The problem of the violence against children is noticed by more and more people. The number of people, who object to any corporal punishment is also increasing. However, many adults still accept the use of corporal punishment in the process of education and they are not aware of the existing legal prohibition. It was the aim of this work to present the problem of violence against children and the participation of the midwife/nurse in the prophylaxis and the detection of abused children. The terms of violence, family/domestic violence and violence against children were defined in the paper. Following forms of the violence: physical, mental and sexual as well as the neglect were characterized. In the article, the dimension of the phenomenon in Poland was discussed. It was difficult to real assess it, because of the place of the violence. Very often, in fact, it happens among family, without any witnesses. Author described the role of nurses/midwifes in the identification of the harmed children. It was concluded, that the violence against the children cannot be unnoticed. There is a need to develop new and effective preventive programmes as well as to update and improve the nurses’ knowledge, especially in terms of changing law.

Nursing Topics 2015; 23 (2): 246–250