Documenting Pain

Coordinated programming by all three television networks and the Public Broadcasting System is usually reserved for momentous occasions or national emergencies. Thus it was telling that a documentary, Scared Silent: Exposing and Ending Child Abuse, was scheduled to air last weekend on all four outlets. CBS, NBC and PBS agreed to present the program simultaneously, with ABC showing it two nights later, thus avoiding the pre-emption of the popular 20/ 20. Narrated by talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, herself a victim, Scared Silent mirrors the conclusions of the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, a federal panel (several of whose members served as consultants to the film) that has in fact labeled child abuse a "national emergency."

Reported incidents of child abuse, long ignored as a national issue, have rocketed from 60,000 in 1974 to 2.7 million last year. As many as 5,000 children die annually because of abuse, half before age 1. Family members are guilty of 88% of abuse, and most experts assume that adding unreported cases would probably double the total. The advisory board says that while workable prevention and rehabilitation techniques are now well documented, federal and state governments have done little to support them. Hawaii has funded the nation's only statewide visitation program that connects trained counselors with troubled households -- an intervention technique that has proved effective. Most federal money goes to foster-care programs, after the damage has already been done.