Child Abuse in the U.S.By: Tamara Bessette and Jenny Samuelson

It does not have a clear-cut definition

“Child abuse” can be defined as causing or permitting any harmful or offensive contact on a child’s body; and, any communication or transaction of any kind which humiliates, shames, or frightens the child. Some child development experts go a bit further, and define child abuse as any act or omission, which fails to nurture or in the upbringing of the children.

What is Child Abuse?

Neglecthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzO8DtRd-s&feature=related

The failure to provide for the child’s basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional. Physical neglect can include not providing adequate food or clothing, appropriate medical care, supervision, or proper weather protection (heat or coats). It may include abandonment. Educational neglect includes failure to provide appropriate schooling or special educational needs, allowing excessive truancies. Psychological neglect includes the lack of any emotional support and love, never attending to the child, spousal abuse, drug and alcohol abuse including allowing the child to participate in drug and alcohol use.

Behavioral signs- the child seems to be unsupervised. School children may be frequently late or tardy. Might show some troublesome, disruptive behavior or be withdrawn or passive.

Physical signs- child may consistenly be dressed inappropriately for the weather, or have ill fitting, dirty clothes and shoes. They might appear to have consistenly bad hygene. Untreated illness.

Physical Abusehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNYA4pAGjI

The inflicting of injury on a child that is not an accident. This may include:

It may be the result of over-discipline or physical punishment that is inappropriate to the child’s age.

Physical Signs: unexplained bruises, welts or cuts.

Behavioral Signs: child may be fearful, shy away from touch, or be afraid to go home.

burninghitting

punchingshaking

kickingbeating

Second most reported form of abuse

Emotional Abuse

Hello hello

Is the third most frequently reported form

It includes acts or the failures to act by parents or caretakers that have cause or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders.

Behaviors include: constantly critizising, teasing, belittling, shouting at, ignoring, refusing to help, threatening physical abuse or abandonment, exposing to domestic violence, encouraging to engage in criminal activities, and threatening to withdraw love to a child.

Behavioral signs: exessivly shy, fearful, or afraid to do something wrong. Child may be constantly trying to parent other children, or exhibit anti social behavior-such as uncontrolled agression. Also, inappropriate age behaviors (older child exhibiting behavior of a younger child)

Sexual Abuse

Most under-reported type of child maltreatment.

The inappropriate sexual behavior with a child. It includes fondling a child’s genitals, making the child fondle the adult’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism and sexual exploitation. To be considered child abuse, these acts have to be committed by a person responsible for the care of a child or related to the child. If a stranger commits these acts, it would be considered sexual assault and handled solely be the police and criminal courts.

Behavior signs- Child displays knowledge or intrest in sexual acts inaproppriate to his or her age, or even seductive behavior. Child might appear to avoid another person or display unuasal behavior either being very aggressive or very passive.

Physical signs- a child may have trouble sitting or standing or have stained, bloody or torned underclothes. Swelling, bruises, or bleeding in the genital area is a red flag.

Why do people abuse children?

Often abused as a child

Stress, tiredness, loneliness or feeling sick

They find managing their own life difficult, even without the demands of being a parent-therefore may lash out when their feeling under pressure.

They expect too much of their child. This can cause very caring care-takers to put pressure on themselves and their child to achieve things which may not be possible or necessary.

They believe that physical punishment is the only way to discipline a child, these may have been methods that they were brought up with.

They misunderstand children’s actions. They may think their child is trying to ‘get at’ or manipulate them, when the child is really trying to express a need.

Drugs and alcohol

Pedophiles are people who are sexually ‘turned on’ by children. They knowingly seek out and perform sexual acts with children or young people for their own pleasure. Sometimes they believe that if they are not violent or openly forceful towards the child, then they are not being abusive. They often believe that if the child does not resist then the child is consenting.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed in 1974 and has been amended several times, most recently on June 25, 2003.

How does it work?First an appointed secretary, recruites members from the general public who

represent: law, psychology, social services, medicine, state and local government, organizations providing services to disabled persons, organizations providing services to adolescents, teachers, parent self-help organizations, parents’ groups, family rights groups and children’s rights advocates.

Next, the Secretary, along with others, will carry out research involving the nature of child abuse and neglect; causes, prevention, assessment, identification, treatment, cultural and socio-economic distinctions, and the consequences of child abuse and neglect.

The secretary may make grants or create contracts with public agencies or private nonprofit agencies or organizations, for time limited demonstration programs and projects for the following purposes: Training of personnel in the fields of medicine, law, education, social work and other fields that are assosiated with the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect. To improve the recruitment, selection and training of volunteers.

It accepts, screens and asseses reports received to deturmine which reports require intensive intervention and which require voluntary referral to another agency, program or project.

It Provides directly or through referral, a veriety of community-linked services to assist families in preventing child abuse and neglect.

Because of CAPTA…Child abuse in the United States is principally the responsibility of the states and local governments. Each of the 50 states has enacted laws defining child abuse and maltreatment and established administrative and judicial structures to deal with maltreatment when it is defined in order to qualify for funding.

All States require certain professionals and institutions to report child abuse, including: health care providers and facilities of all types, mental health care providers of all types, teachers and other school personnel, social workers, day care providers, and law enforcement personnel. Extent of the knowledge triggering to report varies. Some statutes call for reporting upon a mere “reasonable cause to believe” or a “reasonable suspicion.” Other statutes require the reporter to “know or suspect,” which is a higher degree of knowledge.

