Foundational Case
In a case that was to have significant repercussions, Henry Bergh, founder of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NYSPCA) and acting as a private citizen, pleaded in court to have an 8-year-old child named Mary Ellen Wilson removed from her abusive and neglectful family. Although in 1874 there were laws in New York that allowed the state to remove neglected children from their homes, New York City authorities were reluctant to take up Mary Ellen’s cause.
Etta Wheeler, a Methodist mission worker, had convinced Mr. Bergh to act on behalf of an abused child after her niece suggested he could help, saying, “You are so troubled over that abused child, why not go to Mr. Bergh? She is a little animal, surely!” At the hearing, Mr. Bergh clarified he was not representing the New York SPCA but aimed to stop cruelty to children within the law.
Mary Ellen was removed from her abusive situation and placed in a shelter for adolescent girls. Uncomfortable with this, Ms. Wheeler once again intervened and received permission to send Mary Ellen to live with her own mother in upstate New York. When Ms. Wheeler’s mother died, Mary Ellen went to live with Ms. Wheeler’s sister and her husband. Mary Ellen eventually married and had two daughters. She died in 1956 at the age of 92 (Watkins, 1990).
Mary Ellen’s case led to the formation of societies in many states to protect children from cruelty. In 1860, Ambroise Tardieu, a French forensic physician—in a treatise entitled “Forensic Study on Cruelty and the Ill-Treatment of Children”—was the first medical professional to provide a clinical definition of battered child syndrome. Tardieu detailed thirty-two cases of battered child syndrome in detail, including eighteen that ended in the death of the child. Unfortunately, his clear and precise clinical descriptions were largely ignored by physicians and forensic specialists until nearly a century after his death (Watkins, 1990).
In the 1950s and early 1960s, a movement to protect children came as the result of several pediatricians publishing articles about children suffering multiple fractures and brain injuries at the hands of their caretakers. In 1961 C. Henry Kempe, a physician and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, convened a conference on the battered child syndrome, in which he argued that doctors had a “duty” to the child to prevent “repetition of trauma.” The Battered Child Syndrome Conference resulted in many states passing laws to protect children from physical abuse (Watkins, 1990).
In 1985, Kempe introduced a set of diagnostic criteria for suspected child abuse:
Abuse should be considered in any child exhibiting evidence of fracture of any bone, subdural hematoma, failure to thrive, soft tissue swellings or skin bruising, in any child who dies suddenly, or where the degree and type of injury is at variance with the history given regarding the occurrence of trauma (Kempe et al., 1985).
Child abuse is now recognized as a problem of epidemic proportions, with serious consequences that may cause indelible pain throughout the victim’s lifetime. Unfortunately, violent and negligent parents and caretakers serve as a model for children as they grow up. The child victims of today, without protection and treatment, may become the child abusers of tomorrow.
Child abuse is a problem for the entire community. Protecting children from abuse requires the coordination of many resources. Parents, caregivers, and professional groups and agencies involved with families must work together and assume responsibility for preventing child abuse.