The aim of the present study was to analyze the prevalence results of physical violence against children and adolescents in a 5-year period in Recife, Brazil. Inter-personal violence is one of the most recognizable forms of child aggression and has become as an imperative public health issue. All violence related forensic reports performed between 2009 and 2013 in the clinical services of the Institute of Legal Medicine Antônio Percivo Cunha were analyzed. Victims were classified according to sex, age, relationship with perpetrator, injuries and year of occurrence. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS (version 22.0). Continuous variables were described and when appropriate, frequencies were displayed and compared. The association between variables was evaluated using chi-square and Fisher's exact test. The margin of error for the statistical tests was 5.0%. A total of 9783 occurrences were evaluated, involving mainly male subjects (n=5447, 55.7%). Victims' mean age was 13.9 years, the most common perpetrators were victims' acquaintances (n=2538, 25.9%). Facial injuries were the most frequent affecting a little over a fifth of the total sample (n=3673, 20.1%). These findings support the important role dentists can play in identifying and reporting physical violence against children and adolescents.
Humberto Gomes Vidal, Inês Morais Caldas, Arnaldo de França Caldas Júnior et al.
Abstract Studies examining the associations between violence against children (VAC) and patterns of adolescent dating violence (DV) perpetration and victimization using person-centered analytic approaches remain limited and have yielded inconsistent findings. This study addresses whether emotional, physical, and sexual violence against children (VAC) are risk factors for distinct patterns of adolescent dating violence (DV), considering adolescents’ gender and their roles as victims or perpetrators. This is a school based cross-sectional study that involved a stratified cluster sample of 550 s-year high school students from thirteen schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to detect VAC, while DV was identified using the Brazilian version of the Conflict in Adolescent Dating Relationships Inventory (CADRI). Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify classes of individuals based on their response patterns to the CADRI items. Multinomial regression analysis examined the relationships between VAC and DV patterns. Among girls, no single type of VAC increased the odds of belonging to the most severe perpetration class of DV. However, childhood sexual abuse increased fivefold (OR: 5.72; 95% CI: 2.51–13.06) the likelihood of belonging to the most severe DV victimization class. Among boys, childhood emotional (OR: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.65 - 16.57) and physical abuse (OR: 2.66; 95% CI: 1.01 - 7.05) were associated with higher odds of DV perpetration. Emotional VAC increased boys’ likelihood of belonging to the poly-victimization class (OR: 5.97; 95% CI: 1.95 - 18.30). Childhood physical abuse also increased their likelihood of belonging to severe class by more than three-fold (OR: 3.60; 95% CI: 1.80–7.21). The effects of childhood victimization on adolescent DV differ by sex, type of childhood violence, and whether the adolescent is a perpetrator or victim. These findings underscore the need for sex-specific and trauma-informed strategies to prevent dating violence during adolescence.
Cláudia Leite de Moraes, Daniela Porto Faus, Michael Eduardo Reichenheim et al.
The problem that triggered this research refers to the worsening of violence against children during social isolation that emerged at school when resuming face-toface activities.The objective of this work is to analyze the interfaces with curricular justice, present in public policies to face violence against children, through school, after social isolation.The methodology involves field research with participant observation that collected data in the first half of 2022.The content analysis of the records produced in continuing education by managers and teachers from the municipal networks of Diadema and São Paulo involved categories inspired by the dimensions of Curricular Justice.The results demonstrate the need for deepening the theme in training and greater insertion of the principles of Curricular Justice in educational public policies so that the school curriculum promotes child protection and violence prevention, characteristic of a humanizing education.It is possible to conclude that the possibilities built in the training are feasible and can be included in the schools' PPP, as principles and actions that must be monitored by the entire school community in order to strengthen the collective dream of the territory in the making of schools.
