Child Abuse and Neglect

PHYSICAL

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child.

It may also be caused when a parent or caregiver fabricates symptoms of, or induces illness in a child.

Physical abuse is the most visible form of child maltreatment.

EMOTIONAL

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill treatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent effects on the child’s emotional development, and may involve:

• Conveying to a child that s/he is worthless, unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as s/he meets the needs of another person

• Imposing developmentally inappropriate expectations e.g. interactions beyond the child’s developmental capability, overprotection, limitation of exploration and learning, preventing the child from participation in normal social interaction

• Causing a child to feel frightened or in danger e.g. witnessing domestic violence, seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another

• Exploitation or corruption of a child

  Some level of emotional abuse is involved in most types of ill treatment of children, though emotional abuse may occur alone.  

SEXUAL

• Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, including prostitution, whether or not she/he is aware of what is happening.

• Activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative and non-penetrative acts. ‘Penetrative acts’ include ‘rape’  and ‘assault by penetration.'

• Sexual activities may also include non-contact activities, e.g. involving a child in looking at / production of abusive images, watching sexual activities or encouraging her/him to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.  It may include use of photos, pictures, cartoons, literature or sound recordings via internet, books, magazines, audio cassettes, tapes or CDs.

• Children under sixteen years of age cannot lawfully consent to sexual intercourse, although in practice may be involved in sexual contact to which, as individuals, they have agreed. A child of under thirteen is considered in law incapable of providing consent.

NEGLECT

Neglect involves the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health and development.

Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance misuse.  Once the child is born, neglect may involve failure to:

• Provide adequate food, clothing or shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment)

• Protect from physical and emotional harm or danger

• Meet or respond to basic emotional needs

• Ensure adequate supervision including the use of adequate care-takers

• Ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment

• Ensure that her/his educational needs are met

• Ensure her/his opportunities for intellectual stimulation are met

NSPCCinform

Image Credit: Created by the Trauma and Dissociation Project on flickr.

 The Child:

• shows sudden changes in behavior or school performance
• has not received help for physical or medical problems brought to the parents' attention
• has learning problems (or difficulty concentrating) that cannot be attributed to specific physical or psychological causes
• is always watchful, as though preparing for something bad to happen
• lacks adult supervision
• is overly compliant, passive, or withdrawn
• comes to school late or other activities early, stays late, and does not want to go home
• is relunctant to be around a particular person
• discloses maltreatment

Signs of Neglect:

Consider the possibility of neglect when the child:

• is frequently absent from school
• begs or steals food or money

Child Welfare Information Gateway

Signs of Physical Abuse

While injuries can occur accidentally when a child is at play, physical abuse should be suspected if the explanations do not fit the injury or if a pattern of frequency is apparent. The presence of many injuries in various stages of healing makes it obvious that the injuries did not all occur as a result of one accident.

Physical indicators of abuse include bruises; lacerations; swollen areas; and marks on the child’s face, head, back, chest, genital area, buttocks or thighs. Wounds like human bite marks, cigarette burns, broken bones, puncture marks or missing hair may indicate abuse.

A child’s behavior might also signal that something is wrong. Victims of physical abuse may display withdrawn or aggressive behavioral extremes, complain of soreness or uncomfortable movement, wear clothing that is inappropriate for the weather, express discomfort with physical contact or become chronic runaways.

American Humane Fact Sheet

The CDC is working to promote a consistent definition of CAN and encourage the use of evidence-based CAN prevention strategies. These efforts help guarantee a uniform understanding of and approach to the issue which contributes to accurate reporting and surveillance, adherence to proven interventions, and opportunities to enhance existing prevention strategies and develop new.