1978American Journal of OrthopsychiatryRequires access

Child abuse and neglect: The myth of classlessness.

Leroy H. Pelton

Open publisher page 1,966 citations

Abstract

Increasingly, professional and public media are promulgating the belief that the problems of child abuse and neglect are broadly distributed throughout society, suggesting that their frequency and severity are unrelated to socioeconomic class. This paper argues that this belief is not supported by the evidence, and that its perpetuation serves to divert attention from the nature of the problems.

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What this paper is about

Increasingly, professional and public media are promulgating the belief that the problems of child abuse and neglect are broadly distributed throughout society, suggesting that their frequency and severity are unrelated to socioeconomic class. This paper argues that this belief is not supported by the evidence, and that its perpetuation serves to divert attention from the nature of the problems.

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OpenAlex reports 1966 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

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Available abstract

Increasingly, professional and public media are promulgating the belief that the problems of child abuse and neglect are broadly distributed throughout society, suggesting that their frequency and severity are unrelated to socioeconomic class. This paper argues that this belief is not supported by the evidence, and that its perpetuation serves to divert attention from the nature of the problems.

Key concepts: Neglect, Socioeconomic status, Child abuse, Mythology, Psychology, Child neglect, Social psychology, Criminology

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