Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical, psychological or sexual maltreatment of children. While most child abuse happens in the child's home, a significant portion also occurs in organizations involving children, schools, clubs, social/religious communities, child care businesses, and residential schools. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. There are different subcategories within each type of abuse.

Since there are many forms of abuse and neglect, many governments have developed their own legal definition of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. In the United States, the Federal Government puts out a full definition of child abuse and neglect and creates a summary of each State definition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines child maltreatment as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Examples of acts of commission include physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Examples of acts of omission include failure to provide (physical, emotional, medical/dental, or educational neglect) or failure to supervise (inadequate supervision, or exposure to violent environments.)

Types of Abuse

Neglect can take many forms. An example of physical neglect would be the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, or hygiene. An example of emotional neglect would be inadequate nurturing or affection. Physical abuse may include striking, burning, shaking, pinching, or pulling hair or ear. Child Sexual Abuse is said to include penetration, fondling, violations of privacy, exposure of children to adult sexuality and rape.

Psychological or Emotional abuse includes verbal abuse, withholding affection, extreme punishment and corruption, ignoring, rejecting, terrorizing, and isolating. It may also entail the abuser minimizing, or "downplaying" the severity of abuse along with the act of invalidation. Invalidation is to reject, ignore, mock, tease, judge, or diminish someone's feelings. It is an attempt to control how they feel and for how long they feel it.

Prevalence

According to the (American) National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, in 1997 neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse 22%, sexual abuse 8%, emotional maltreatment 4%, and other forms of maltreatment 12%. 30% of children are threatened. According to a recent UNICEF report on child well-being In the US, neglect is defined as the failure to meet the basic needs of children including housing, clothing, food and access to medical care. Researchers found over 91,000 cases of neglect over the course of one year (from October 2005- September 30, 2006) with their information coming from a database of cases verified by protective services agencies.

Effects

Children with a history of neglect or physical abuse are at risk of developing psychiatric problems, or a disorganized attachment style. Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms, as well as anxiety, depressive, and acting-out symptoms. A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants exhibited symptoms of disorganized attachment.

The effects of child abuse vary, depending on its type. A 2006 study found that childhood emotional and sexual abuse were strongly related to adult depressive symptoms, while exposure to verbal abuse and witnessing of domestic violence had a moderately strong association, and physical abuse a moderate one. For depression, experiencing more than two kinds of abuse exerted synergetically stronger symptoms. Sexual abuse was particularly deleterious in its intrafamilial form, for symptoms of depression, anxiety, dissociation, and limbic irritability. Childhood verbal abuse had a stronger association with anger-hostility than any other type of abuse studied, and was second only to emotional abuse in its relationship with dissociative symptoms.

More generally, in the case of 23 of the 27 illnesses listed in the questionnaire of a French INSEE survey, some statistically significant correlation were found between repeated illness and family traumas encountered by the child before the age of 18 years. These relationships show that inequality in terms of illness and suffering is not only social. It has also its origins in the family, where it is associated with the degrees of lasting affective problems (lack of affection, parental discord, the prolonged absence of a parent, or a serious illness affecting either the mother or father) that individuals report having experienced in childhood.

Treatment

There are a number of treatments available to victims of child abuse. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, while developed to treat sexually abused children, is now used for victims of any kind of trauma. It targets trauma-related symptoms in children including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), clinical depression, and anxiety. It also includes a component for non-offending parents. Several studies have found that sexually abused children undergoing TF-CBT improved more than children undergoing certain other therapies. Data on the effects of TF-CBT for children who experienced only non-sexual abuse was not available as of 2006.

Abuse-focused cognitive behavioral therapy was designed for children who have experienced physical abuse. It targets externalizing behaviors and strengthens prosocial behaviors. Offending parents are included in treatment, to improve parenting skills/practices. It is supported by one randomized study.

Child-parent psychotherapy was designed to improve the child-parent relationship following the experience of domestic violence. It targets trauma-related symptoms in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, including PTSD, aggression, defiance, and anxiety. It is supported by two studies of one sample.

See also

• Attachment theory
• Childhelp
• Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
• Discipline
• Emotional dysregulation
• Incest
• KIDPOWER
• List of films portraying paedophilia or sexual abuse of minors
• subpoena duces tecum
• subpoena ad testificandum
• David Pelzer

Further reading

• Case, Paula (2007). Compensating Child Abuse in England and Wales. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052186402X. OCLC 74523282.

• Crosson-Tower, Cynthia (2008). Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. ISBN 0205503268. OCLC 150902303.

• Davidson, Julia C. (2008). Child Sexual Abuse: Media Representations and Government Reactions. Milton Park, Abingdon, UK; New York, NY: Routledge-Cavendish. ISBN 9781904385691. OCLC 174134069.

• Faller, Kathleen Coulborn (2007). Interviewing Children about Sexual Abuse: Controversies and Best Practice. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195311779. OCLC 70060942.

• Finkelhor, David (2008). Childhood Victimization: Violence, Crime, and Abuse in the Lives of Young People. Oxford, England; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195342857. OCLC 162501989.

• Halley, Jean O'Malley (2007). Boundaries of Touch: Parenting and Adult-Child Intimacy. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252032127. OCLC 77116811.

• Hamilton, Marci A. (2008). Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. Cambridge, UK; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521886215. OCLC 181516964.

• Hilarski, Carolyn. Handbook of Social Work in Child and Adolescent Sexual Abuse. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. ISBN 9780789032010. OCLC 156784992. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Hoyano, Laura (2007). Child Abuse: Law and Policy Across Boundaries. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 019829946X. OCLC 79004390. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

• Meyer, Anneke (2007). The Child at Risk: Paedophiles, Media Responses and Public Opinion. Manchester, UK; New York, NY: Manchester University Press; Distributed in the USA by Palgrave. ISBN 0719073448. OCLC 71541713.

• Myers, John E.B. (2006). Child Protection in America: Past, Present, and Future. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195169352. OCLC 61461551.

• Rowan, Edward L. (2006). Understanding Child Sexual Abuse. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press. ISBN 1578068061. OCLC 60791555.

• Seto, Michael C. (2008). Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children: Theory, Assessment, and Intervention. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 9781433801143. OCLC 86110066.

• Turton, Jackie (2008). Child Abuse, Gender, and Society. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0415365058. OCLC 144570871.

• United States. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (2006). Criminal Investigation of Child Sexual Abuse. Washington, D.C: US Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. OCLC 71778202.

External links

• Child abuse at Curlie