Data and Analytics Section, UNICEF, United StatesThe protection of children from all forms of violence is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations General Assembly, 1989) and other international treaties.Yet an increasing body of statistical evidence documents children's widespread exposure to old and new forms of violence, from harsh disciplinary methods to online bullying.The availability of data on violence against children has significantly increased in recent years, allowing a more refined understanding of the magnitude and underlying risk factors (United Nations Children's Fund, 2014 and 2017).This achievement is due in part to the integration of violence-related questions in multitopic surveys as well as the surge in national studies dedicated exclusively to capturing information on children's experiences of violence.International household survey programmes such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS, programme website) and the Demographic & Health Surveys (DHS, programme website) have incorporated modules on exposure to corporal punishment, psychological aggression, sexual abuse and intimate partner violence in their standard questionnaires.The Global School-based Student Health Surveys (GSHS, programme website) and the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study (HBSC, programme website) have sought to capture different forms of peer violence.Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS, programme website) have measured boys' and girls' victimization in fifteen countries.The data collected through these sources indicate that violence against children is both common and widespread: roughly 3 in 4 young children between the ages of 2 and 4 years worldwide are regularly subjected to physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the home (United Nations Children's Fund, 2017); half of students aged 13-15 experience peer-to-peer violence in and around school (United Nations Children's Fund, 2018); and one in three adolescent girls aged 15-19 years have been victims of intimate partner violence at some point in their lives (United Nations Children's Fund, 2014).While the available evidence has begun to shed light on the global nature of violence against children and the fact that some forms, like violent discipline, affect all children regardless of socioeconomic status, data have also confirmed the vulnerability of certain groups of children due to individual characteristics such as sex (United Nations Children's Fund, 2014) or race (United Nations Children's Fund, 2017).And because only a handful of countries have collected comparable data at regular intervals, it is difficult to assess whether there has been any significant progress in reducing violence against children over time.Despite the increase in data on violence against children, there are currently no established, internationally agreed best practices for measuring and producing statistics on this sensitive issue.A review of quantitative studies on violence against children over a 15year period found that the quality was highly uneven, for a variety of reasons.In some cases, partial definitions of violence were used, resulting in underestimates (Child Protection Monitoring & Evaluation Reference Group, 2014).In others, no measures were put in place to ensure the rigorous implementation of the study protocols.And in too many instances, data collection was undertaken without adequate mechanisms to safeguard the protection of the participants.These deficits were compounded by the limited availability of national research institutes with technical expertise specific to collecting data on violence against children.Some forms of child abuse that are particularly challenging to measure, such as commercial sexual exploitation, sexual violence against boys, and the wide variety of forms of psychological maltreatment, have been largely ignored in data collection (United Nations Committee on
In Colombia, the 2018 Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) revealed that two out of five minors had experienced violence before the age of 18, highlighting a serious situation of sexual, domestic, and community violence—particularly in municipalities historically affected by armed conflict. In response, the National Alliance to End Violence Against Children and Adolescents was established in 2019. With support from national and international organizations, the Alliance developed the National Action Plan (2021–2024), grounded in evidence and aligned with the WHO’s INSPIRE framework. This document systematizes key milestones, actions, and lessons learned throughout its development process, which included three stages—exploration, design, and implementation. It is complemented by case studies on monitoring, departmental planning, NGO participation, and evidence use, with the aim of strengthening public policies and contributing to international collective efforts to eradicate violence against children.
Karina Padilla, María Fernanda Rodríguez, Arturo Harker Roa
This paper develops a noncooperative family game-theoretic model to analyze domestic violence against children, focusing on how children’s bargaining power affects the equilibrium outcomes between them and their parents in violent games. I present two scenarios: one in which children retain some negotiating leverage through external support services and another in which children lose bargaining power entirely. In the first scenario, parents use violence up to the point where children’s utility matches their threat point, which is based on the support provided by external services. In contrast, parents in the second scenario maximize their violent behavior while staying below the threshold that would trigger external interventions. My analysis extends existing economic models of domestic violence by specifically addressing violence against children, who often lack the economic resources or by negotiating the leverage that adult victims may possess.
