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Children are safer with their natural parents
by Scott Gilbreath ~ May 8th, 2009
A mountain of evidence has accumulated indicating that children living with step-parents are at far greater risk of abuse than those living with biological parents. The Times of London columnist Camilla Cavendish wonders why British child-protection authorities are ignoring the elephant in the room.
The Cinderella Effect is the name given to analysis in Canada, the US and Britain which suggests that children are at far greater risk from stepfathers and non-blood “relatives” than from natural parents. Detailed Canadian research over 20 years has put the risk of being killed by a stepparent at between 50 to 100 times greater than the risk of being killed by a parent. A 1989 study by the University of Iowa found non-biological fathers four times more likely than natural fathers to sexually abuse children in their care.
In Britain, NSPCC research has found that children living with biological parents are between 20 and 33 times safer than those living in any other type of household – despite the NSPCC being inclined to play down family breakdown.
Poverty must surely be a factor. But the American researchers Daly and Wilson, who have done the most detailed work on this subject, say that poverty pales into insignificance compared with “the presence of a step-parent, which is the best epidemiological predictor of child abuse yet discovered”.
Not only are children generally safer with their natural parents, studies show that women living with their husbands are much less likely to be victims of domestic violence than are women living with men to whom they are not married.
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May 17th, 2009 at 02:04 PM
Its always good to shine a light on the things that matter the most.
Hope the move to Nova Scotia went well.