What is child abuse? It is the physical or emotional abuse of a
child by a parent, guardian, or other person. Reports of child abuse,
including sexual abuse, beating, and murder, have climbed in the United
States and some authorities believe that the number of cases is largely
under reported. Child neglect is sometimes included in legal
definitions of child abuse to cover instances of malnutrition,
desertion, and inadequate care of a child's safety. When reported,
child abuse cases are complicated by inadequate foster care services
and a legal system that has trouble accommodating the suggestible
nature of children, who are often developmentally unable to distinguish
fact from make-believe (Hay, 1996).
In 1993, the United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect
declared a child protection emergency. Between 1985 and 1993, there
was a 50 percent increase in reported cases of child abuse. Three
million cases of child abuse are reported in the......
Join Now or Login to view the rest of this paper.
Approximate Word Count: 3280
Approximate Pages: 13 (260 words per double-spaced page) |