Overcoming barriers to recognizing and reporting child abuse

Abstract

Infants and children under age 3 years have the highest risk of dying from child abuse and neglect. Clinicians treating children must recognize and report child abuse. Barriers to consistent recognition and reporting leave children in harm's way. Often, the signs of abuse in very young children are subtle, and clinicians may fail to recognize and report these signs. Clinicians also must understand the role of bias in the reporting of child abuse and ways to address abuse individually and as part of a larger system.