{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,20]],"date-time":"2026-07-20T23:58:02Z","timestamp":1784591882455,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":36,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,5]],"date-time":"2022-10-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1664928000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Pediatr."],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Background<\/jats:title><jats:p>There currently is no evidence that COVID-19 has had an impact on the rates of psychological abuses occurring when a minor witnesses interpersonal violence.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Aim<\/jats:title><jats:p>Our aim was to describe the accesses of the last four years to the Emergency Department of a tertiary hospital (Careggi University Hospital\u2014Florence, Italy) due to this issue and then to evaluate whether the COVID-19 has had an impact on this trend.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>We collected data regarding cases of abuse in which at least a minor had reportedly witnessed the event. Medical records stored between January 1, 2018 to January 1, 2022 were analyzed, extracting sex, age and nationality of the victim; sex of the perpetrator and relationship with the victim; known previous episodes of abuse in the medical history of the victim; setting of the abuse (domestic vs. non-domestic); type of abuse (physical, psychological, sexual); whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol\/drugs; whether the victim was hospitalized; prognosis of the victim; number, relation with the victim and involvement in the abuse (as co-victim) of the minor(s) who witnessed the abuse.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>A total of 167 eligible cases were registered. 69% of victims had previous episodes of abuse. The perpetrators were all known and mainly males (96%).The abuses were mainly domestic (79%). In 74% of the cases only a type of violence was perpetrated. In 12% of the cases, the minors were also victims of physical abuse. No statistically significant relationships were found between the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes in the number of cases of domestic abuse (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.07), physical abuse (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.62), psychological abuse (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.83) or sexual abuse (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic>\u2009=\u20090.88). However, during the institutional lockdown in Italy (March-May 2022) only two cases occurred \u2013 a number that did not allow period-specific statistical inference.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title><jats:p>Empowering the hospital policies specifically aimed at identifying and protecting the victims of violence\/witnessed violence remains a critical goal from both a public health and medico-legal point of view.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fped.2022.949922","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,5]],"date-time":"2022-10-05T07:04:58Z","timestamp":1664953498000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Trend in 167 cases of minors witnessing violence: The role played by COVID-19 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