Child abuse has no geographic or racial boundaries - and it exists! What Dave reported was mentioned on telly last night, and though I dont remember any figures given, here are some for you to think about:
Table A1.4: Children aged 0–17 years who were the subject of a substantiation: type of abuse or neglect, by Indigenous status and state and territory, 2004–05 Type of abuse or neglect NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas ACT NT Indigenous children Physical 300 172 286 102 87 10 13 110 Sexual 178 29 49 70 8 11 3 20 Emotional 614 376 367 46 189 8 44 52 Neglect 554 193 491 140 199 8 41 142 Total 1,646 770 1,193 358 483 37 101 324 Other children Physical 1,822 1,541 2,705 199 318 184 105 62 Sexual 1,451 618 751 158 99 77 44 8 Emotional 2,728 2,682 4,630 97 468 127 414 26 Neglect 1,590 1,404 3,706 233 441 210 201 33 Total 7,591 6,245 11,792 687 1,326 600 764 129
You will see that the incidence of abuse to "other" is many more times the incidence of abuse to "indigenous". Taking the differences in population into account,you will probably find those figures represent abuse across our community.
