Trend in 167 cases of minors witnessing violence: The role played by COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19
abuse
children
violence
witnessed violence
Journal
Frontiers in pediatrics
ISSN: 2296-2360
Titre abrégé: Front Pediatr
Pays: Switzerland
ID NLM: 101615492
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
2022
2022
Historique:
received:
21
05
2022
accepted:
16
09
2022
entrez:
24
10
2022
pubmed:
25
10
2022
medline:
25
10
2022
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
There currently is no evidence that COVID-19 has had an impact on the rates of psychological abuses occurring when a minor witnesses interpersonal violence. Our aim was to describe the accesses of the last four years to the Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital (Careggi University Hospital-Florence, Italy) due to this issue and then to evaluate whether the COVID-19 has had an impact on this trend. We collected data regarding cases of abuse in which at least a minor had reportedly witnessed the event. Medical records stored between January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2022 were analyzed, extracting sex, age and nationality of the victim; sex of the perpetrator and relationship with the victim; known previous episodes of abuse in the medical history of the victim; setting of the abuse (domestic vs. non-domestic); type of abuse (physical, psychological, sexual); whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol/drugs; whether the victim was hospitalized; prognosis of the victim; number, relation with the victim and involvement in the abuse (as co-victim) of the minor(s) who witnessed the abuse. A total of 167 eligible cases were registered. 69% of victims had previous episodes of abuse. The perpetrators were all known and mainly males (96%).The abuses were mainly domestic (79%). In 74% of the cases only a type of violence was perpetrated. In 12% of the cases, the minors were also victims of physical abuse. No statistically significant relationships were found between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in the number of cases of domestic abuse ( Empowering the hospital policies specifically aimed at identifying and protecting the victims of violence/witnessed violence remains a critical goal from both a public health and medico-legal point of view.
Sections du résumé
Background
UNASSIGNED
There currently is no evidence that COVID-19 has had an impact on the rates of psychological abuses occurring when a minor witnesses interpersonal violence.
Aim
UNASSIGNED
Our aim was to describe the accesses of the last four years to the Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital (Careggi University Hospital-Florence, Italy) due to this issue and then to evaluate whether the COVID-19 has had an impact on this trend.
Methods
UNASSIGNED
We collected data regarding cases of abuse in which at least a minor had reportedly witnessed the event. Medical records stored between January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2022 were analyzed, extracting sex, age and nationality of the victim; sex of the perpetrator and relationship with the victim; known previous episodes of abuse in the medical history of the victim; setting of the abuse (domestic vs. non-domestic); type of abuse (physical, psychological, sexual); whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol/drugs; whether the victim was hospitalized; prognosis of the victim; number, relation with the victim and involvement in the abuse (as co-victim) of the minor(s) who witnessed the abuse.
Results
UNASSIGNED
A total of 167 eligible cases were registered. 69% of victims had previous episodes of abuse. The perpetrators were all known and mainly males (96%).The abuses were mainly domestic (79%). In 74% of the cases only a type of violence was perpetrated. In 12% of the cases, the minors were also victims of physical abuse. No statistically significant relationships were found between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in the number of cases of domestic abuse (
Conclusions
UNASSIGNED
Empowering the hospital policies specifically aimed at identifying and protecting the victims of violence/witnessed violence remains a critical goal from both a public health and medico-legal point of view.
Identifiants
pubmed: 36275057
doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.949922
pmc: PMC9581130
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
949922Informations de copyright
© 2022 Focardi, Grassi, Raddi, Rosati, Cazzato, D'Onofrio, Doretti, Bianchi, Vetrugno, Oliva and Pinchi.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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