Child Abuse Case Study

Abuse is to treat a person or object with cruelty or violence, and usually happens more than once. Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver through action or failing to act, will cause injury or will cause death to a child. This happens in many different ways, neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Every year more than three million reports of child abuse are filed and every year that number increases. This is a problem that has happened for over one hundred years. The baby boomer stage, which are between the ages of fifty-one and seventy years old. In many reports the baby boomers, said they believe their parents neglected them. This is serious problem that many defenseless children face. We need to work together and end such a horrific problem, that started many years ago.

During the investigation process of abused against children, it is important that a child abuse investigator should contact all medical personnel who had contact with the family of the victim. In this step of the investigation process, the investigator should interview the physician who provided treatment to the child. Interviewing the child’s physician is critical to the case because usually the attending physician can tell the police if the child caretaker’s statement does or does not fit with the child’s injury (Lyman, p. 233). Aside from interviewing the child’s physician, investigator should also interview other medical staff who assisted the physician when providing treatment to the alleged child abuse victim such as certain specialists,

Michelle Coleman is a 25-year-old Caucasian divorced mother of three children ranging from ages 1 to 6. She is currently receiving services at The Arc of Bradford. Michelle has been divorced from her ex-husband James for three months due to domestic violence. There has been several incidents reported to the police and she now has a standing restraining order against James, he is prohibited from seeing her and the children. Michelle and her three child have been receiving regular public assistance to include housing vouchers, food stamps, and she is also utilizing the TANF program to enable her in providing for the children without the assistance of ex-husband James. Michelle is a high school graduate but has never worked. With aid from the

Corey (14) was referred by his mother to a child guidance clinic due to fighting at home and school. Corey and his two brothers live with mother Brenda and her live-in boyfriend, Carl. Carl moved in 18 months ago, six months after Corey’s father died. Corey’s father was abusive to him and his mother, but his death was sudden and Corey has been withdrawn and sullen since the death. He is verbally abusive to his mother and violent to his younger brothers. He likes Carl, but when Carl intervenes to stop Corey’s violence and verbal aggression, their relationship becomes strained. His mother has very little power to discipline Corey.

Jackie has had many negative things happen in her life and these things affected her life. Her family life was very challenging her family is not close at all. She comes from a family of five none of them are close her sister Vanessa have no relationship. This failed relationship leaves her in a state of loneness, because a person first social contacts are their family.

Child abuse cases there are rarely any corroborating evidence or witnesses other than the child, which means an entire case may rely on the recollection of an alleged abuse from a child. As Faller (1985) states, the potential for traumatizing the victim is enormous and false allegations of abuse can be devastating not only to the family but to the accused (Faller, 1985). Within the past few decades, we have gained a significant amount of knowledge about a child’s development, memory and understanding which has helped to strengthen the law enforcement’s ability to produce accurate information from children through interviewing techniques. These techniques not only assist in protecting child victims, but also the rights of any innocent suspects.

On 4/4/17, Hennepin County Child Protection accepted a report of alleged neglect and failure to ensure the education of her child, Leo Washington, by mother, Kristen Letellier. Per reporter Leo has 9 full unexcused days.

Child Abuse is defined as the “physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children.” It is reported that there are 6 million reported cases of child abuse each year, yet, there has been a long held debate on whether children can be key witnesses in their own criminal court abuse cases due to their credibility and memory. It also can hurt the child mentally, whether it benefits the judicial system or not. There are several instances why this hypothesis is extremely plausible. Through this literature review, it would be shown that the treatment of children as witnesses can weaken their testimony, the entire process of children going through the legal system is traumatic, and there are also measures that can be taken to reduce these traumatic effects.

A news article about a child abuse case from this past November revealed some serious charges. A mother and father were accused of locking their eight year old son with serious mental disorders, in his room without food or water. The child room was found with feces, vomit and urine on the floor and it appeared that the child ate his own stool and vomit (article/website).

Childhood sexual abuse is a difficult topic to comprehend let alone have open discussion about the issue. I know for me, I cannot fathom someone wanting to hurt a child in this way, but then I wonder what makes a person have the desire to afflict such a traumatic experience on a child. The reading this week did not answer the questions I have, but it did give me a better understanding on how people cope with these experiences.

Child abuse is unfortunately quite widespread and it goes on all over the globe. It is very difficult to understand why abusers of children do what they do. It is believed that the abusers have been abused at some point in their own lives. Researchers of child abuse have not been able to prove this; however in a lot of cases the abuser has been abused.

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a growing social concern. Statistics reveal approximately a quarter of young adults experience sexual abuse during childhood with a further 1,761 aged 18-24 years (Lantern Project, 2012). Rates were appointed at 2,160 amongst the younger generation from 0-11. However, the highest prevalence age; ranges between 11-17, with 2,275 children affected (Lantern Project, 2012). CSA is socially constructed and remarkably influenced by the culture, resulting in complications to establish a universally agreed definition. Moreover, CSA can be seen as "forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activity" (Sanderson, 2006). Sexualized behavior can range from contact and/or non-contact sexual experiences, such as exposure

However, except physical signs and behavioural indicators of child sexual maltreatment there exists another indicative factor, that of the perpetrator’s profile (Beckett, 2003). Seeing that in most cases the perpetrator was a person that the child trusted; a family member, a friend, a priest, a teacher or a coach (Barker & Hodes, 2007; Kinnear, 2007; Munro, 2007; Sun et al., 2008; Hood, 1998), it is useful for any childhood professional to recognise some risk factors (DuPre & Stiles, 2015). Summit and Kryso (1978) found two common characteristics in abusers; inability to control their sudden desires and the confusion of roles. However, other researchers argued that there are no universal characteristics of abusers, just some risk factors (DuPre

These are activities that are targeted at members of the community and general population with the aim to raise awareness about the problems of child abuse. It involves an approach that targets helping families and children before child abuse occurs and not intervening after the harm has been done. This is very essential as every child deserves to grow up and be nurtured in an environment that is safe and stable which helps in the child’s total development such as the physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. These strategies can be via a myriad of programs such as educational programs via public awareness programs, public service announcements, parent education groups, child educational programs, family support and strengthening programs.