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Child Neglect
Definition of Child Neglect:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines child neglect as: "failure to provide for the child's basic needs. Neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional. Physical neglect includes refusal of or delay in seeking health care, abandonment, expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home, and inadequate supervision. Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child of mandatory school age in school, and failure to attend to a special educational need. Emotional neglect includes such actions as marked inattention to the child's needs for affection, refusal of or failure to provide needed psychological care, spouse abuse in the child's presence, and permission of drug or alcohol use by the child. The assessment of child neglect requires consideration of cultural values and standards of care as well as recognition that the failure to provide the necessities of life may be related to poverty."
Think of child neglect as occurring anytime a caretaker permits the child to experience suffering or fails to provide one of the basic ingredients essential for developing into a physically, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically healthy person.
Dental neglect, as defined by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, is "the willful failure of parent or guardian to seek and follow through with treatment necessary to ensure a level of oral health essential for adequate function and freedom from pain and infection." Dental caries, periodontal diseases, and other oral conditions, if left untreated, can lead to pain, infection, and loss of function. These undesirable outcomes can adversely affect learning, communication, nutrition, and other activities necessary for normal growth and development.
Examples of child neglect:
Not meeting a child's need for cleanliness, clothing, emotional support, love and affection, education, nutritious food, clothing, adequate shelter or safety; Leaving a child unwatched; Leaving a child in an unsafe place or causing a child to be in a dangerous situation or place; Not seeking necessary medical or dental attention for a child; Not having a child attend school; Not seeking special services for children in need of educational support.
Signs of Child Neglect
Child's Appearance and Behavior:
Abuses alcohol or other drugs; Begs for or steals food; Consistently dirty, unwashed, hungry, or inappropriately dressed; Constantly tired or listless; Engages in dangerous activities; Engages in delinquent acts; Has unattended physical problems or lacks routine medical care; Has been abandoned or is without supervision for extended periods of time; Is exploited or overworked; Lacks adult supervision; Lacks treatment for a medical condition or lacks of dental care; Loses weight or fails to gain weight; Needs but doesn't have eyeglasses; Skips or misses school frequently.
Caretaker's Behavior:
Misuses alcohol or other drugs; Maintains chaotic home life; Shows evidence of apathy or futility; Is mentally ill or of diminished intelligence; Has history of neglect as a child; Overly self absorbed.
Emotional Abuse
Definition of Emotional Abuse:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines emotional abuse as: "acts or omissions by the parents or other caregivers that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders. In some cases of emotional abuse, the acts of parents or other caregivers alone, without any harm evident in the child's behavior or condition, are sufficient to warrant child protective services (CPS) intervention. For example, the parents/caregivers may use extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as confinement of a child in a dark closet. Less severe acts, such as habitual scapegoating, belittling, or rejecting treatment, are often difficult to prove and, therefore, CPS may not be able to intervene without evidence of harm to the child."
The American Medical Association AMA describes Emotional Abuse as: "when a child is regularly threatened, yelled at, humiliated, ignored, blamed or otherwise emotionally mistreated. For example, making fun of a child, calling a child names, and always finding fault are forms of emotional abuse."
Emotional abuse is more than just verbal abuse. It is an attack on a child's emotional and social development, and is a basic threat to healthy human development. Emotional abuse can take many forms:
Belittling
Belittling a child causes the child to see him or herself in the way consistent with the caregivers words. This limits the child's potential by limiting the child's own sense of his or her potential.
Coldness
Children learn to interact with the world through their early interactions with their parents. If parents are warm and loving, children grow to see the world as a secure place for exploration and learning. When parents are cold to their children, they deprive the child of necessary ingredients for intellectual and social development. Children who are subjected to consistent coldness grow to see the world as a cold, uninviting place, and will likely have seriously impaired relationships in the future. They may also never feel confident to explore and learn.
Corrupting
When parents teach children to engage in antisocial behavior, the children grow up unfit for normal social experience.
Cruelty
Cruelty is more severe than coldness, but the results can be the same. Children need to feel safe and loved in order to explore the world around them and in order to learn to form healthy relationships. When children experience cruelty from their caretakers, the world ceases to "make sense" for them, and all areas of learning are affected - social, emotional, and intellectual development are hindered.
