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What
is Abuse and Neglect?
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What is child abuse?
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CHILD PROTECTION LAW
(EXCERPT)
Act 238 of 1975
722.622 Definitions.
(f) "Child abuse" means
harm or threatened harm
to a child's health or
welfare that occurs
through nonaccidental
physical or mental
injury, sexual abuse,
sexual exploitation, or
maltreatment, by a
parent, a legal
guardian, or any other
person responsible for
the child's health or
welfare or by a teacher,
a teacher's aide, or a
member of the clergy."
(j) "Child neglect"
means harm or threatened
harm to a child's health
or welfare by a parent,
legal guardian, or any
other person responsible
for the child's health
or welfare that occurs
through either of the
following:
(i) Negligent treatment,
including the failure to
provide adequate food,
clothing, shelter, or
medical care.
(ii) Placing a child at
an unreasonable risk to
the child's health or
welfare by failure of
the parent, legal
guardian, or other
person responsible for
the child's health or
welfare to intervene to
eliminate that risk when
that person is able to
do so and has, or should
have, knowledge of the
risk. |
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What is physical abuse?
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Physical abuse is the
infliction of physical
injury as a result of
punching, beating,
kicking, biting,
burning, shaking, or
otherwise harming a
child. The parent or
caretaker may not have
intended to hurt the
child, rather the injury
may have resulted from
over-discipline or
physical punishment.
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What is child neglect?
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Child neglect is
characterized by failure
to provide for the
child's basic needs.
Neglect can be physical,
educational, or
emotional.
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Physical neglect
includes refusal of
or delay in seeking
health care,
abandonment,
expulsions from the
home or refusal to
allow a runaway to
return home, and
inadequate
supervision.
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Educational neglect
includes the
allowance of chronic
truancy, failure to
enroll a child of
mandatory school age
in school, and
failure to attend to
a special
educational need.
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Emotional neglect
includes such
actions as marked
inattention to the
child?s need for
affection, refusal
of or failure to
provide needed
psychological care,
spouse abuse in the
child's presence,
and permission for
drug or alcohol use
by the child. (The
assessment of child
neglect requires
consideration of
cultural values and
standards of care as
well as recognition
that the failure to
provide the
necessities of life
may be related to
poverty.)
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What is the withholding
of medically indicated
treatment?
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Withholding of medically
indicated treatment is:
The failure to respond
to the infant?s life
threatening conditions
by providing treatment
(including appropriate
nutrition, hydration,
and medication) that in
the treating physician's
or physicians'
reasonable medical
judgment, will be most
likely to be effective
in ameliorating or
correcting all such
conditions.
But, the term does not
include the failure to
provide treatment (other
than appropriate
nutrition, hydration,
and medication) to an
infant when, in the
treating physician's or
physicians' reasonable
medical judgment:
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The infant is
chronically and
irreversibly
comatose
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The provision of
such treatment would
- Merely prolong
dying
- Not be effective
in treating or
correcting all of
the infant's
life-threatening
conditions
- Otherwise be
futile in terms of
the survival of the
infant
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The provision of
such treatment would
be virtually futile
in terms of the
survival of the
infant and the
treatment itself
under such
circumstances would
be inhumane.
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Sexual abuse includes
fondling a child's
genitals, intercourse,
incest, rape, sodomy,
exhibitionism, and
commercial exploitation
through prostitution or
the production of
pornographic materials.
Many experts believe
that sexual abuse is the
most under-reported form
of child maltreatment
because of the secrecy
of "conspiracy of
silence" that so often
characterizes these
cases. |
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