Under the Surface: Bruising and Child Abuse

The most common child injury is the most misdiagnosed.
Bruising ist the most common injury from physical abuse and is also the most common injury to be misdiagnosed as accidental prior to a fatal or near fatal assault from abuse. The presentation will cover distinguishing characteristics of bruising that help differentiate abuse from accidental injury in young children and will showcase an interactive app that makes the published evidenced readily available and interpretable to help informed decision making and support early preventive measures.
Domestic violence is often not discovered or only discovered late, and injuries are often recorded as accidents. Children learn early on to implement this justification strategy in their own social environment, accept violence and go easy on perpetrators, just as they themselves are socialized to do. Injuries and abuse, even in institutions, often go unrecognized or are misinterpreted. The children have no concept of safety. Specialist services involved are often satisfied with accident explanations because of a lack of knowledge how to diffentiate accidental bruises from bruises as a result of abuse. The biographies of young people who come to light with violent offenses often contain their own experiences of (domestic) violence. Dr. Pierce is a nationally acclaimed expert on emergency paediatrics.