Live-in boyfriends raise risk of Child Abuse

Growing up in a home without both natural parents is a well-known risk for a child's welfare and cases of severe child abuse tend to confirm this, as a recent Associated Press article points out. But the article also notes that privacy concerns and fear of appearing judgemental prevents accurate assessment -- and public warnings -- of the risk posed by a mother's live-in boyfriend.

The most recent federal survey of child abuse in the US tallies nearly 900,000 abuse incidents reported to state agencies in 2005, but it does not delve into how rates of abuse correlate with parents' marital status or the make-up of a child's household. Data on the roughly 1500 child-abuse deaths annually leave similar unanswered questions. However, studies have found:

• Children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents.
• Children living in step-families or with single parents are at higher risk of physical or sexual assault than children living with two biological or adoptive parents.
• Girls whose parents divorce are at significantly higher risk of sexual assault, whether they live with their mother or their father.

"All the emphasis on family autonomy and privacy shields the families from investigators, so we don't respond until it's too late," says researcher Robin Wilson, a family law professor at Washington and Lee University. "I hate the fact that something dangerous for children doesn't get responded to because we're afraid of judging someone's lifestyle."