Extreme Inconsistency
The foundations of learning are laid in the first interactions between child and caretaker. Through consistent interactions, the child and parent shape each other and the child learns that his or her actions have consistent consequences - this is the foundation for learning. The child also learn to trust that his or her needs will be met from others. When the caretaker is inconsistent in his or her response to the child, the child cannot learn what is expected from the start, and all areas of learning can be effected throughout the child's lifespan.
Harassment
Harassment has similar effects to those of belittling, but also involves a stress response. Harassment scares the child, and repeated exposure to fear can alter the child physically, lowering their ability to deal with other stressful situations.
Ignoring
Ignoring a child deprives the child of all the essential stimulation and interaction necessary for emotional, intellectual and social development.
Inappropriate Control
Inappropriate control takes three forms - lack of control, over control, and inconsistent control. Lack of control puts children at risk for danger or harm to themselves and robs children of the knowledge handed down through human history. Over control robs children of opportunities for self-assertion and self-development by preventing them from exploring the world around them. Inconsistent control can cause anxiety and confusion in children and can lead to a variety of problematic behaviors as well as impair intellectual development.
Isolating
Isolating a child, or cutting them off from normal social experiences, prevents the child from forming friendships and can lead to depression. Isolating a child seriously impairs their intellectual, emotional and social development. Isolating is often accompanied by other forms of emotional abuse and often physical abuse.
Rejecting
When a caretaker rejects a child, the caretaker is negating the child's self-image, showing the child that he or she has no value. Children who are rejected from the start by their caretakers develop a range of disturbed self-soothing behaviors. An infant who is rejected has almost no chance of developing into a healthy adult.
Terrorizing
Terrorizing, like harrasment, evokes a stress response in children. Repeated evocation of the stress response alters the child physically, lowering their ability to fight off disease, increasing their risk for many stress-related ailments. Aside from the physical affects, a child living in terror has no opportunities to develop anything other than unhealthy and anti-social survival skills.
Emotional abuse is the core of all forms of abuse, and the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect in general stem mainly from the emotional aspects of abuse. Actually, it is the psychological aspect of most abusive behaviors that defines them as abusive. Think of a child breaking his or her arm. If the arm was broken while riding a bicycle and trying to jump a ramp, the child will heal and recover psychologically, perhaps strengthening his or her character and learning valuable life-lessons in the process by overcoming obstacles with the support of his or her caregivers and friends. If the same injury occurs because a parent twists the child's arm behind his or her back in a rage or throws the child down the stairs, the child will heal physically, but may never heal psychologically. In thinking of sexual abuse, think of a child being examined by a doctor - doctors touch children's genitals routinely in physical examinations without damaging children in any way. But think of the same contact from a sexualized older acquaintance. It is clear that the damage from fondling the child is psychological and emotional. Now think of a child who lives with a parent who terrifies the child but who has just enough control (IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROL) over him- or herself to refrain from injuring the child physically in a way that will draw questions. That child is suffering the same devastating abuse as the children in the examples above, but often nothing can be done about it.
Despite the fact that the long-term harm from abuse is most often caused by the emotional aspects of the abuse, emotional abuse is the most difficult of the forms of abuse to substantiate and prosecute. Actual physical injury is often required before the authorities can step in and assist a child. Also, the effects of abuse are very similar to symptoms of many childhood mental and physical disorders, which makes identifying emotionally abused children difficult.
Signs of Emotional or Verbal Abuse
Child's Behavior:
Appears overly compliant, passive, undemanding; Appears very anxious or depressed; Attempts suicide; Avoids doing things with other children; Behaves younger than his or her age; Finds it difficult to make friends; Is extremely aggressive, demanding or enraged; Lags in physical, emotional, and intellectual development; Is very demanding or very obedient; Behaves very adult-like; Wets or soils the bed.
Caretaker's Behavior:
Blames or belittles child; Is cold and rejecting; Withholds love; Treats siblings unequally; Seems unconcerned about child's problems.
Physical Abuse
Definition of Physical Abuse:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines child physical abuse as: "The physical injury or maltreatment of a child under the age of eighteen by a person who is responsible for the child's welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby..."
Examples of Physical Abuse include:
Beating with a belt, shoe, or other object; Biting a child; Breaking a child's arm, leg, or other bones; Burning a child with matches or cigarettes; Hitting a child; Kicking a child; Not letting a child eat, drink, or use the bathroom; Pulling a child's hair out; Punching a child; Scalding a child with water that is too hot; Shaking, shoving, or slapping a child.
The parent or caretaker need not have intended to hurt the child for it to constitute physical abuse.
