Federal Child Abuse Prevention And Treatment Act (CAPTA)

“ 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

Children are our future. They will shape future generations to come and the way our society deals with difficulties. One difficulty that is currently being addressed is child neglect. Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment (Sedlak et al 2010). Neglect includes physical neglect, emotional neglect, medical neglect and educational neglect. Although there may or may not be physical symptoms, neglect may be harder to identify right away. Neglect is often referred to as an act of omission as the parent or caregiver does not intentionally cause harm to the child, but the absence of care puts the child at risk of harm (Sedlak et al 2010). In 2007, the cost of child abuse and neglect was $103.8 billion, which includes immediate

Neglect is the failure to meet a child’s basic physical and or psychological needs, which is likely to affect the child’s health or development. Neglect is when a parent or carer fails to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment), medical care, or protection from physical and emotional harm or danger. Additionally failure to ensure access to education or to look after a child because the carer is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, is considered as Neglect.

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

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.

Neglect: parents who cannot meet a child’s basic daily needs such as; hygiene, hunger, clothing and shelter. This can cause the child’s health to worsen and for their development to suffer. The child can also be left with people who cannot properly care for them. Signs and symptoms:

Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: â—• provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment); â—• protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; â—• ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care- givers); or â—• ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a childâ€TMs basic emotional

in a number of ways. It has changed the way that society views child abuse and neglect, which has, in turn, benefited the psychological, emotional, and developmental health of children throughout the country. When the act was developed, congress estimated that approximately 60,000 children throughout the United States were victims of abuse or neglect, yet there was no certain way to measure or calculate the extent of the problem (CAPTA, 2014). As a result of this act, policies were put into place to define and measure child abuse and neglect, therefore making it easier to attack. Throughout the years, CAPTA has evolved and each amendment or revision has strengthened the protection that the act offers to children. Some of these revisions included protections for the homeless or those at risk of becoming homeless, foster youth, and created community based resources for families with a high risk of experiencing abuse and neglect (CAPTA, 2014). The effects of this policy; however, do not lie strictly within the lines of personal

Physical/Emotional neglect is the failure to provide a child with basic needs, including adequate food, shelter, clothing, or necessary medical care. Neglect also exist when an adult fails to provide adequate supervision of a child as when a child is left either unsupervised or in the care of someone unable to supervise the child. Furthermore, neglect occurs when a person creates a substantial risk of physical injury to a child by other than accidental means which would be likely to cause death, disfigurement, impairment of physical or emotional health, or loss or impairment of any bodily function

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.

The issue of child neglect is one of the most current forms of child maltreatment especially in the United States. According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, child neglect is referred to as a kind of maltreatment which relates to the failure of a caregiver to offer the needed, age-appropriate care, despite the fact that the parent may be financially stable to do so (Conte 13). Neglect in many instances is described by an ongoing pattern that relates to lack of care and is observed by individuals in close contact with a child.

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,”

In many cases of neglect, there has been an association with the brain failing to form appropriately. This causes impaired physical, mental, and emotional development (DePanfilis, 2006). A child's brain learns to adapt to a less than positive environment and this stunts the process of normal development. The brains of neglected children are not integrated and this causes difficulties in emotional, social, and cognitive development. The sensitive period, during the first two years of life, is a critical time in which brain activity faces severe psychosocial deprivation if faced with neglect and is unlikely to be recovered (Vanderwert, Marshall, Nelson III, Zeanah & Fox, 2010).

Dr. Panzer explains in her article two fundamental ways the brain develops during childhood and how one of them is affected by neglect. As she states, “In these experience-dependent processes, new synapses are formed in response to environmental input. This accounts for the learning of various skills. In general, neglect leads to deprivation of input needed by the infant brain at times of experience-expectant maturation.” (Panzer, 2008, p.2). The human brain undergoes its largest changes in the earliest stages of childhood, when a child is neglected they miss out on the chance to create those new synapses and may miss their chance for some of them to develop at