![]() ![]() It was predicted that the children would be difficult to console, irritable, and hyperactive, putting a strain on the school system. Crime rates were predicted to rise when the generation of crack-exposed infants grew up (instead they dropped). Experts foresaw the development of a 'biological underclass' of born criminals who would prey on the rest of the population. They were expected to be unable to form normal social bonds. Babies exposed to crack in utero were written off as doomed to be severely disabled, and many were abandoned in hospitals. The children were reported to be inevitably destined to be physically and mentally disabled for their whole lives. ![]() It was common in media reports to emphasize that babies who had been exposed to crack in utero would never develop normally. Thus researchers have had difficulty in determining which effects result from PCE and which result from other factors in the children's histories. Factors such as poverty that are frequently associated with PCE have a much stronger influence on children's intellectual and academic abilities than does exposure to cocaine in isolation. Children in households where cocaine is abused are at risk of violence and neglect, and those in foster care may experience problems due to unstable family situations. ![]() Pregnant mothers who use cocaine often use other drugs in addition, or they may be malnourished and lacking in medical care. Thus, studies have failed to clearly show that PCE has negative cognitive effects, partly because such effects may be due to concurrent factors. PCE is very difficult to study because it very rarely occurs in isolation: usually it coexists with a variety of other factors, which may confound a study's results. Scientists have come to understand that the findings of the early studies were vastly overstated and that most people who were exposed to cocaine in utero do not have disabilities. with small sample sizes and confounding factors). Later studies failed to substantiate the findings of earlier ones that PCE has severe disabling consequences these earlier studies had been methodologically flawed (e.g. Fears were widespread that a generation of crack babies were going to put severe strain on society and social services as they grew up. Early studies reported that people who had been exposed to crack in utero would be severely emotionally, mentally, and physically disabled this belief became common in the scientific and lay communities. Other terms are ' cocaine baby' and ' crack kid'. Crack baby' was a term coined to describe children who were exposed to crack (freebase cocaine in smokable form) as fetuses the concept of the crack baby emerged in the US during the 1980s and 1990s in the midst of a crack epidemic. ![]()
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