 73% Fathers 27%. What sad to me is that 63% of all abuse cases are perpetrated by outsiders, people good parents entrust their kids to.

But for all the marbles: What law was passed in Australia between 2006 and 2008 that decreed acts child abuse that were not previously considered child abuse. Because I seriously doubt the people of Au have just erupted into a child beating frenzy accounting for the 50% increase in just two years.

Honztastic · 2009-09-18T06:40:19+00:00

Would the factor that women spend more time with children have anything to do with this statistic? Commuters aren't more likely to get in a crash because they're commuters, but because they drive more.

Though this certainly does throw a big wrench in the "only men abuse children" assumption that is held by all too many people.

yakyakyak · 2009-09-18T08:37:33+00:00

Mothers were "responsible for about 93 per cent of cases of neglect". That seems really weird to me. If the child is neglected, then surely both the mother and the father are neglecting it. I mean, both parents have a responsibility to ensure the child is getting everything it needs, right? Is the father absent in most of these cases or something?

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