Hendrika B.

Cantwell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hendrika Bestebreurtje Cantwell (born May 3, 1925) is an

American retired physician, professor emerita of pediatrics at Hendrika B. Cantwell
the University of Colorado Denver, advocate for abused and Born Hendrika Bestebreurtje
neglected children, and parenting educator. She was one of May 3, 1925
the first physicians in the United States to work for a child Berlin, Germany
protection agency, serving with the Denver Department of
Social Services from 1975 to 1989. Her work there brought Citizenship American
her in contact with an estimated 30,000 cases of suspected Education B.A. Barnard College, 1944
child abuse and she testified as an expert witness in M.D., University of Rochester
thousands of court cases. An author of peer-reviewed journal Medical School, 1949
articles, book chapters, and teaching manuals on the
detection and treatment of child abuse, she has also Known for Advocate for abused and neglected
conducted workshops and training programs for children
professionals throughout Colorado. She was inducted into
the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1990.

Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
3 Awards and honors
4 Personal life
5 Selected bibliography
5.1 Book chapters
5.2 Articles and papers
6 References
7 Sources

Early life and education

Hendrika Bestebreurtje was born on May 3, 1925, in Berlin, Germany, to Dutch nationals; her father had been
transferred by his firm to Berlin before her birth.[1] She was the youngest of four children. At age 6 she moved
with her family to Zrich, Switzerland. In November 1940 the family fled wartime Europe by traveling to the
neutral port of Lisbon, Portugal. They booked passage on a Portuguese ship built to hold 300, which departed
with 1,000 passengers and arrived in New York City in April 1941. Two years later Hendrika attained U.S.
citizenship.[1]

She earned her B.A. from Barnard College in 1944 at the age of 19,[2][3] and enrolled at the University of
Rochester Medical School, planning to specialize in pediatrics.[1] After receiving her medical degree in 1949,[2]
she interned at Buffalo Children's Hospital. Following her internship, in 1952 she and her husband William
Cantwell relocated to Denver, Colorado, attracted by the nearby skiing opportunities.[4]

Career
In 1954 Cantwell became a part-time physician for school immunization programs and well-baby clinics in
Denver. From 1966 to 1975 she was a full-time staffer of Project Child, a neighborhood health program for
low-income children.[2] She also began teaching nursing students, medical students, pediatric residents, and
pediatric nurse practitioners.[4] She joined the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center as a clinical
professor of pediatrics.[4]

Cantwell became one of the first physicians in the country to work for a child protection agency when she was
hired by the Denver Department of Social Services (DDSS) in 1975.[4] Her hiring grew out of the 1973 death
of a child whose case, it was alleged, had been mishandled by the department. Under Cantwell's direction, the
DDSS opened a Family Crisis Center on its premises, to which parents could bring children suspected of being
abused for interviews with physicians and social workers. If abuse was determined, the child could be kept at
the facility and a juvenile court case would be opened within 48 hours. Up to 40 percent of girls questioned at
the center admitted to having been sexually abused, and 98 percent of children under age 7 had been abused by
family members or friends.[5]

Concomitant with the establishment of the Family Crisis Center, more and more child abuse cases were filed in
court. As Cantwell interviewed abusive parents, she realized that many were unaware of the reasons for their
behavior. She said in an interview:

No one had listened to these parents. Most had been abused. ... They felt singled out by drunken
fathers. It's normal to take our perceptions of child-rearing from our parents. It was amazing that
they didn't realize how mistreated they were. Instead, they blamed themselves for being rotten kids.
Schools had punished them for inattention, fighting, failing to do their work. But no one asked why
they did poorly. Most painful was their recurring question, "Where were you when I needed
protection?"[6]

As many parents were considered unsuitable candidates for treatment due to dysfunctional upbringing, alcohol
and drug addictions, and mental incapacity, DDSS social workers proposed that they be given parenting classes.
Cantwell wrote a curriculum for court-ordered parenting education in 1975. These classes were led by teachers
at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School for the next decade.[7]

In her 14 years of work with the DDSS, Cantwell came in contact with an estimated 30,000 cases of suspected
child abuse and neglect.[8] She often served as an expert witness, with an estimated 95 percent of her court
appearances coming on behalf of the prosecution.[9] Her 1983 study of normal hymenal openings in young
girls, published in Child Abuse & Neglect, was often cited as a determinant of whether sexual penetration had
taken place.[10][11]

Cantwell retired from the DDSS in August 1989.[8] Thereafter she worked as a part-time consultant on child
abuse and neglect for the Colorado State Department of Social Services, and continued to train nursing
students, child advocates, and case workers to identify and assist child abuse victims.[8] She conducted
workshops throughout the state for "social workers, school employees, police officers, attorneys, doctors,
public health and clinic nurses, judges, county officials, foster parents, and the general public".[8] She published
her research in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, and teaching manuals.[8] In 1996 she and her husband
formally retired and moved to Driggs, Idaho, near the ski slopes of the Teton Range.[12]

