The maltreatment of adolescents

Official reports of maltreatment involving adolescent victims were compared to those involving younger children in a representative sample of protective services' reports drawn from New York State in 1985. Specific case characteristics, including age, gender, ethnicity of the victim, and source of report, are described and their relation to case substantiation is examined. Analyses revealed that adolescents represent a substantial proportion of all victims of official child maltreatment reports. The impact of age on substantiation varied as a function of the type of maltreatment, where for adolescents sexual abuse reports were more likely to be substantiated, while neglect and physical abuse reports were less likely to be substantiated. Reports involving adolescents were significantly more likely to involve a female victim. Significant gender differences in substantiation rate were found only for sexual abuse reports involving adolescents. White children were also found to be under-represented in this sample, while blacks were over-represented relative to their numbers in the population. The impact of minority status on substantiation was significant for neglect and physical abuse reports involving children. The majority of adolescent reports came from mandated sources, which had a significantly higher substantiation rate than reports from non-mandated sources. Les auteurs ont comparé des signalements officiels de mauvais traitements à l'égard d'adolescents avec des signalements concernant des enfants plus jeunes à partir d'un collectif représentatif de rapports des services de protection de l'Etat de New York en 1985. Les caractéristiques des cas, c'est-à-dire l'âge, le sexe, l'origine ethnique de la victime et la source du signalement ont été collationnés et les auteurs se sont penchés sur la question de la relation entre ces caractéristiques et l'authentification des cas. L'analyse montrait que les cas d'adolescents représentent une proportion substantielle de tous les signalements pour maltraitance à l'égard d'enfants. La relation entre l'âge et l'authenticité varie en fonction du type de maltraitance; pour les adolescents, le signalement de la violence sexuelle avait plus de chance d'être authentique que les sévices physiques et la négligence et il y avait plus de signalements concernant des filles que des garçons. En ce qui concerne le sexe, il y avait une différence dans le taux d'authenticité seulement quant aux sévices sexuels. Il y avait moins d'