Ironically, mental retardation is seen as both a cause and a result of child abuse.

Mental retardation can result from child battering, nutritional and medical neglect, drug or alcohol use during pregnancy and other forms of maltreatment. Subdural hematoma due to battering is perhaps the major cause of traumatically induced mental retardation among children. Battered infants are especially susceptible to brain damage because the infant cranium is soft and does not afford the same protection provided by the fully developed adult bone structure.

Mentally retarded or developmentally delayed children are often singled out as targets for abuse by their caretakers. Parents may feel angry, frustrated and/or guilty as a result of having a retarded child. These feelings are sometimes directed toward the child in the form of abusive behavior. The child is also more likely to be the recipient of abuse connected with family stress, alcohol and drug abuse and mental illness on the part of the parent or primary caretaker. Mentally retarded children and adults are more vulnerable to physical and sexual assaults from outside as well.

Because many children suffering from mental retardation are cared for in institutions or community-based programs, they are often the victims of institutional abuse and neglect. For centuries, these children and adults were subjected to imprisonment, beating, sexual misuse and starvation and were sometimes put to death. Even now, vast differences exist in the quality of care provided for mentally retarded individuals in different communities and countries around the world.

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