Urban Communities as a Social Space for Child Abuse

Statement of problem: The rate at which children are maltreated is one of the most sensitive measures of demographic, social, and economic conditions. Maltreatment may differ markedly in terms of an area’s socio-demographic and economic makeup and this phenomenon needs to be studied in a structural context. This study employs a social disorganization perspective to identify the most reliable structural factors of child maltreatment for children aged 10 to 18 years in Valcea County. Method: ICAST-CH, an instrument developed by the International Society for Prevention Child Abuse and Neglect in order to assess child maltreatment’s rates in a unitary way in different countries. It was applied to 1142 children in Valcea’s urban areas. Results: child abuse is positive correlated to high rates of community violence and negative correlated with community resources. The parents’ education and occupation status is involved in explaining high rates of child abuse in different manners. Conclusion: the urban areas are diverse spaces in terms of variables that influence child abuse. Future studies in the subject of structural child abuse would need to be done in more urban areas in order to find some additional patterns of the phenomenon.