This study examined factors associated with the recurrence of interpersonal violence against children and adolescents in Mato Grosso state, considering cases recorded in the Notifiable Diseases Information System, from 2013 to 2019. Associations between variables were estimated by logistic regression and stratified by age group (children and adolescents). The frequency of recurrent violence against children was 49.0% and, against adolescents, 42.9%. For both, recurrent violence was positively associated with occurrence at home, psychological or emotional violence, aggressors' being more than two, their being relatives and threats being the means of aggression. Neglect or abandonment and male or both-sex aggressors were positively associated with recurrent violence against children. Against adolescents, poor education, sexual violence and intimate-partner aggressors were positively associated with recurrent violence, while other aggressors and firearms or physical force were negatively associated. The findings offer significant contributions to knowledge of factors associated with recurrent violence, which is still little studied in the national and international literature. This is essential in order to inform strategies to reduce the recurrence of violence and protect children and adolescents.
Silvana Maria da Silva, Amanda Cristina de Souza Andrade, Francine Nesello Melanda et al.
Ongoing school closures and gradual reopenings have been occurring since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. One substantial cost of school closure is breakdown in channels of reporting of violence against children, in which schools play a considerable role. There is, however, little evidence documenting how widespread such a breakdown in reporting of violence against children has been, and scant evidence exists about potential recovery in reporting as schools re-open. We study all formal criminal reports of violence against children occurring in Chile up to December 2021, covering physical, psychological, and sexual violence. This is combined with administrative records of school re-opening, attendance, and epidemiological and public health measures. We observe sharp declines in violence reporting at the moment of school closure across all classes of violence studied. Estimated reporting declines range from -17% (rape), to -43% (sexual abuse). While reports rise with school re-opening, recovery of reporting rates is slow. Conservative projections suggest that reporting gaps remained into the final quarter of 2021, nearly two years after initial school closures. Our estimates suggest that school closure and incomplete re-opening resulted in around 2,800 `missing' reports of intra-family violence, 2,000 missing reports of sexual assault, and 230 missing reports of rape against children, equivalent to between 10-25 weeks of reporting in baseline periods. The immediate and longer term impacts of school closures account for between 40-70% of `missing' reports in the post-COVID period.
Damian Clarke, Pilar Larroulet, Daniel Pailañir et al.
OBJECTIVE: To verify the prevalence of reported cases and the factors associated with physical violence against the child. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with data from reported cases of physical violence against children from 2011 to 2018 in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. The characteristics of the victim, author and aggression were studied, and the associations were analyzed using Poisson regression. RESULTS: In the period, were notified of 3,127 cases of violence against children. The frequency of physical violence was 23.6% (CI95%: 22.2-25.2), more prevalent in males; for the age group of 6 to 9 years; in rural areas; among aggressors over 20 years of age; outside the residence, and night/dawn shift. CONCLUSIONS: Physical violence affects an expressive number of children, mainly committed by adult individuals, probably being the result of an asymmetric relationship of power. Thus, it is important to highlight the need for child protection actions together with cultural and structural changes in our society.
Márcia Regina de Oliveira Pedroso, Franciéle Marabotti Costa Leite
For girls and women, marriage under 18 years is commonplace in many low-income nations today and was culturally widespread historically. Global health campaigns refer to marriage below this threshold as ‘child marriage’ and increasingly aim for its universal eradication, citing its apparent negative wellbeing consequences. Here, we outline and evaluate four alternative hypotheses for the persistence of early marriage, despite its associations with poor wellbeing, arising from the theoretical framework of human behavioral ecology. First, early marriage may be adaptive (e.g., it maximizes reproductive success), even if detrimental to wellbeing, when life expectancy is short. Second, parent–offspring conflict may explain early marriage, with parents profiting economically at the expense of their daughter’s best interests. Third, early marriage may be explained by intergenerational conflict, whereby girls marry young to emancipate themselves from continued labor within natal households. Finally, both daughters and parents from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds favor early marriage as a ‘best of a bad job strategy’ when it represents the best option given a lack of feasible alternatives. The explanatory power of each hypothesis is context-dependent, highlighting the complex drivers of life history transitions and reinforcing the need for context-specific policies addressing the vulnerabilities of adolescence worldwide.
