Child abuse and neglect Flashcards
___ of youth experience some form of violence exposure
-1/4
Prevalence: Referrals to child welfare agency:
-Over 4.2 million, involving about 7.53 million children
Prevalence: victims
~558,000
-1,990 children died from abuse/neglect
-Victim rate: 7.7 victims per 1,000 children
Prevalence: types
-74.3% Neglect
-17.0% Physical Abuse
-10.6% Sexual Abuse
-0.2% Sex Trafficking
Family violence
-Privacy of home makes it hard to help and judges don’t want to break up family
-Large financial costs associated with child abuse/neglect:
-$425 billion per year
Terminiology
-Domestic violence (DV)
-Child maltreatment:
-Child abuse: physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
-Child neglect: Physical, sexual, or educational neglect
-Intimate partner violence (IPV)
-Intentional violence committed, attempted, or threatened by a romantic partner or ex-partner
Physical abuse
-In practical terms the line between abuse and discipline is vague but society often agrees on what is unreasonable
-Physical abuse may occur due to:
-Unrealistic expectations for children
-Prior experience as victims themselves
-Feelings of insecurity
Cycle of physical abuse
-LOOP: child fails to meet expectations, physical abuse, lower self-esteem of child, under achievement of child
Factors related to abuse:
-Parental loneliness
-Lack of social support
-Socially isolated
-Intimate Partner Violence
-Poverty
-However, poverty alone is not a valid reason for intervention
Emotional abuse
-Occurs when:
-Childs opinion don’t count
-Adults fail to spend quality time
-Child’s needs are met with “not now” “maybe later”
-Ambiguous definitions
-Difficulty proving in court
Sexual abuse
-Often includes: human trafficking, incest, criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault
-Sexual abuse cases accounted for 10.6% of abuse cases in 2022
-Detection of child abuse is difficult because:
-Difficult for children to know what is inappropriate especially with an authority figure
-Many reporting issues - who does the child tell, will they be believed, etc
-Some research suggests that the identify of the abuser makes a difference in whether the abuse is reported
Child neglect
-Most common form of child maltreatment
-Three types of neglect:
-1. Physical – abandonment, failure to seek medical help, inadequate food
-2. Emotional – inadequate nurturing or affection, inattention to developmental needs
-3. Educational – permits chronic truancy
Mandatory reporting
-Mandated reporting mandates reporting of abuse by designated professionals, may include immunity for person reporting in good faith
Internet exploitation
-No agreed upon definition of internet offending but can include:
-Exchanging child porn
-Locating potential victims
-Inappropriate sexual communication
-To deter web based crimes, the federal gov enacted the PROTECT our children act (2008)
-Helped establish:
-Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program
-National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction
Intervention
-Child abuse cases difficult to litigate due to:
-Establishing competency & credibility of the child victim
-Admissibility of out-of-court statements
-Applicability of husband-wife, physician-patient
privileges
-Use of character witness evidence on “battered
child” or “battering parent” syndrome
-Difficulty in the victim confronting perpetrator
Attempts to improve responses to child maltreatment
-U.S. Supreme Court (1990) ruling approved procedures designed to
protect child victims:
-Use of video tape testimony
-Testimony by one-way closed-circuit TV
-Testimony by doctors/experts
-White v. Illinois
-Allowed use of hearsay statements in child sexual abuse cases
Law enforcement’s role in child maltreatment instances
-Sometimes agencies have specially trained
investigators
-Many investigations are now carried out jointly between the police and child protective agencies
-Given the importance of
maintaining the family
unit, states are
implementing
alternative responses
(rather than immediately
removing the child)
Child abuse is alarming given…
-Cascading events ( some parents who were abused as children, go on to abuse their children)
