CHILD ABUSE

ARAGO
LUNA
MIRALLES
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY

 Child abuse has existed and flourished in all cultures and ethnic backgrounds, in all its forms.
 In ancient Rome, fathers had the authority to sell, kill, maim, sacrifice or otherwise do with a child as he saw fit.
Typically, the father exercised this power if the child was born deformed, weak, disabled, or in any way different
than was considered the norm.
 Sexual abuse within the family has always existed, despite a universal taboo.
 In England and the Americas, during the industrialization, children were placed in workhouses, orphanages,
placement mills, factories, farms, and mines.
 In England, 5-year-olds worked 16-hour days in factories while shackled in chains.
  In the early 1870s, child abuse captured the nation's
attention with news that an 8-year-old orphan named Mary
Ellen Wilson was suffering daily whippings and beatings at
her foster home. With no organization in existence to
BACKGROUND protect abused children, the orphan's plight fell to
attorneys for the American Society for the Prevention of
AND HISTORY Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).
 Animals were protected, but children were not.
 She appealed to them that children were members of the
animal kingdom and must therefore be protected.
  The World Health Organization (WHO) defines child
abuse and child maltreatment as "all forms of physical and/or
emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent
treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in
actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival,
development or dignity in the context of a relationship of
responsibility, trust or power.“
CHILD ABUSE  The United States federal Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act defines child abuse and neglect as, at minimum,
"any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or
caretaker which results in death, serious physical or
emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation" or "an act or
failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious
harm".
CHILD ABUSE

In 2017, the WHO estimated that up to 1 billion

minors between the ages of 2 and 17 years
of age have endured violence either physical,
emotional, or sexual. Sexual abuse (from groping
to rape), according to some UNICEF estimates
from 2014, affected over 120 million children,
representing the highest number of victims. In
2017, the same UN organization reported that in
38 low- and middle-income countries, almost 17
million adult women admitted having a forced
sexual relationship during their childhood.
TYPES OF ABUSE
NEGLECT
 Ongoing chronic neglect is recognized as being extremely
harmful to the development and well-being of the child and may
have serious long-term negative consequences.
 Child neglect is when a parent or caregiver does not give the
care, supervision, affection and support needed for a child’s
health, safety and well-being.
 Child neglect includes:
• Physical neglect and inadequate supervision
• Emotional neglect
• Medical neglect
• Educational neglect
 Children need enough care to be healthy and enough supervision to be
safe. Adults that care for children must provide clothing, food and drink. A
child also needs safe, healthy shelter, and adequate supervision.
Examples of physical neglect:
 Deserting a child or refusing to take custody of a child who is under
your care
 Repeatedly leaving a child in another’s custody for days or weeks at a
PHYSICAL time
 Failing to provide enough healthy food and drink
NEGLECT  Failing to provide clothes that are appropriate to the weather
 Failing to ensure adequate personal hygiene
 Not supervising a child appropriately
 Leaving the child with an inappropriate caregiver
 Exposing a child to unsafe/unsanitary environments or situations
EMOTIONAL NEGLECT

Children require enough affection and attention to feel loved and

supported. If a child shows signs of psychological illness, it must be treated.

Examples of emotional neglect:

 Ignoring a child’s need for attention, affection and emotional support
 Exposing a child to extreme or frequent violence, especially domestic
violence
 Permitting a child to use drugs, use alcohol, or engage in crime
 Keeping a child isolated from friends and loved ones
 Parents and caregivers must provide children with appropriate
treatment for injuries and illness. They must also provide basic
preventive care to make sure their child stays safe and healthy.

MEDICAL Examples of medical neglect:

 Not taking child to hospital or appropriate medical
NEGLECT professional for serious illness or injury
 Keeping a child from getting needed treatment
 Not providing preventative medical and dental care
 Failing to follow medical recommendations for a child
 Parents and schools share responsibility for making sure
children have access to opportunities for academic success.

Examples of educational neglect:

EDUCATIONAL  Allowing a child to miss too much school
NEGLECT  Not enrolling a child in school (or not providing
comparable home-based education)
 Keeping a child from needed special education services
EMOTIONAL ABUSE

 When a parent or caregiver harms a child’s mental and social

development, or causes severe emotional harm, it is considered
emotional abuse.
 Emotional abuse can also occur when adults responsible for
taking care of children are unaware of and unable (for a range of
reasons) to meet their children’s emotional and developmental
needs.
 10.6% of adults report being emotionally abused as a child.
EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Emotional abuse may be

Lack of comfort and
seen in some of the Rejection Lack of attachment
love
following ways:

Conditional parenting in
Continuous lack of Persistent criticism, which care or affection
praise and sarcasm, hostility or Bullying of a child depends on
encouragement blaming of the child his or her behaviours or
actions

Seriously inappropriate
Inappropriate non-
expectations of a child
Extreme physical punishment Ongoing family conflicts
relative to his/her age
overprotectiveness (e.g. locking child in and family violence
and stage of
bedroom)
development
PHYSICAL ABUSE

 Physical abuse is when someone deliberately hurts a child

physically or puts them at risk of being physically hurt. It may
occur as a single incident or as a pattern of incidents. A
reasonable concern exists where the child’s health and/ or
development is, may be, or has been damaged as a result of
suspected physical abuse.