Signs of Physical Abuse
Child's Appearance:
Bruises or welts on body or face (especially in various states of healing, in unusual patterns or clusters which would reflect the instrument or in multiple areas of the body); Burns (cigar or cigarette burns, glove or sock-like burns on extremities, doughnut-shaped burns on buttocks, or any burn that shows the shape of the item used, such as an iron); Fractures (spiral fractures of long bones without a history of twisting force as the cause, multiple fractures in various stages of healing, any fracture in a child under two); Internal injuries; Lacerations and abrasions (especially around the mouth, lip, eye, or external genitalia); Human bite marks.
Child's Behavior:
Agitation; Anger and rage; Anxiety or fears; Apprehensive when other children cry; Avoids social contact or seem withdrawn; Behaves aggressively; Changes in a child's behavior or school performance; Cries frequently; Demonstrates extremes in behavior; Destroys or throws things; Depression; Drug and alcohol abuse; Fights with other children; Flashbacks - seems in shock; Hard-to-believe stories about how accidents occurred; Immature behaviors such as thumb-sucking or rocking; Lack of interest in surroundings; Lies frequently; Loiters at school or friends - indicates a fear to go home; Nightmares; Passive or withdrawn behavior; Poor self-image; Reports injury by parents; Sadness or other symptoms of depression; School problems or failure; Seems afraid of a parent or other adults; Self-destructive or self-abusive behavior, suicidal thoughts; Startles easily; Stealing; Tired often; Trouble sleeping; Wary of physical contact with adults.
Adolescent's Behavior:
Substance abuse; Risky sexual behaviors; Suicide attempts; Abnormal eating behaviors; Nonsexual, high-risk behaviors (eg, speeding, dare-devil sports).
Caretaker's Behavior:
Uses harsh discipline inappropriate to child's age, transgression, and condition; Has performance expectations which are beyond the age capabilities of the child; Offers illogical, unconvincing, contradictory, or no explanation of child's injury; Seems unconcerned about child; Significantly misperceives child (e.g., sees child as bad, evil, a monster, etc.); Psychotic or psychopathic; Misuses alcohol or other drugs; Attempts to conceal child's injury or to protect identity of person responsible
Sexual Abuse
Definition of Sexual Abuse:
The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect defines child sexual assault as: "Contacts or interactions between a child and an adult when the child is being used for sexual stimulation of the perpetrator or another person when the perpetrator or another person is in a position of power or control over the victim."
Sexual abuse is any time that a child is engaged in a sexual situation with an older person. It can include actual physical contact, such as fondling or rape, but it also includes making a child watch sexual acts or pornography, using a child in any aspect of the production of pornography, or making a child look at an adult's genitals.
Examples of child sexual abuse:
Digital (finger) penetration; Exhibitionism; Fondling a child's genitals; Having intercourse with a child; Having oral sex with a child; Having sex in front of a child; Having a child touch an older person's genitals; Incest; Masturbation; Oral-genital contact; Prostitution; Rape; Showing an adult's genitalia to a child; Showing X-rated books or movies to a child; Sodomy; Using a child in pornographic production of any kind.
Many experts believe that sexual abuse is the most under-reported form of child maltreatment because of the secrecy or "conspiracy of silence" that so often characterizes these cases.
Signs of Sexual Abuse
Child's Appearance:
Has torn, stained, or bloody underclothing; Experiences pain or itching in the genital area; Has bruises or bleeding in external genitalia, vagina, or anal regions; Has a sexually transmitted disease; Has swollen or red cervix, vulva, or perineum; Has semen around mouth or genitalia or on clothing; Is pregnant.
Child's Behavior:
Appears withdrawn or engaged in fantasy or infantile behavior; Begins wetting or soiling the bed; Has poor peer relationships; Is unwilling to participate in physical activities; Is engaging in delinquent acts; Reports sexual abuse; Engages in inappropriate sexualized behavior; Devalues sexual acts and acts sexually permissive; Fears a certain person or certain places; Gives an unusual or unexpected response when asked if he or she was touched by someone; Has an unreasonable fear of a physical exam; Creates drawings that show sexual acts or that seem overly focused on sexual body parts; More knowledge about sex than is normal for the child's age; Pain, bruising, or bleeding in the genitals; Seems preoccupied with or overly concerned about sexual acts and words; Runs away.
