Most Child Abuse Deaths Involve Infants

Some 64 percent of child abuse fatalities involve infants less than a year old, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Advertisement

Last year, 18 out of 28 children who died due to abuse last year were not yet one year old, and half of the 18 were killed by their own parents.

Many were inexperienced and uneducated parents who battered their crying children due to stress.

Child-abuse deaths of older children were also caused by physical abuse by their own parents. Among 30 perpetrators, nine were fathers and 16 mothers. Fourteen were in their 20s and 12 unemployed.

But victim numbers are falling. In 2018 the number of child abuse fatalities reached 38, but that fell to 28 last year. However, overall reports of child abuse continue to rise from 10,027 in 2014 to 24,604 last year, perhaps because of growing awareness of the problem.