 28.3% of adults report being physically abused as a child.

 Physical punishment

Beating, slapping, hitting or kicking

Pushing, shaking or throwing

Pinching, biting, choking or hair-pulling

PHYSICAL ABUSE
Use of excessive force in handling

Deliberate poisoning

Suffocation

Fabricated/induced illness
SEXUAL ABUSE

 Sexual abuse occurs when an adult uses a child for sexual purposes or involves a child in sexual acts.
It also includes when a child who is older or more powerful uses another child for sexual
gratification or excitement.
 Child sexual abuse may cover a wide spectrum of abusive activities. It rarely involves just a single
incident and, in some instances, occurs over several years. Child sexual abuse most commonly
happens within the family, including older siblings and extended family members.
 20.7% of adults report being sexually abused as a child.
 Sexual abuse of children includes:
Non-contact abuse
Making a child view a sex act
Making a child view or show sex organs
Inappropriate sexual talk
SEXUAL ABUSE Contact abuse
Fondling and oral sex
Penetration
Making children perform a sex act
Exploitation
Child prostitution and child pornography
WORLDVIEW ABOUT
CHILD ABUSE

 They see the state, not the

family, as ultimately
responsible for rearing and
educating children
 Child neglect represents a
failure of a parent, or other
person legally responsible
for a child’s welfare, to
provide for the child’s basic
needs and an adequate level
of care.
  Various cultures consider childrearing and the value of
children differently.
 Forms in non-Western cultures include isolation for
several days, food deprivation, and cutting the flesh of
CULTURAL a child with a sharp object.
 Western cultures display a lower tolerance of physical
DIFFERENCES punishment (leniency)
 Forced feeding of infants to be a common practice in
parts of Kenya and Nigeria
ABUSE AND
DISCIPLINE
WHY DISCIPLINE?

 Child discipline is - in a word - training. God has given parents a duty to

train and teach their children appropriate behaviors and actions. The
Lord tells us to "train up" children (Proverbs 22:6).
 God's Word tells us that all discipline is necessary for training toward
righteousness. Throughout Scripture, God the Father, teaches and leads
us, His children, away from sin and toward holiness through discipline.
 Proverbs 12:1
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is
stupid.
 Proverbs 13:1
A wise son heeds his father’s instruction, but a mocker does not respond to
rebukes.
ABUSE AND DISCIPLINE

Laws vary on what is discipline and what constitutes abuse. The following
may help:
 Discipline is probably excessive if:
 Child is physically injured, including bruising, broken skin, swelling or a
situation that requires medical attention
 Punishment is meant to instill fear rather than to educate the child
 Caretaker, whether a parent, guardian or school official, loses control
 Action is inappropriate for the child’s age
 Action results from a caretaker’s unreasonable demands or expectations
for the child
ABUSE AND DISCIPLINE

 Abuse should never be considered discipline and good discipline

should never be abusive.
 “If you can’t control yourself, you’re in jeopardy in being too angry
or too verbal,” warns Dr. Michele Borba, author of No More
Misbehavin’: 38 Difficult Behaviors and How to Stop Them. She notes
that a simple warning sign that a parent might be straying into is
abuse can be found simply in the way they enter into a disciplinary
moment. “Discipline is It’s teachable, it’s calm, it’s dignified. Abuse is
the opposite of those three.”
  “The research says fear works only in the here and now,”
Borba notes. “The child responds because of the fear factor.
However, fear does not stop the behavior, all it does is
reduce the child’s empathy.”
 A kid that’s afraid of a parent is stressed. What is needed is a
relationship based on respect. Anger and fear are breeding
ABUSE AND grounds for abuse, which does not have to be as extreme as
calling a child names or slapping them across the face.
DISCIPLINE  2 Timothy 1:7 ESV For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of
power and love and self-control.
 “Abuse can be extremely subtle, but it’s always done with an
extraordinarily negative intent that reduces a child’s dignity
and respect,” says Borba. “In the end, it’s just bullying:
intentional negative intent that’s repeated, done in a power
imbalance where a child can’t hold their own.”
THE LAW’S
RESPONSE TO
CHILD ABUSE
 "Children" refers to person below eighteen (18) years of age or
those over but are unable to fully take care of themselves

