Abuse of teenagers overlooked, says report

The BBC reports that teenagers in England who are abused or neglected are not being properly protected as resources are directed at younger children. Research from a recent NSPCC report found that professionals wrongly assumed older children were more resilient to maltreatment and better placed to disclose it. 

Certainly the media spotlight tends to focus on the abuse of very young children. The writer thinks that the abuse of teenagers is more subtle, insofar as their injuries are psychological rather than physical. By way of example, teenage girls from troubled backgrounds are particularly vulnerable to predatory individuals, who introduce them to drugs and prostitution. Boys may be drawn into a life of crime. The story of Fagin in Oliver Twist has modern day examples.  It is also the case that social care involving older children is challenging because such children  are quite simply more difficult to control.