Failure to report suspected child abuse can result in a criminal liability, although the liability is typically a misdemeanor punishable by a fine. All states require the report to be made to some type of law enforcement authority or child protection agency. Reporting to a parent or relative will not satisfy the reporter’s legal duty under the statues. It is a lot better to defend a report for sexual abuse than defend if a child is injured or killed as a result of failing to make a report of suspected child abuse.

Foster Carehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zGEXHdEmhk

After a report has been made and then investigated the child is removed from their home and placed in a foster home

When parents are unable, unwilling or unfit to care for a child.

Up until recently, children were just placed in orphanages and poor houses. If they were lucky they’d be adopted. However, some families would take advantage of this and adopt children for free labor. If not adopted the child would stay in the orphanage until adulthood.

The philosophy is that children are better of, emotionally and psychologically, in a home environment. Children will get the attention and love they need in order to grow into healthy adults.

Sometimes parents will adopt children in their care. Usually it is a means of returning the child to his or her birth parents or a stop on the way to another home.

Children end up going from foster home to foster home which can can add more instability to a child’s life.

The system is not perfect.

Today about half a million U. S. children are in the foster care system.

According to the data from, the administration on children and families, in 1998, an estimated:

2,806,000 referrals of child abuse/neglect were made to relevant state/local agencies 903,000 were confirmed victims of maltreatment (12.9 per 1,000 children nationwide) Of these:

11.5 % suffered sexual abuse22.7% suffered physical abuse 53.5% suffered neglect

1,100 children died of abuse or neglect (1.6 deaths per 100,000 children)

Congress finds that each year about

1 million American children are victims of abuse and neglect. Many of these children and their families fail to receive adequate protection or treatment.

Of the 903,000 children who were identified as victims of abuse, an estimated 409,000 received services of some kind and 144,000 were places in foster care. That leaves 447,000 children who did not receive any form of help!

Parental risk factors include young or single parents, those who did not graduate

from high school and those who either were abused themselves as children or indured a severly disfunctional home life.

81% of all offenders are under age forty.

Approximately 61% of abusers are female.

Neglect and medical neglect are most often attributed to female caretakers, where as sexual abuse is most often attributed to male offenders.

While children of families in all income levels suffer maltreatment, research suggests that family income is strongly related to incidence rates. Children from families with annual incomes below $15,000 per year are more than 25 times more likely than children from families with annual income above $30,000 to be harmed or endangered by abuse or neglect.

Facts/Statisticshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvv01vTbOuo

One in three girls and one in five boys are sexually abused by an adult at some time during childhood.

Families with four or more children have higher rates of abuse and neglect, especially if their living conditions are crowed or they live in isolated areas.

More than 80% of abusers are a parent or someone close to a child. Child abuse is far more likely to occur in the child’s home than in a day care center.

One in thirteen kids with a parent on drugs is phyically abused regularly.

One out of ten babies born today are born to mothers who are aabusing drugs. Drinking and smoking heavily during pregnancy also endangers the health of unborn children.

Facts/Statistics

CANYOU DO?

career in the field of child abuse and neglect: social service, medical, and educational programs.

If you don’t have the time to train for such jobs you can always volunteer: Parent aids, homemakers, helpline counselors, fundraisers

Most importantly, if you notice or suspect any sign of child abuse or neglect you should immeadiately report it to some type of law enforcement authority or child protection agency.

By this alone, you could be making a huge improvement in a child’s life.

What can I do at Johnson?

Be a mentor! Mentor elementnary, middle school, and high school students at the Lamoille Valley Mentoring Partnership. Sign up sheet right in front of the serve office.

The Women’s center located in Sterns is collecting old cell phones to be recycled in order to benefit Women Helping Battered Women.

Volunteer at the Clarina Howard Nichols Center in Lamoille County. They provide training and offer a variety of opportunities including hotline advocacy, childcare, night managing, transportation, administrative assistance and more. 802-888-2584

Donate (CHNC)

If you have a friend of family member in a violent relationship listen and believe them.

SPEAK OUT!

Works CitedWorks CitedCampagna, Daniel I S., and Donald L. Poffenberger. The Sexual Trafficking in Children An Investigation of the Child Sex Trade. New York: Auburn House Paperback, 1987. Print.

"Child abuse -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abuse>.

"Child Abuse ,definition, prevention, types, treatment, maltreatment, articles, childrens abuse." A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety ::Indianchild.com. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.indianchild.com/child_abuse.htm>.

CYH Home - Home. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.cyh.com>.

Giovannoni, Jeanne M. Defining child abuse. New York: Free, 1979. Print.

"HowStuffWorks "How Foster Care Works"" Howstuffworks "People" Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://people.howstuffworks.com/foster-care1.htm>.

"YouTube - ASPECTS OF FOSTER CARE SYSTEM." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zGEXHdEmhk>.

"YouTube - Genie Presentation." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWzO8DtRd-s&feature=related>.

"YouTube - Martina McBride - Concrete Angel." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtNYA4pAGjI>.

"YouTube - SPCA and CYF to work together to combat abuse." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvv01vTbOuo>.

"YouTube - ASPECTS OF FOSTER CARE SYSTEM." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 17 Dec. 2009. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zGEXHdEmhk>.