• Almost any adult is capable of child physical abuse or neglect given the right set of circumstances.
• Most people who abuse their children are not intentionally harming their child.
• Shaking an infant or toddler can cause brain damage or death.
• Most child abductions happen with a person a child knows and trusts.
• Child sexual abusers do not show abnormal patterns on psychological tests.
• 90% of sexual abusers are someone the child knows and trusts.
• 30 to 50% of child sexual abuse is committed by another child.
• One out of every 4 girls and one out of every 7 boys will be sexually abused as a child.
• Treatment of sex offenders (if completed) is successful in most cases.
• There are many actions any person can take to prevent child abuse, even if you don’t have a child.
• Child abuse occurs in every socioeconomic group, every race, every religion, and every type of family.
• The primary causes of child abuse and neglect are; lack of accurate information about child development, isolation from the community, being a parent who was abused as a child, parental alcohol or drug abuse, parental depression, lack of helping resources, and child’s special needs.
