Child
abuse is
the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or
children. In the United States, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as
any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other
caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a
child. Child abuse can occur in a
child's home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child
interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.
In Western countries, preventing child abuse is considered a high
priority, and detailed laws and policies exist to address this issue. Different
jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child
abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or
prosecuting a criminal charge. According to the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect,
child abuse is "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, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk
of serious harm".
Douglas J. Besharov, the first
Director of the U.S. Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, states "the
existing laws are often vague and overly broad" and there is a "lack of consensus
among professionals and Child
Protective Services (CPS)
personnel about what the terms abuse and neglect mean". Susan Orr, former head of the United
States Children's Bureau U.S. Department of Health and Services Administration
for Children and Families, 2001–2007, states that "much that is now
defined as child abuse and neglect does not merit governmental
interference".
Child
sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older
adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Sexual abuse refers to the
participation of a child in a sexual act aimed toward the physical
gratification or the financial profit of the person committing the act. Forms of CSA include asking or
pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of
the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to
a child, actual sexual contact with a child, physical contact with
the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical
contact, or using a child to produce child pornography. Selling the sexual services of children may be viewed and treated
as child abuse with services offered to the child rather than simple
incarceration.
Effects of child sexual abuse on the
victim(s) include guilt and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia,
fear of things associated with the abuse (including objects, smells, places,
doctor's visits, etc.), self-esteem issues, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, addiction, self-injury, suicidal ideation, somatic complaints, depression, post-traumatic
stress disorder, anxiety,
other mental illnesses including borderline
personality disorder and dissociative
identity disorder,] propensity
to re-victimization in
adulthood,bulimia nervosa, and physical injury to
the child, among other problems Children
who are the victims are also at an increased risk of sexually transmitted
infections due to their immature immune systems and a high potential for
mucosal tears during forced sexual contact. Sexual victimization at a young age
has been correlated with several risk factors for contracting HIV including
decreased knowledge of sexual topics, increased prevalence of HIV, engagement
in risky sexual practices, condom avoidance, lower knowledge of safe sex
practices, frequent changing of sexual partners, and more years of sexual
activity. In the United States, approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15%
of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse
offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of
the child, most often brothers, fathers, mothers, uncles or cousins; around 60%
are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or
neighbours; strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual
abuse cases In over one-third of
cases, the perpetrator is also a minor.
In 1999 the BBC reported on the RAHI Foundation's survey of sexual abuse in India,
in which 76% of respondents said they had been abused as children, 40% of those
stating the perpetrator was a family member.
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