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Abstract

Child abuse is a severely underreported crime (7 – 15%; General Social Survey, 2019; Winters et al., 2020). Reporting is crucial to seeking and obtaining formal support for those impacted. Before a report can be made, the abuse must be discovered through the presence of evidence or disclosure. Study 1 focused on exploring differences in disclosure and related factors between child sexual abuse (CSA) and child physical abuse (CPA). Study 2 investigated the responses of prominent disclosure recipients. Through the analysis of n = 466 RCMP files, Study 1 revealed significant differences in CSA and CPA along disclosure-relevant dimensions (e.g., child’s age, gender, severity and frequency of abuse, and relation to perpetrator (p < .001)). Disclosures were more crucial to the discovery of CSA but were delayed longer than CPA. Non-offending caregivers were the largest group of disclosure recipients. Study 2 utilized a subset of data from Study 1 n = 258, those where non-offending caregivers were aware of the abuse and able to respond. The MDS configurations were different across abuse types. Non-offending caregivers generally responded to disclosures with support. However, only 54% of caregivers reported it. Abuse type was a significant predictor of support, with more blame and less interruption of contact between the perpetrator and child in cases of CPA. Further, being related was a significant predictor of reporting CSA, while frequency of abuse predicted reporting of CPA. Overall, these studies contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities involved in disclosing and responding to disclosures of abuse.