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Are You Going To Hurt Me Too?
An expert suggests 10 steps to curb child abuse.
by Andrew Vachss
Originally published in Parade Magazine,
October 13, 1985
A 4-year-old boy, one side of his face swathed in bandages and his
arms covered with cigarette burns, asks the lawyer who has been
introduced to him by social workers, "Are you going to hurt me too?"
I was that lawyer. This young boy, and hundreds of thousands of
children like him, has learned to fear the world of adults. The child
who asks, "Are you going to hurt me too?" is really speaking to all of
us—to society at large. And if we face the hard realities, the truthful
answer may well be "yes."
Today, most Americans know that child abuse has become a virtual epidemic. Still, the rhetoric of outrage has run far ahead of the reality of change. We have laws that mandate the reporting of suspected child abuse; we have 24-hour "hot lines" that promise immediate investigation; we have courts specially designed to deal with this issue; and we have more programs and caseworkers than ever before. Yet children continue to be physically maltreated, sexually abused and even murdered in record numbers. Obviously, we're not doing enough.
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