Caretaker's Behavior:
Extremely protective or jealous of child; Encourages child to engage in prostitution or sexual acts; Has been sexually abused as a child; Is experiencing marital difficulties; Misuses alcohol or other drugs; Is frequently absent from home; Has difficulty in interacting emotionally with adults
SPIRITUAL ABUSE:
Do you remember... a religious counselor taking advantage of your vulnerability emotionally or sexually, your mom or dad always being right, being given too little spiritual information or too much (religious fanaticism), being told, "God will punish you for this," or, "You're an evil child"?
How did you feel?
Spiritual Abuse consists of experiences that distort or retard a child's spiritual development. When a parent demands to be the child's higher power by being overcontrolling and disrespectful of the child's reality or by demanding perfection, that child suffers spiritual abuse. When parents do not follow established family rules and values or when the rules and values are hidden or always shifting, children are spiritually abused. This form of abuse also occurs when a religious representative (minister, priest, rabbi, deacon, Sunday School teacher, choir director) abuses a child in any way, or when a parent is addicted to religion or neglects or abandons a child.
INTELLECTUAL ABUSE:
Do you remember... being told, "You're a real loser," being teased for not "getting it," being told, "You'll never amount to anything," being used as a model of perfection?
How did you feel?
Intellectual Abuse occurs whenever a child's thinking is attacked or ridiculed and when parents present themselves as perfect, in complete control, and without doubts and uncertainties. When parents rigidly set forth their beliefs and ideas as absolute truth and are unwilling to share their doubts or to tolerate children's ideas and perceptions, those children are intellectually abused. When they are not taught that having problems is a normal part of life and are not given problem-solving skills, children suffer in their intellectual development. Intellectual abuse also occurs when children are not supported in developing ideas and beliefs that differ from those of their parents.
Child abuse is more likely to occur when any of the following exist in families:
An adult was abused as a child; An adult views a child as being different from the parent's preconceived expectations; The parent perceives a child as having special needs; There is a crisis or series of crises; Parental depression or mental illness; Parental chronic physical illness; Physical abuse of the mother; Poor adherence to medical recommendation for children; Marked aggression among siblings; Extreme overprotection of child; Poverty; Having physical or behavioral traits that make the child especially difficult to care for; Other violence in the home; Alcohol or other drug abuse by parents or caretakers; Being a stepparent; Social isolation of the caretaker (the person feels that he or she has no support); Family stress due to job loss, financial burdens, illness, death, separation, or divorce.
Abusers
Most abusers are members of the victim's family, either a caretaker or parent or a close relative. This includes physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and child neglect.90% of confirmed physical abuse and neglect cases involve caretakers of children. Contrary to common belief, males and females perpetrate abuse against their own children at surprisingly similar rates. "Among all abused children, those abused by their birth parents were about equally likely to have been abused by mothers as by fathers (50% and 58%, respectively), but those abused by other parents, parent-substitutes, or other, nonparental perpetrators were much more likely to be abused by males (80 to 90% by males versus 14 to 15% by females). Children who had been physically abused by their birth parents were more likely to have suffered at the hands of their mothers than their fathers (60% versus 48%), while those who had been physically abused by other parents or parent- substitutes were much more likely to have been abused by their fathers or father-substitutes (90% by their fathers versus 19% by their mothers)." On the whole, children are somewhat more likely to be maltreated by female perpetrators than by males: "65 percent of the maltreated children had been maltreated by a female, whereas 54 percent had been maltreated by a male." This last statistic is unfair because it includes child neglect, in which mothers are named at rates that are absurd given that women accused of child neglect are almost always single mothers. The fathers who abandon their children are almost never convicted of child neglect. Still, the statistic shows the current state of affairs.
Though there is no "cause" of abuse and no specific profile of abusers, many factors contribute and make abuse more likely to occur. Pressures on the family, alcohol and drug abuse, and social isolation can all lead to parental stress and increase the chances that a parent will strike out at their child. If an adult expects too much of a child or if a child has learning or behavior problems, or mental illness, or is the result of an unplanned pregnancy, the child is much more likely to be abused or neglected. If the adult was abused as a child or has psychological or medical problems, he or she is much more likely to abuse or neglect.
Pedophiles
There is a class of individuals who prey on children sexually. They are known as pedophiles.
"Despite a common myth, homosexual men are not more likely to sexually abuse children than heterosexual men are."
"Who are the abusers? Although many parents fear the unknown "molester," a child is actually much more likely to be abused by someone he or she knows. An abuser can be anyone caring for a child: a parent or other relative, a baby-sitter, a teacher, a neighbor or a friend."
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