Being from Germany, the carefully researched and well-reported stories about the abuse and the killing of young children in the Chicago area seemed shocking. I felt that in Germany such terrible things do not happen.
However, I was wrong. In spite of a substantially homogeneous population, the same things do occur in Germany under the same or similar set of socioeconomic conditions.
According to Die Zeit No. 50 of Dec. 17, 1993, German child deaths and abuse statistics for 1992 report: 42 deaths defined as murder; 30 deaths defined as manslaughter; 11 injuries resulting in death; 3,925 severe injuries resulting from parental abuse; 16,381 cases of sexual abuse and 15,075 cases of reported child abuse.
Obviously this is not only a Chicago-area problem or a problem among the “minority population.” It is a worldwide problem.
Fewer and fewer parents know how to raise their children. Many parents are unable to deal with the realities and demands of child-rearing.
