Child Abuse
...in children under the age of eighteen." Child abuse occurs when adults inflict violence and cruelty upon children. Abuse is any willful act that results in physical, mental, or sexual injury that causes or is likely to cause the child to be physically, mental, or emotionally impaired. Abuse happens to children of any age, sex, race, religion, and social status.
There are many different types of child abuse. There is maltreatment and sexual abuse. Maltreatment is an area that encompasses many different things, such as physical abuse, child neglect, and emotional abuse. Physical abuse may begin with "shaken baby syndrome" and escalate to routine spanking, stabbing, punching, hitting, beating, biting, burning, and any other thing that harms a child. The adult doing this may not intend to cause harm, but it is still abuse. Physical abuse may lead to brain damage, disfigurement, blindness, and even death. An average of 5.5 children per 10,000 enrolled in a day care are sexually abused. In the United States more than 125,000 children suffer injuries intentionally inflicted by their caretaker, and between 2,000 and 5,000 of these children die as a result of their injuries. In 1994 3.4 million cases of child abuse were reported.
Child neglect is when a caregiver fails to give a child the care, and the supervision they need to stay physically and mentally healthy. Child neglect is when parents or the caregivers fail to provide for the children's basic needs such as clothing, food, shelter, and so on. Child neglect takes many forms such as physical, educational, and emotional neglect. Physical neglect can be seen as a refusal or delay to provide medical attention to a child. If an infant or child is not bathed or kept clean, this is physical neglect. Abandonment, kicking a minor out of the house, lack of parental supervision, leaving the child...
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