[Child abuse in a Costa Rican community]

Included in this article is a summary of the information gathered during 1989, after conducting a community project dealing with the prevention and care for abused children in Cantón de la Unión, Provincia de Cartago. Sixty-five cases of child abuse were cared for during this period 58.5% dealt with physical harm while 41.5% included diverse forms of sexual abuse. Cases of physical abuse were equally represented in both sexes while a higher incidences of female victims was seen in cases of sexual abuse. We found that there was a greater number of types of abusers among the females (totalling 12) than among the male children (totalling 6). In over half of the cases, the children came from homes where both a paternal as well as a maternal figurehead was represented, only in 12% of the cases were the mothers single.