Question on Child Abuse

[projectlogic]

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In First Aid 2013 it says the abuser in cases of physical abuse is usually a male caregiver. Isn't that wrong?

I remember learning in school that for physical abuse the abuser is usually a female and for sexual abuse it is usually a male.

Didn't see anything in the errata about it.

 

[Zzmed]

In First Aid 2013 it says the abuser in cases of physical abuse is usually a male caregiver. Isn't that wrong?

I remember learning in school that for physical abuse the abuser is usually a female and for sexual abuse it is usually a male.

Didn't see anything in the errata about it.

Actually in the 2012 edition it says female.
When i saw the new edition i wondered too..

 

[Suncrusher]

I've been told—by classmates, so take this with a grain of salt!—that the 2013 FA has a purposeful change from female-->male. What I was told is that the numbers had always been like ~46% male ~54% female, and recently males finally overtook females in the physical abuser category (congratulations to us). Could be wrong, but I was quickly and assuredly provided with that explanation when I asked aloud why the Kaplan videos were teaching me female and FA2013 was teaching me male.

 

[loveoforganic2]

Honestly, if the difference is less than 20% between the two, I don't see the utility in why we'd need to know. Are you going to frame your suspicions differently based on anything less than that? Dumb test

 

[Druggernaut]

I can't actually see this as being important, but out of curiosity does anyone have a source to back up the change from female to male? I haven't been able to find anything, and I'm told that DIT 2013 specifically remarks that First Aid is wrong on this.

 

[withrye]

I've always understood physical child abuse to usually be caused by the primary caregiver. So I've interpreted that to mean that whatever the gender of the primary caregiver, he or she is most likely to be the source of physical abuse for a given child. Secondary to this fact is the idea that most of the time a woman is the primary caregiver, which gives rise to the statement that it's usually the female caregiver that's the source of physical child abuse.

In the end, I don't think it really matters. All of the questions about physical child abuse are about having a high index of suspicion and following the proper protocol of reporting it. I haven't seen any where the gender of the suspect has been important.