REPUBLIC ACT
NO. 7610 (1) Psychological and physical abuse, neglect, cruelty, sexual abuse
and emotional maltreatment; (2) Any act by deeds or words which
debases, degrades or demeans the intrinsic worth and dignity of a
child as a human being; (3) Unreasonable deprivation of his basic
needs for survival, such as food and shelter; or (4) Failure to
immediately give medical treatment to an injured child resulting in
serious impairment of his growth and development or in his
permanent incapacity or death.
 Inducing a person to be a
Taking advantage of
client of a child prostitute
Acting as a procurer of a influence or relationship
by means of written or
child prostitute; to procure a child as
oral advertisements or
prostitute;
other similar means;

ARTICLE III CHILD

Threatening or using
PROSTITUTION violence towards a child Beg or use begging as a
Act as conduit or
middlemen in drug
to engage him as a means of living;
AND OTHER prostitute;
trafficking or pushing; or

ACTS OF ABUSES
Conduct any illegal
activities, shall suffer the
penalty of prision
correccional in its medium
period to reclusion
perpetua.
  All acts of injustice that tend to shorten life; the spirit of
hatred and revenge, or the indulgence of any passion that
COMMANDMENT leads to injurious acts toward others, or causes us even to
NO. 6: wish them harm (for "whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer"); a selfish neglect of caring for the needy or
PROTECTING suffering; all self-indulgence or unnecessary deprivation or
excessive labor that tends to injure health--all these are, to a
HUMAN LIFE greater or less degree, violations of the sixth commandment.
(PP 308)
  The Bible prohibits child abuse in its warnings against
improper anger.
 Paul reminds the Ephesians, “In your anger do not sin:
Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
WHAT THE BIBLE and do not give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:26–
27).
SAYS
 Proverbs 29:22 says, “An angry man stirs up dissension,
REGARDING and a hot-tempered one commits many sins.”
ABUSE  There is no place for unrighteous or uncontrolled
anger in the life of a Christian. Anger should be
confessed to God and appropriately handled long
before it comes to the point of physical abuse against
a child or anyone else.
  The Bible also prohibits child abuse in its
condemnation of sexual sin. Sexual abuse or
molestation is particularly devastating, and warnings
against sexual sin abound in Scripture.
THE BIBLE ON  Sexual abuse violates everything about a person from
his or her understanding of self to physical boundaries
SEXUAL ABUSE to spiritual connection with God.
 In a child, these things are so barely established that
they are often altered for life and without appropriate
help may not ever heal.
THE BIBLE ON EMOTIONAL ABUSE

 The Bible prohibits child abuse is in its forbidding of psychological

and emotional abuse.
 Ephesians 6:4 warns fathers not to “exasperate” or provoke their
children but to bring them up in the “training and instruction of the
Lord.”
 Harsh, unloving verbal discipline, emotional manipulation, or volatile
environments alienate children’s minds from their parents and render
their instruction and correction useless.
 Colossians 3:21 tells us not to “embitter” our children so they will not
become discouraged. Ephesians 4:15–19 says we are to speak the truth
in love and use our words to build others up, not allow rotten or
destructive words to pour from our lips, especially toward the tender
hearts and minds of children.
THE BIBLE ON CHILD NEGLECT

 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his
household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
 In Ephesians when Paul was writing to people in another very different culture, in the Roman world, he
mentioned that one earmark/sign of a society cut off from God is where natural family affection was
lacking.
 Specifically to let them know that in God’s order of things it is the responsibility of the parents to rear
their children “in the nurture and admonition” of the Lord. The “nurturing” part entails emotional
involvement with boundaries driven by love. The “admonition” part has to do with teaching them and
giving them wise counsel.
  https://www.pbc2019.org/protection-of-minors/child-abuse-
on-the-global-level
 http://www.childhelp.org/child-abuse/
 https://www.tusla.ie/services/child-protection-
welfare/definitions-of-child-abuse/
 https://www.openbible.info/topics/child_abuse
 https://www.hcjfs.org/services/child-protection/know-the-
RESOURCES difference-between-discipline-and-abuse/
 https://www.gotquestions.org/child-abuse.html
 https://www.quora.com/What-does-the-Bible-say-about-
child-neglect
 https://www.salon.com/2013/09/26/a_strict_method_of_chri
stian_discipline_has_led_to_child_abuse_partner/
 https://www.child-abuse-effects.com/history.html