CMAS - L01 - Introduction and History of Child Maltreatment Flashcards
Child Maltreatment
a young person especially between infancy and puberty
a person not yet of the age of majority
a son or daughter of human parents
an unborn or recently unborn person
Maltreatment
to treat cruelly or roughly: abuse
Abuse (noun)
As a noun:
a corrupt practice or custom
improper or excessive use of treatment
language that condemns or vilifies usually unjustly, intemperately, and angrily
physical maltreatment
Abuse (verb)
As a verb:
to put to a wrong or improper use
to use excessively
to use or treat so as to injure or damage
to attack with words
Changing view on children
While there was recognition of a child’s vulnerability and need for protection is noted between the 6th and 14th century the perception of a shift occurs during the Reformation
When was Reformation
16th century
During the 16th century, children were subjected to beatings or corporal punishment within their educational system by their schoolmaster, a method of discipline still utilized in some schools across the United States
17th Century - John Locke
Philosopher John Locke saw children as empty vessels or “blank slates.” To Locke, children were seen as nothing at all, whose character had to be shaped through purposeful and diligent instruction by the child’s parents. Locke subscribed to the belief that a child’s character could be shaped through rewarding good behavior, a theoretical view that is further explored and defined in the mid-twentieth century
18th Century
In the 18th century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau contradicted Locke’s theory. Rousseau believed children were born as “noble savages” who were naturally bequeathed a moral compass of right and wrong. Further, Rousseau identified children as having their own unique way of feeling and thinking and that if not careful, parents could be harmful rather than helpful to their child’s development.
The understanding of child development and the role of parents and society in that child’s development continue to take shape into the 19th and 20th centuries.
Likewise, as society’s understanding of how children develop and the rights of children become realized, a progressing call to meet the needs of children who are abandoned or abused takes shape.
New York Children’s Aid Society (1853)
30,000 children living on city streets begging, stealing, and scavenging for food in the garbage.
Charles Loring Brace founded the New York Children’s Aid Society following his shock to learn that children he saw on the street were being treated as criminals and being incarcerated in juvenile and adult prisons.
The New York Children’s Aid Society established a number of programs, in an effort to encourage children to obtain an education and/or a job. The Aid Society also provided children with clean clothes, shelter, food, and a number of other services for children.
Who created the Orphan Train Program & Goal
Charles Loring Brace
goal was to remove children from orphanages and almshouses and place them within families outside of New York City. Brace had a philosophical belief that “life in an institution did not prepare children for life outside
Orphan Train Program locations
NY, PA, and eventually the midwest.
What laid the foundation for foster care program
The Orphan Train
What stoped the Orphan Train and when
The Orphan Train came to a halt in the 1920s due to a number of reasons; however, most notably was legislation being passed to prevent the interstate placement of children.
Mary Ellen Wilson Case (1874)
Ms. Etta Wheeler, a local missionary responding to concerns from a neighbor.
Ms. Wheeler sought the help and advice of Henry Bergh. Mr. Bergh was the founder of the American Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) - 1875
The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) was developed following the Mary Ellen Wilson case and became the first child protection agency in the world. The founders of the NYSPCC founders laid the framework and basic principles of the child abuse laws in the United States.
First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children (1909)
This conference was first initiated by President Theodore Roosevelt and would continue to occur until 1970 with President Nixon.
Home care: Children of worthy parents or deserving mothers should, as a rule, be kept with their parents at home.
Preventative work: The efforts should be made to eradicate causes of dependency, such as disease and accident, and to substitute compensation and insurance for relief.
Home finding: Homeless and neglected children, if normal, should be cared for in families, when practicable.
Cottage system: Institutions should be on the cottage plan with small units, as far as possible.
Incorporation: Agencies caring for dependent children should be incorporated, on approval of a suitable state board.
State inspection: The state should inspect the work of all agencies which care for dependent children.
Inspection of educational work: Educational work of institutions and agencies caring for dependent children should be supervised by state educational authorities.
Facts and records: Complete histories of dependent children and their parents, based on personal investigation and supervision, should be recorded for guidance of child-caring agencies.
Physical care: Every needly child should receive the best medical and surgical attention and be instructed in health and hygiene.
Co-operation: Local child-caring agencies should co-operate and establish joint bureaus of information.
Undesirable legislation: Prohibitive legislation against transfer of dependent children between states should be repealed.
Permanent organization: A permanent organization for work along the lines of these resolutions is desirable.
Federal Children’s Bureau: Establishment of a Federal Children’s Bureau is desirable, and enactment of a pending bill is earnestly recommended.
Suggest special message to Congress favoring Federal Children’s Bureau and other legislation applying above principles to District of Columbia and other Federal territory.
Consider: As we proceed in learning about the various legislative acts that take place between 1909 to late 1990s, which of the aforementioned takeaways from the First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children are addressed in the legislative acts?
Q from module
Children’s Bureau (1912)
The Children’s Bureau was one of the first federal organizations whose exclusive focus was on the improvement of the lives of children and families. The Children’s Bureau was designed to oversee the welfare of children; however, the bureau did not investigate individual cases rather that was left to the individual public agencies.
The Children’s Bureau remains an active United States organization whose mission is to focus on improving the lives of children and families through programs that reduce child abuse and neglect, increase the number of adoptions, and strengthen foster care
Children’s Bureau established in _______
1912
The First Federal Child Labor Law (1916) is also known as
the Keating-Owen Act
The First Federal Child Labor Law was established in ______
1916
Child Welfare League of America (1920)
The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) was born out of the White House Conference on Children and Youth. The CWLA was established in an effort to develop, review, and improve standards of practice for child welfare services.
The CWLA remains a supplier of content, support, and standards for child welfare services. The CWLA’s primary goal, today, is to “make children, especially our most vulnerable children, a priority in the United States”
Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act (1921)
is responsible for providing federal funds for health services for mothers and children. Through this act, states were able to provide traveling health centers, nurse home visits, midwife training and licensing, parent education, nutrition literature, and data collection.
Notably, the funding of these efforts and services, many of which were offered in rural parts of the country, approximately 700,000 pregnant women and more than 4 million children benefited. As a result of this act and services provided, infant mortality rates reduced and the act laid the groundwork for Federal-State child and family programs (
Social Security Act (1935)
The Social Security Act is a significant federal law influencing the legal framework and financial sustenance for child welfare services.
Through this act, states were eligible to receive grants to support preventative and protective services, as well as payments for foster care
John Caffey (1946)
John Caffey, a pediatric radiologist from Columbia University, published his findings of subdural hematomas and fractures of the long bones which were inconsistent with the descriptions of accidental trauma.
CAPTA Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974
This form of federal legislation provides guidance to states in the identification of a minimum set of acts and behaviors which define and constitute child abuse and neglect.
