Battered Child Syndrome
| Classification according to ICD-10 | |
|---|---|
| T74.1 | Physical abuse Child abuse NOS |
| ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019) | |
The Battered Child Syndrome (BCS) (of English battered child , such as "bad been oriented child", "verprügeltes child", "abused child") is mostly under the name of child abuse out, but is subject to a medical clearer definition: the BCS is defined as physical or psychological damage to a child that is not caused by an accident but is violently caused by active injurious behavior or by failure to protect it from a family member or a parent / adult or carer.
Concept history
In a 1946 article, American pediatric radiologist John Caffey described six cases of parents telling “stories” that did not address the circumstances of x-ray injuries. Caffey speculated about the causes in the article, but could not explain them satisfactorily. The article appeared in a radiology journal and nothing happened until the mid-1950s. In 1953, Silverman described three cases in one article. In 1955 another twelve cases were described by Wooley and Evans. In October 1961, at a meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics , a panel discussion led by Frederick Silverman called Battered Child Syndrome was discussed. In preparation for this discussion, 77 prosecutors and 71 hospitals were interviewed in a US-wide survey and 749 cases were identified.
The publication of this panel discussion in the Journal of the American Medical Association prompted an immediate public response. Within a very short time, all 50 states in the United States passed laws that made suspicious cases notifiable . With improved reports, the number was estimated at 7,000 in 1967. This estimate was corrected to 60,000 in 1972 and to 500,000 in 1976.
It had taken 15 years for medicine to perceive the problem and 25 years for the extent of the problem to be known. The American organizational psychologist Karl E. Weick introduces the explanation of the sensemaking concept with the BCS example .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Karl E. Weick: Sensemaking in Organizations. Sage Publications, London 1995, ISBN 0-8039-7177-X , pp. 1-2.
- ^ R. Westrum: Social intelligence about hidden events. In: Knowledge. 3 (3), (1982), pp. 381-400; quoted in Karl E. Weick : Sensemaking in Organizations. Sage Publications, London 1995, p. 2.
