NCJ Number
168495
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 21 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1997) Pages: 989-991
Date Published
1997
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This commentary on three studies of related to child abuse and neglect focus on the use of offender polygraphs in making decisions regarding whether child sexual abuse has occurred, the assessment of children with subdural hematomae, and the analysis of long-term impacts of child abuse and neglect.
Abstract
Faller explores the difficulties practitioners experience when making decisions about the likelihood of child sexual abuse. Faller's conclusions reinforce the many reservations professionals have expressed regarding the usefulness of offender polygraphs in decisionmaking about sexual abuse. Lazoritz, Baldwin, and Kini compared a series of children presenting to their hospital with the diagnosis of shaken infant syndrome with cases described earlier by Caffey. They conclude that today's conceptualization of the shaken infant syndrome includes cases in which impact trauma has also been involved, as well as violent shaking alone. Styron and Janoff-Bulman focused on the long-term effects of childhood abuse and the experiences of early attachment among 879 college students. Their findings underscore the importance of considering more than only mother/child attachment experiences, because other factors and attachments may modify the impacts of abuse or act as resilience factors. 3 references