The series' host, Thomas P. Campbell, MD, is chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at The Western Pennsylvania Hospital. Child Abuse Reports of child abuse have been on the rise since the early 1970s when national reporting of child abuse began. Today, more than 2 million cases of child abuse are reported every year. Children of all ages can be abused. The same proportion of boys and girls are abused, but the type of abuse may be different.
Girls tend to be sexually and emotionally mistreated more than boys.
Boys, on the other hand, are more often victims of physical abuse. Neglect is the most frequently reported form of child abuse. There is physical neglect or delay in seeking health care, educational neglect, or failure to enroll the child in mandatory school, and finally emotional neglect, which is failure to provide needed psychological care. Children of all income levels have been abused. However, low income situations pose high risk for abuse, especially neglect.