Child Abuse

Child Abuse
Aaron Whyte

Over Three Million reports of child abuse are made every year in the United States. Four children die every day as a result of child abuse and three out of the four victims are under the age of four. Most abused and neglected children never come to the attention of government authorities; therefore, official government statistics do not indicate actual rates of child abuse. There are four different types of child abuse: Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Sexual Abuse, and Neglect.
Physical Abuse consists of deliberate beating, attacking or battering the victim. Whether it is Child on Child abuse or Adult to Child abuse. Statistics show that in 1998, about one third (31%) of investigations involved physical abuse as the main reason for the investigation. Physical abuse was there in about 1/3rd (34 %) of these investigations, a rate of 2.25 cases of confirmed physical abuse for every 1,000 children in Canada, and the United States.

Signs of Physical Child abuse:

• Unexplained or repeated injuries such as welts, bruises, or burns
• Obvious neglect of the child (dirty, undernourished, inappropriate clothes for the weather, lack of medical or dental care).
• Injuries that are in the shape of an object (belt buckle, electric cord, etc.)
• Injuries not likely to happen given the age or ability of the child. For example, broken bones in a child too young to walk or climb.

Emotional Abuse involves harming a child verbally. Emotional abuse may include verbal threats, social isolation, intimidation, or making unreasonable demands. It also includes terrorizing a child, or exposing him/her to family violence. Statistics show that in 1998 alone 19% of all police investigations involved emotional mistreatment as the main reason for the investigation. Emotional mistreatment was confirmed in more than half (54%) of these cases. Neglect was the reason for 40% of all cases in 1998.

Signs that a child is being emotionally abused:... [continues]

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