Child Abuse

Today, child abuse and neglect is widely recognized as a major social problem and policy
issue. While international concern about child maltreatment is relatively new, child abuse and
neglect is not a recent phenomenon. The maltreatment of children has manifested itself in
nearly every conceivable manner—physically, emotionally, sexually and by forced child
labour. From prehistoric times to the present, children have been mutilated, beaten and
maltreated. Such treatment was not only condoned but was often mandated as the most
appropriate child-rearing method. Children were, and continue to be, hit with rods, canes, etc.

The Definitional Dilemma:

One of the most enduring problems in the field of child abuse and neglect has been the
development of a useful, clear, acceptable and accepted definition of “abuse” and “neglect.”
Defining what is and is not abuse and neglect is at the core of research, intervention,
prevention and social policy. Researchers must have a definition of abuse and neglect in
order to engage in the most basic studies of extent, risk factors and causes. Those who are
required to report child maltreatment need a benchmark or standard to determine what should
be reported and what should not. And yet, there still is not a widely accepted definition of
abuse and neglect.

David Finkelhor and Jill Korbin (1988) propose that a definition of child abuse and neglect
that could be applied across sub-cultures and cultures should have two objectives:

(1) it should distinguish child abuse clearly from other social, economic and health problems;
and

(2) it should be sufficiently flexible to apply to a range of situations in a variety of social and
cultural contexts.

The later recommendation is a caution that some of what is considered child abuse in
Western societies has very little meaning in other societies and vice versa. Finkelhor and
Korbin (1988) propose the following definition of child abuse and neglect for cross-cultural
research and study: “Child abuse is the portion of harm to children that results from human
action that is proscribed (negatively valued), proximate (the action is close to the actual harm
—thus deforesting land that results in child harm does not meet this definition), and
preventable (the action could have been prevented).
Types of Child Abuse

Child abuse and neglect is a general term that covers a wide range of acts of commission and
omission, either carried out by a child’s caretaker or allowed to happen, that result in a range
of injuries ranging from death, to serious disabling injury, to emotional distress, to
malnutrition and illness. Child abuse and neglect can take many and varied forms:

1. Physical Abuse: Acts of commission that result in physical harm, including death, to
a child.
2. Sexual Abuse: Acts of commission including intrusion or penetration, molestation
with genital contact or other forms of sexual acts in which children are used to
provide sexual gratification for a perpetrator.
3. Emotional Abuse: Acts of commission that include confinement, verbal or emotional
abuse or other types of abuse such as withholding sleep, food or shelter.

Types of Child Neglect

1. Physical Neglect: Acts of omission that involve refusal to provide health care, delay
in providing health care, abandonment, expulsion of a child from a home, inadequate
supervision, failure to meet food and clothing needs, and conspicuous failure to
protect a child from hazards or danger.
2. Educational Neglect: Acts of omission and commission that include permitting
chronic truancy, failure to enrol a child in school and inattention to specific education
needs.
3. Emotional Neglect: Acts of omission that involve failing to meet the nurturing and
affection needs of a child, exposing a child to chronic or severe spouse abuse,
allowing or permitting a child to use alcohol or controlled substances, encouraging the
child to engage in maladaptive behaviour, refusal to provide psychological care,
delays in providing psychological care and other inattention to the child’s
developmental needs.

Risk Factors:

The first research articles on child abuse and neglect characterized offenders as suffering
from various forms of psychopathology. Thus, the initial approach to explaining,
understanding and treating maltreatment was to identify the personality or character disorders
that were thought to be associated with abuse and neglect. Most early studies had small
samples and no, or inappropriate, comparison groups. Collectively, the studies failed to
develop a consistent profile of abusers.

Current theoretical approaches tend to recognize the multidimensional nature of abuse and
neglect and locate the roots of child maltreatment in psychological, social, family,
community and societal factors. Researchers have identified both risk and protective factors
for abuse and neglect. The following are the major

Risk and Protective factors:

Age: One of the most consistent risk factors is the age of the offender. According to National
Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, (NCANDS) data of USA the modal age of
perpetrators is 30 to 39. However, the modal age for female perpetrators— mostly mothers—
is 20 to 29

Sex: Mothers are the most likely offenders in acts of child homicide, accounting for 31.3% of
all child homicide perpetrators in 2004 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
2006). Women were the perpetrators in 57.8% of child maltreatment homicides (U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, 2006). Of course, women’s higher rate of fatal
and non-fatal abuse and neglect is not surprising, given that women spend more time caring
for children and are delegated far more responsibility for raising children than men.

