Chapter 2 - Child maltreatment – cross culturally

Abstract

One fundamental issue with addressing child maltreatment is the embeddedness of social and cultural constructs within what exactly constitutes child abuse and neglect. Collective social norms provide a lens through which community members can discern lawful versus unlawful behavior and thus understand what is acceptable behavior. From a global perspective, the issue of child maltreatment is deeply impacted by social norms and variations in what constitutes adverse experiences among children across geographical contexts. The present chapter reviews global statistics on child maltreatment and discusses cultural perspectives on its phenomenon.