What is Aabuse?

Physical Abuse:
Looming over you, getting "in your face," blocking a doorway, grabbing you if you try to leave, kicking, punching, biting, slapping, choking/strangling, threatening to harm you, using weapons, throwing or breaking things, punching walls, driving recklessly, burning, pulling hair, stabbing, trying to confine you, preventing you from seeking medical care, murder. More..

Mental/Emotional Abuse:
Giving intimidating looks and gestures, playing mind games, twisting the facts around, making you feel like you’re losing your mind, not accepting blame, wrongful accusations, lying, manipulation, insults, humiliation and/or making you feel badly about yourself, not listening to your point of view, being jealous or possessive, excessive paging or calling, intercepting your phone message or emails, not allowing you to have or limiting contact with friends or family, controlling where you go and when, stalking, accusations of cheating, using male privilege. More..

Verbal Abuse:
Yelling, shouting, swearing, continuously arguing, interrupting, talking over you, put downs, name calling, talking down to you or patronizing you, using loud and threatening tone and language, intimidating you, mocking you, abusive language, threatening to take the children away or report you to the authorities.

Sexual Abuse:
Unwanted sexual touching, vulgar comments, pressure for sex, treating you like an object, forcing you to use or not use birth control, forcing you to get pregnant or to have an abortion, forcing you to have sex with other people, forcing you to participate in pornography, date or marital rape. More..

Economic Abuse:
Withholding money, making you ask for money, not allowing access to financial accounts, giving you an allowance, not allowing you to work or get an education, putting all bills/credit cards in your name, preventing use of a vehicle. More..

National Child Abuse Statistics
Children are suffering from a hidden epidemic of child abuse and neglect. While 3 million reports of child abuse are made every year in the United States, experts estimate that the actual number of incidents of abuse and neglect is 3 times greater than reported.

• Four children die every day as a result of child abuse and three out of four of these victims are under the age of four.
• A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds.
• Of the reported rapes of children under 12 years old, 90% of the victims knew the perpetrator.
• Child abuse occurs at every socio-economic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education.
• 36.7% of all women in prison and 14.4% of all men in prison in the United States were abused as children.
• Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely to abuse alcohol and 3.8 times more likely to become addicted to drugs.
• One third of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse.

Childhelp OF Abuse
Childhelp is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child abuse and neglect and at-risk children through advocacy, prevention, treatment and community outreach. Founded in 1959 by Sara O'Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, Childhelp is one of the largest non-profit child abuse prevention and treatment agencies in the nation. It operates facilities in seven states around the U.S. and the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD, that services the entire United States, its territories and Canada.

The organization offers a wide variety of services, not only to abused and neglected children, but to treatment professionals, educators, parents, foster care families the community and law enforcement professionals. Through various community outreach efforts, Childhelp has tried to increase awareness about child abuse. As part of those effort in 2000, Childhelp established the National Day of Hope. It is observed every year on the first Wednesday of April during National Child Abuse Prevention Month. In 2009, the organization will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Childhelp relies upon private donations to expand its operations and services across the nati