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Intrafamilial Abuse of Children and Adolescents: Strengthening Scientific Knowledge to Better Guide Public Policy

On March 30 and 31, 2023, Santé publique France brought together research teams, government agencies, data producers and users, as well as professionals working in the fields of health, justice, and social services to discuss research on public health and the epidemiology of abuse and to propose courses of action for the coming years.

Studies on child abuse remain too few

More than 40,000 complaints filed in 2019 regarding domestic violence

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Each year, law enforcement agencies record more than 120 victims of infanticide, nearly 100 of whom die within the family1. In 2019, more than 40,000 complaints2 were filed in France regarding violence committed within the family, whether physical or sexual. These complaints increased by 15% in one year.
These data fall far short of capturing the full extent of the phenomenon. They measure only a portion of the abuse—physical abuse. Yet this violence has traumatic, physical, and psychological repercussions in the short, medium, and long term. What about psychological abuse and neglect of children and adolescents?

Over the past few decades, advances in knowledge have shed light on the many impacts of child abuse on children’s short- and long-term development, leading the scientific community and the World Health Organization (WHO) to identify it as a genuine public health problem. However, the data currently available or under development come from varied sources and only partially document the issue of child abuse, even though numerous international studies have demonstrated the multiple impacts of intrafamilial abuse on children’s development and health throughout their lives. To fully grasp its significance in France, it is necessary to assess this burden by having reliable data on its nature, frequency, consequences, care, and the impacts of that care.

A collective effort to better understand and document the burden of abuse

Santé publique France is bringing together researchers and prevention stakeholders on March 30 and 31, 2023, for the seminar “Perspectives on Conducting Research on Intrafamilial Abuse of Children and Adolescents.”

In the presence of Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Health and Prevention, responsible for Territorial Organization and Health Professions, Charlotte CAUBEL, Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, responsible for Children, and Éric DELEMAR, Children’s Advocate and Deputy to the Human Rights Defender in charge of defending and promoting children’s rights, this seminar—designed to engage researchers and prevention professionals—aims to provide an initial overview of the epidemiological data currently available in France.
The objective is to identify gaps in the data on this subject and to develop and improve our understanding of this violence, its circumstances, and its health consequences through population-based epidemiological surveys. It will also provide an opportunity to collectively share the challenges research teams face in implementing studies and to discuss and exchange ideas on possibilities and solutions for successfully conducting surveys on the topic of intrafamilial abuse of children and adolescents.

This seminar aims to encourage the development of French research in epidemiology and public health in order to identify the levers for implementing such studies and thus gain a detailed understanding of the burden of abuse and its determinants to guide public policy.

The goal is to better understand and document the burden that abuse places on child development and public health, as well as to raise awareness of this complex issue, which has yet to receive significant attention in epidemiology and public health.

The seminar proceedings, along with the presentations and discussions, will be available in the second half of 2023.

Santé publique France is working to advance scientific understanding of abuse

Santé publique France contributes to estimating this burden by producing epidemiological data from surveillance systems not specific to child abuse, including, for example:

  • An update of the count of trauma-related deaths among children based on death certificates (CépiDc database).

  • The publication of a special issue on child abuse in Santé publique France’s Weekly Epidemiological Bulletin in 2019, which aimed to disseminate knowledge regarding both the definitions and the extent of child abuse, the available sources of epidemiological data, and its lifelong impact.

Other projects are underway:

  • A survey on the experience of parenthood and parenting practices that will shed light on the determinants and living conditions of parents, as well as on their experiences, parenting practices, and interactions with their children.

  • As well as other studies, such as the detailed analysis of deaths due to trauma based on death certificates scheduled for 2025, which will also provide information on the circumstances surrounding the deaths of children under 15 who have experienced violence.

Regarding prevention and health promotion, Santé publique France has been developing a perinatal health program for the past four years. This strategy notably includes support for early preventive home-based interventions, based on theories of attachment between the child and their parents, which have been identified as effective in strategies to prevent child maltreatment, particularly by the WHO and the US CDC.

1 National Observatory on Child Protection. Key Figures on Child Protection.
2 In 2019, 44% of complaints of physical or sexual abuse recorded by law enforcement agencies involved abuse committed within the family, representing 160,000 victims (119,000 adults and 41,000 minors). Over the course of a year, these complaints increased by 14% (+13% when the victim is an adult, +15% when the victim is a minor), likely linked to the Grenelle on Domestic Violence launched in 2019, which may have led to a more supportive response from law enforcement, encouraged victims of domestic violence to file more complaints, and perhaps, more broadly, encouraged reporting of all forms of intra-family violence. The rise in domestic violence continued in 2020 (+10%), particularly during the first lockdown (March 17 to May 10, 2020), when strict isolation may have exacerbated tensions within families.