Awards and honors

Cantwell was honored with two proclamations of "Dr. Hendrika Cantwell Day", in 1983 by Governor of
Colorado Richard Lamm and in 1989 by Mayor of Denver Federico Pea.[12] The Colorado Bar Association
established a Hendrika B. Cantwell Annual Award in 1983. Cantwell was inducted into the Colorado Women's
Hall of Fame in 1990 and was the recipient of the C. Henry Kempe Award in 1991.[12]

She was the subject of the television documentary Dr. Hendrika Cantwell, produced by the British Film
Institute and aired on July 28, 1988 by BBC One.[13][14]

Personal life
She met her husband, William P. Cantwell (19212003), a law student, while skiing at Lake Placid, New York,
in 1945.[15][16] They married in 1947[16] and had two sons and a daughter.[4][15] William established his first
legal practice in Buffalo, New York, while Hendrika interned in the Buffalo Children's Hospital. He practiced
estate law for many years in Denver and was a past president of the Denver Bar Association, the Colorado Bar
Association, and the American College of Probate Counsel.[15]

Selected bibliography
Book chapters
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1999). Helfer, Mary Edna; Kempe, Ruth S.; Krugman, Richard D., eds. The
Neglect of Child Neglect. The Battered Child. University of Chicago Press. pp. 347373.
ISBN 0226326233.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1995). Hunter, Mic, ed. Sexually Aggressive Children and Societal Response.
Child Survivors and Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse. SAGE. pp. 79108. ISBN 0803971958.

Articles and papers

Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1988). "Standards of Child Neglect". Denver Department of Social Services.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1988). "Child sexual abuse: Very young perpetrators". Child Abuse & Neglect. 12
(4): 579582.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1987). "Physical Neglect". National Committee for the Child.
ISBN 093790659X.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1987). "Update On Vaginal Inspection As It Relates To Child Sexual Abuse In
Girls Under Thirteen". Child Abuse & Neglect. 11 (4): 545546.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1984). "Child Protective Services In Parental Mismanagement Of Diabetes". The
Diabetes Educator. 9 (4): 4143.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1983). "Vaginal Inspection As It Relates To Child Sexual Abuse In Girls Under
Thirteen". Child Abuse & Neglect. 7 (2): 171176.
Cantwell, Hendrika B. (1981). "Sexual abuse of children in Denver, 1979: Reviewed with implications
for pediatric intervention and possible prevention". Child Abuse & Neglect. 5 (2): 7585.

References
1. Varnell 1999, p. 211.
2. "Champion of Abused Children"(https://archive.org/stream/barnardalumnae671barn/barnardalumnae671barn_djvu.txt) .
Barnard Alumnae. 67 (1): 44. Fall 1977. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
3. "Hendrika Bestebreurtje Cantwell, MD"(http://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/hendrika-bestebreurtje-cantwell-md/)
.
Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
4. Varnell 1999, p. 212.
5. Varnell 1999, pp. 212213.
6. Varnell 1999, pp. 214215.
7. Varnell 1999, p. 214.
8. Varnell 1999, p. 215.
9. Sweet, Lynn (28 March 1989)."Fabiano witness doubts injury report on girl"(https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-393
5544.html). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 13 July 2017 via HighBeam. (Subscription required (help)).
 10. Grunseit, Ferry (2008)."Child Sexual Assault Are There Alternatives to Court Action?"(http://www.aic.gov.au/media
_library/publications/proceedings/08/grunseit.pdf)(PDF). Australian Institute of Criminology. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
11. Nathan & Snedeker 2001, p. 187.
12. Varnell 1999, p. 216.
13. "Dr. Hendrika Cantwell (1988)"(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b79537921). British Film Institute.
Retrieved 13 July 2017.
14. "Esther Interviews"(http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/6d5309f32fcf4018b424b8e6e705eaf3) . BBC. 2017. Retrieved
13 July 2017.
15. Kaiser, Libby (26 June 2003)."Longtime Local Lawyer William Cantwell Noted Nationally for High Ethics"(https://w
ww.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-104435401.html).Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved 13 July 2017 via HighBeam.
(Subscription required (help)).
16. "William P. Cantwell" (https://books.google.com/books?id=JF AuAQAAIAAJ&q=Hendrika+Cantwell). Colorado
Lawyer. Colorado Bar Association. 32: 112. 2003.

Sources
Nathan, Debbie; Snedeker, Michael (2001). Satan's Silence: Ritual Abuse and the Making of a Modern
American Witch Hunt. iUniverse. ISBN 0595189555.
Varnell, Jeanne (1999). Women of Consequence: The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame. Big Earth
Publishing. ISBN 1555662145.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hendrika_B._Cantwell&oldid=792240167"

Categories: 1925 births Living people Women pediatricians American pediatricians

University of Colorado Denver faculty University of Rochester alumni Barnard College alumni
People from Berlin People from Zrich People from Denver

This page was last edited on 25 July 2017, at 10:35.

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