Most of the cases of the maltreatment of children take place among the lower classes of the population. This is clearly proved by statistical data, which show that more than 90 per cent. of those convicted of maltreating children belong to the lowest strata of the population.
(a) Among the lower classes, the rôle of the child is a very different one from what it is among the upper classes. It often makes its appearance, not as the greatly-desired heir, the inheritor of an honoured name, or of considerable property, but merely as an additional mouth, whose presence forces the parents to lower yet further their already low standard of life, and entails upon them numerous other inconveniences.
(b) The lower classes are less cultivated, rougher, more passionate, less gentle, than the upper. They work all day, and we need not be surprised if they become rough and disagreeable. The proletarian parent has not received a proper education.
(c) Far more commonly they are slaves to alcohol.
(d) They are subordinated to everyone. The only persons to whom they can display power and superiority are their own immediate dependants.
(e) They come into far more intimate contact with their children, and are not in a position to hand over the upbringing of their children to salaried persons. In this connection we have to remember that the presence of strangers in the house tends to put a check upon maltreatment.
(f) They find it essential that their children should begin to earn money very early in life.
The circumstances in consequence of which the part played in the maltreatment of children by the lower classes appears to be even greater than it is in actual fact, are as follows. (a) In the case of the lower classes, maltreatment of children takes the form exclusively or almost exclusively of gross physical misusage. In this form the maltreatment of children is more obviously apparent, and is legally punishable; whereas more subtle but in fact worse modes of ill-usage are less easy to discover, and many of them are not legally punishable. (b) Owing to the housing conditions of the lower classes, the maltreatment of children is in their case far less likely to remain secret. (c) People are readier to lodge an information and to institute criminal proceedings when the offender is poor than when he or she is well-to-do.
Where the effects of capitalism have been most marked—that is to say, in the large towns—the maltreatment of children is commoner, and takes worse forms. The maltreatment of children occurred in very early times, but no particular importance was then attached to the matter, owing to the sacred character in those times of the institution of the family.
Far from being an indispensable part of the education of children, their maltreatment is a direct hindrance to a good education. In the discovery and the prevention of the maltreatment of children, teachers, medical practitioners, and private associations play a very important part. A teacher is able to observe whether a child is ill-used, and is also in a position to obtain information from the brothers and sisters of the child. The useful work the teacher can do in this regard can be powerfully supported by the school physician. Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children are both influential and important, especially in England and the United States of America. To the latter country we owe the institution of Children’s Courts. In England, it may be, that so great importance is attached to efforts for preventing the maltreatment of children, owing to the fact that in that country the position of the illegitimate child is an exceptionally bad one.