Child and Elder Abuse: A Public Health Issue

Abuse is a significant public health challenge at two pivotal life stages: childhood and old age. Child abuse is thoroughly documented in forensic literature, but the assessment of alleged cases often leads to controversies with broad implications, showing it to be a global issue with severe, lasting effects. Yet, detailed data are particularly lacking in areas afflicted by conflict and among refugee populations.

Recently, abuse of the elderly has seen an uptick, involving various abusive behaviors including psychological, physical, financial, sexual abuse, and neglect. This increase is troubling, especially given the low rates of reporting in settings like hospitals, nursing homes, and other long-term care facilities. Such underreporting impedes progress in developing prevention strategies that also consider social and environmental factors.

The World Health Organization's recent "Tackling abuse of older people: five priorities for the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021–2030)" emphasizes the international collaboration needed to improve the health, well-being, and dignity of the elderly.

The detrimental effects of abuse and neglect—spanning human, social, and economic areas—underscore the need for prevention-focused public health strategies. Enhanced measures by governments, organizations, and healthcare bodies can lead to significant social improvements.

Frontiers in Public Health introduces the research topic "Child and Elder Abuse: A Public Health Challenge," which seeks to:

- Consolidate current scientific knowledge on all facets of child and elder abuse;

- Overview of recent advancements in handling and preventing abuse;

- Deliver comprehensive insights into abuse dynamics across forensic pathology and other public health territories;

- Update the scientific community on ongoing challenges and the latest insights in managing and mitigating child and elder abuse.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: child abuse and neglect, elder abuse, maltreatment, public health, forensic evidence, forensic pathology, forensic law, healthcare

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.