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Abuse of Youth in Residential Settings/Institutions

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Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan

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Abstract

This chapter broadly examines the risks of child maltreatment as it manifests itself in institutional environments in the USA. For the sake of organization only, the chapter is divided into an examination of three types of institutional settings: (a) non-correctional environments generally, (b) correctional environments generally, and (c) institutional settings for children with disabilities. It should be noted, however, that in many sources of literature and study on the subject, these three designations sometimes overlap and are not always discussed separately or in the manner depicted here.

In addition to providing examples of particular risks within different types of institutional settings, this chapter identifies an important but heretofore mostly ill-understood risk of institutional maltreatment: the infiltration of institutions by predators and other harmful people. This infiltration is due in part to flawed institutional responses to suspected cases of child maltreatment throughout history. A distrust of civil authority and/or an instinct for self-preservation has led time and time again to the cover up or minimization of child maltreatment in institutions. These substandard responses serve to attract even more abusive people to these institutional environments, knowing that their misdeeds are not likely to be addressed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Justice3D, New York, NY, USA

    Roger A. Canaff

Authors
  1. Roger A. Canaff
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Correspondence to Roger A. Canaff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma, Alliant International University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Robert Geffner

  2. School of Health and Human Sciences, University of North Carolina at Greensbo, Greensboro, NC, USA

    Jacquelyn W. White

  3. Dept of Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    L. Kevin Hamberger

  4. Department of Psychology, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA

    Alan Rosenbaum

  5. Ethelyn R. Strong School of Social Work, Norfolk State University, Norfolk, VA, USA

    Viola Vaughan-Eden

  6. Education and Research, Zero Abuse Project, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Victor I. Vieth

Section Editor information

  1. Owner/Principle Consultant & Trainer, Russell Consulting Specialists, LLc, Vancouver, Washington, USA

    Amy Russell

  2. Executive Director, Arthur D. Curtis Children’s Justice Center http://www.clark.wa.gov/cjc

    Amy Russell

  3. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Heather Risser

  4. University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA

    Theodore Paul Cross

  5. Zero Abuse Project, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Victor Vieth

  6. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Ernestine Briggs

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Canaff, R.A. (2020). Abuse of Youth in Residential Settings/Institutions. In: Geffner, R., White, J.W., Hamberger, L.K., Rosenbaum, A., Vaughan-Eden, V., Vieth, V.I. (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse Across the Lifespan. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_287-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62122-7_287-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62122-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62122-7

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