Do Children Matter

“ The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) … defines child abuse and neglect as, at minimum: "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"; or
 "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Administration for Children & Families, "Definitions of Child Abuse

Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, through action or failure to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. According to The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, at a minimum, child abuse and neglect is defined as, "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"; or "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (Children 's Bureau, 2010)." The law recognizes a child as being any person who is under the age of 18. The law is broken into 2 sections, and each section treats the idea of child maltreatment in different ways. Criminally, those who abuse children are able to be arrested and prosecuted in court. Civil statutes say that people who suspect a child of being abused are mandated to identify and report it.

Defining child abuse is a complicated issue. First, currently the United States does not have a standard definition of child abuse because each state has their definition. Definitions are different at the state and federal level. Child welfare agencies also may have different child abuse and neglect definitions. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) define child abuse and neglect as any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker that result in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation; an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm (Child Abuse and Neglect User Manual, 2003;

What is child abuse? From the word “abuse” we can understand that it is some sort of a maltreatment of a child, causing harm and damage both to his physical and psychological well-being. At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) describes child abuse and neglect as: “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, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Child abuse is a very substantial and widely spread problem in U.S. affecting children of any age, gender, race, background or income, with more than 1.8 million investigations done every year and on average, killing more than 5 children every day. The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a parent, sibling, coach, neighbor, etc.), who violates child’s trust putting personal interests first, therefore official numbers of how many children suffer maltreatment might be not accurate enough as remarkable amount of these cases go unreported. Each case of child abuse is unique, with a lot of individual factors involved, nevertheless, we can distinguish some of the common causes, such as poverty, lack of education, depression, mental or physical health

A child may be taken into care because they are being physically or sexually abused. Physical abuse is when a child is purposely hurt and tortured by their parents/ guardian. E.g. burning a child or wounding them. “Children who are physically abused suffer violence such as being hit, kicked, poisoned, burned,

Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger for example, via the internet. They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children. Physical abuse: Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.

Often times when children are abused or neglected its by family or someone the child trusts, It often times occurs when the family is in poverty or there are drugs or alcohol around. It is a major problem when family members notice that a child is being abused and/or neglected and they chose not to stand up for the child, most times young children will not even know that there is nothing wrong. It can be hard to notice “[But] Being able to recognize the physical effects of abuse can be crucial in identifying an abusive situation and taking steps to protect a child from further abuse or neglect” (Effects of child abuse). An abuser will make the children think they are playing some type of game or that what they are doing is okay, in some cases abusers will tell the children that they will get in trouble if they don’t do whatever is being asked. They could go as far as threatening the child if the child refuses to comply. It’s important to take care of cases like this immediately “Research has found that children exposed to violence or abuse, if left unaddressed or ignored, are at an increased risk for emotional and behavioral problems in the future” (Describing the problem). No child should ever have to go through these things much less have anyone to talk about it with and help them get through the terrifying

There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,

Child maltreatment: “Federal law defines child abuse and neglect as any recent act, or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child” (“Child Abuse and Maltreatment,”

There is no clear cut definition of what constitutes child abuse and neglect. Is a mother who sits on her phone while her child plays safely in the yard neglectful? Or does it become neglect when some form of harm come to the child? The state upholds a parent right to use punishment and restraint on disobedient children. The law states that the discipline be reasonable and moderate. What constitutes reasonable or moderate? Spanking a child with an open hand on their bottom is considered a moderate and reasonable punishment, but at what point does it become abuse? When a child is spanked a certain amount of times? When they are spanked for crying? These are grey areas where one person may consider the punishment to be acceptable and someone else to consider it abuse. There are children who perhaps should be removed from homes when they aren’t and then continue to face abuse and others who are removed from homes where other methods could have been used to help the

“Police are charged with protecting the public from crime and general mayhem. For juveniles, police protection might call for removing children from an abusive home or transporting them to a shelter or hospital if they've been abandoned” (Bolden-Barrett, 2016). Since officers are always usually the first on the scene they can tell if a child is left home alone, or if they have been abandoned and act accordingly to the situation to protect the juvenile. Based on the situation the officer will determine if the household is no longer safe for that specific child and then will determine a better option for

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) physical child abuse occurs when a parent or caregiver commits an intentional act that results in physical injury to a child or adolescent, such as red marks, cuts, welts, bruises, muscle sprains, or broken bones. Physical abuse can occur when physical punishment goes too far or a parent acts out in anger. Even corporal punishment that do not result in physical injury are considered physical abuse and are outlawed in some states. Children of all ages, races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds are at risk for physical abuse. Children ages 4–7 and 12–15 are at the greatest risk of being physically abused. Very young children are most susceptible to receiving serious injuries because they are more vulnerable and depend on others to care for them (NCTSN, 2009). An estimated 1 in 4 children living in the United States experience some form of maltreatment. In 2014, more than 6.6 million children and their families were reported to Child Protective Services for allegations of child maltreatment (Ho, Gross, & Bettencourt, 2017). In most states, the harm must have been inflicted by non-accidental means. This includes intentional acts, actions that were careless (such as, allowing a known sexual offender or known abuser to be with a child alone), and acts of negligence (such as, leaving a child under a certain age at home alone). Some of the examples listed as child abuse may not be viewed as abuse to certain

INTRODUCTION: “Child Abuse occurs when a parent or a care taker physically, emotionally, or sexually mistreats or neglects a child resulting in the physical, emotional, or sexual harm or imminent risk of harm or exploitation, or in extreme cases the death of a child,” child abuse is a big deal because in today’s society many children face abuse, there are many effects and reasons as to why a child may be abuse.

Shots may hurt a little, but the diseases they can prevent are a lot worse. Some are even life-threatening. Immunization shots, or vaccinations, are essential in order to obtain resistance to these illnesses. Natural active immunity is acquired in the course of daily life. When you catch a virus or a bacterium, your immune system fights if off, and memory cells are created for the next meeting. Artificial active immunity is developed through vaccinations. It is mandatory for infants and school-aged children to have some of these vaccinations as they build their body’s immune response. Although the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) does not set immunization requirements for schools or child care centers, each state decides which

Every parent wants to have a healthy perfect child, but without vaccines we would have so many sick children that could die from the diseases that are out there today. If we all make sure our children have their vaccines we would save more lives, save money so that we are not trying to treat the diseases, and protect the future generations from the new diseases. When deciding whether or not to have our children get these vaccines, think about all the good things they do rather than the bad. No one wants to lose a loved one that has just passed of old age let alone passed because of something that could have been prevented by just a simple vaccine. All parents of children should make sure that they receive their vaccines because it will change people’s lives, save our country a lot of money, and protect our future generations.