Child abuse: growth failure, IQ deficit, and learning disability.

Abstract

Behavior that has been criminalized makes criminals not only of those who practice it but also of professionals who fail to report their knowledge of it. Professionals have invented the bastard science of victimology in which, by focusing on the victims and handing the offenders over to the law, they miss the scientific opportunity to discover the cause and prevention of the offense. Evidence of child abuse and neglect as a primary cause of permanent IQ impairment and learning disability, though long known, has been largely disregarded in favor of hereditary and quasineurological theories of etiology. There is a syndrome, namely abuse dwarfism (also known as psychosocial dwarfism), in which growth in stature and pubertal physique, growth in intelligence, and growth and maturation of behavior all are retarded and even permanently impaired in response to child abuse and neglect. Early rescue into a nonabusive environment permits catch-up growth, whereas delayed rescue hinders it, with consequent persistent IQ impairment and learning disability.