Income: Although most poor parents do not abuse or neglect their children, self-report
surveys and official report data find that the rates of child maltreatment, with the exception of
sexual abuse, are higher for those whose family incomes are below the poverty line than for
those whose income is above the poverty line.

Situational and Environmental Factors

Stress: Unemployment, financial problems, being a single parent, being a teenage mother are
all factors that are related to child maltreatment.

Social isolation and social support: Researchers often agree that parents who are socially
isolated from important sources of social support are more likely to maltreat their children.
Part of the explanation for the correlation between social isolation and child maltreatment
may be the poor social skills of the caregivers. Social support appears to be an important
protective factor. One major source of social support is the availability of friends and family
for help, aid and assistance. The more a family is integrated into the community and the more
groups and associations they belong to, the less likely they are to be violent.

Intergenerational transmission of violence: The notion that abused children grow up to be

abusing parents and violent adults has been widely expressed in the child abuse and family
violence literature.

Explaining the Abuse and Neglect of Children

Risk and protective factors do not, in and of themselves, explain why parents and caretakers
abuse and neglect their children. The earliest explanatory theories and models focused on
intra-individual factors to explain maltreatment. Other models proposed that maltreatment
arose out of mental illness or the use and abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs . Later theories
added social, cultural and environmental factors to the models. The major multidimensional
models include:

Social learning theory: Social learning theory proposes that individuals who experienced
abuse and neglect as children are more likely to maltreat their own children than individuals
who experienced no abuse or neglect. Children who either experience abuse themselves or
who witness violence between their parents are more likely to use violence when they grow
up. This finding has been interpreted to support the idea that family violence and caretaking
is learned. The family is the institution and social group where people learn the roles of
husband and wife, parent and child. The home is the prime location where people learn how
to deal with various stresses, crises and frustrations. In many instances, the home is also the
site where a person first experiences violence and abuse. Not only do people learn violent
behaviour, but also they learn how to justify being violent.

Social situational/stress and coping theory: This theory explains why maltreatment occurs
in some situations and not others. The theory proposes that abuse and neglect occur because
of two main factors. The first is structural stress and the lack of coping resources in a family.
For instance, the association between low income and child abuse indicates that an important
contributor to the risk of abuse is inadequate financial resources. The second factor is the
cultural norm concerning the use of force and violence. Violence in general, and violence
toward children in particular is normative in most societies.

Attachment Theory: Attachment theory describes the propensity of individuals to form a

strong emotional bond with a primary caregiver who functions as a source of security and
safety. The theory proposes that there is a clear association between early attachment
experiences and the pattern of affectionate bonds one makes throughout one’s lifetime. If an
individual has formed strong and secure attachments with early caregivers, later adult
relationships will also have secure attachments. On the other hand, if an individual has
formed insecure, anxious or ambivalent attachments early on, later adult attachments will be
replicated similarly. Therefore, according to the theory, attachment difficulties underlie
adulthood relational problem.

The Consequences of Maltreatment

The consequences of child abuse and neglect differ by the age of the child.

 During childhood some of the major consequences of maltreatment include

problematic school performance and lowered attention to social cues.
 Researchers have found that children whose parents are “psychologically unavailable”
function poorly across a wide range of psychological, cognitive and developmental
areas
 Physical aggression, antisocial behaviour and juvenile delinquency are among the
most consistently documented consequences of abuse in adolescence and adulthood.
 Evidence is more suggestive that maltreatment increases the risk of alcohol and drug
problems
 Physical and sexual abuse are significantly and independently associated with
repeated suicide attempts.
 Roberts et al. (2004) found that sexual abuse experienced before age 13 was
associated with poorer psychological well-being, teenage pregnancy and adjustment
problems in the victim’s own children.
 Widom (1995) has found that people who were sexually abused during childhood are
at higher risk of arrest for committing crimes as adults, including sex crimes,
compared to people who did not suffer sexual abuse.
 Child neglect produces significant developmental problems for child victims. Neglect
has a deleterious effect on children’s cognitive, socioemotional and behavioural
development. The impact of neglect is somewhat unique, producing more severe
cognitive and academic deficits, social withdrawal and limited peer interactions.
Victims internalize the impact of that neglect as opposed to externalizing through
aggressive and violent behaviour.