Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse includes all forms of physical and emotional mistreatment, sexual abuse, and neglect of a child’s basic needs, which results in actual or potential harm to a child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Exploitation of children is also a form of abuse and includes trafficking for sexual or economic purposes, and recruitment of children into armed forces.

An abused child may experience many forms of mistreatment in any one incident or over time; for example, emotional harm is a pervading factor in all types of abuse. The abuser may be a family member, a stranger, another child, or someone responsible for a child's well-being, such as a teacher or caretaker.

Children in every society are vulnerable to abuse, gender based violence, and exploitation, however children without parental care and those in high risk environments such as conflict areas, refugee camps, on the street, or in institutions, are particularly exposed to violence, denial of their basic human rights, and deprivation. All abuse has its origins in power imbalance and therefore is typically associated with fear, secrecy, and control. This makes identifying and speaking out about abuse very difficult for children, family members, the community and social services, particularly when it is committed within the privacy of the home.

Child abuse can cause physical and psychosocial problems, including HIV/AIDS infection, and is particularly damaging when repeated over a period of time. Children may manifest abuse via destructive or withdrawn behaviours, developmental delays, injuries or other health problems. The effects of abuse will vary from child to child and depend on the source, type and extent of the abuse, the child’s developmental stage and their disposition or resilience.

The process of identifying and responding to abuse requires skilled interventions in order to prevent further harm to the child, and will typically include police, medical, psychological, and social services in order to address the safety, physical, and emotional needs of the affected children. Any care plan must be in the best interests of the child and protect them and their siblings from harm. This will include consideration of the additional risks of abuse that are present for children in institutions and care placements. Such closed environments are extremely susceptible to abuse since they are frequently isolated, insufficiently regulated, and lacking in adequate supervision and safe reporting procedures. It is the role of social services to screen and monitor all child placements, including institutional, kinship, and foster care, to ensure the child’s safety and well-being.

It is the responsibility of the whole community to protect its children. Education and community awareness for children and adults on the risks, signs of abuse, and responses is vital for children without parental care and those in high risk situations, such as during a conflict or displacement when sexual violence, exploitation, and recruitment into armed forces are prevalent.

The literature in this section describes the types of abuse in more detail, including gender based violence, and provides example child protection procedures, policy papers, and other intervention tools.

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Unintentional child injury in child welfare placements

Jesse J. Helton & Nancy L. Weaver - Child Abuse & Neglect, 11 Nov 2019

The purpose of this study was to examine factors related to unintentional child injury requiring medical attention, including child welfare placement type, child behavioral problems, caregiver characteristics, and neighborhood factors.

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Dominant Research on Child Neglect and Dialogic Practices: when the Voice of Families is Translated or Ignored

Vicky Lafantaisie, Jean-Charles St-Louis, Annie Bérubé, Tristan Milot & Carl Lacharité - Child Indicators Research, 08 Nov 2019

Reflecting upon research on child neglect, this article focuses on the importance (or lack thereof) given to the views of families in neglect situation within this field.

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Perceptions of Violence within Child Protection Systems in Russia: Views of Children, Parents, and Social Workers

Veronika Odinokova, Maia Rusakova, Vladlena Avdeeva - Victim, Perpetrator, or What Else?, 08 Nov 2019

This is a study on perceptions of child abuse and interventions in cases of abuse in the Family and Childhood Support Centres in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

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Who’s in the Child’s Corner: Bringing Family, Community, and Child Protective Services Together for the Protection of Children

Cynthia Cupit Swenson & Cindy M. Schaeffer - International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice, 07 Nov 2019

This article draws from the authors’ experiences of implementing ecologically-based treatment models based on multisystemic therapy, including the Neighborhood Solutions Project (NS) and Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN). The authors call for a rigorous multisystemic approach to the protection of children, one that pays attention to children at risk of harm and those who are involved in formal child protection systems because they have experienced maltreatment.

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Truth Project Thematic Report: Child sexual abuse in the context of children’s homes and residential care

Claire Soares, Grace Ablett, Beth Mooney, Dr Sophia King - The Truth Project, The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, 01 Nov 2019

This is the second research publication in a series of thematic reports examining what victims and survivors have shared with the Truth Project about their experiences of child sexual abuse and the institutional context in which it occurred. It details the research findings in relation to experiences of child sexual abuse that occurred in the context of children’s homes and residential care in England and Wales.

Country Care Review: Australia

Better Care Network, 01 Nov 2019

This country care review includes the care related Concluding Observations adopted by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.

Safety assessment in child welfare: A comparison of instruments

Annemiek Vial, Mark Assink, Geert Jan J. M. Stams, Claudia Children and Youth Services Review van der Put - , 31 Oct 2019

This review aimed to compare child safety assessment instruments, which are used by child welfare professionals to determine whether a child is in immediate danger, and subsequently, whether immediate action is required to stop or prevent serious harm to the child.

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Using family network data in child protection services

Alex James,Jeanette McLeod, Shaun Hendy, Kip Marks, Delia Rusu, Syen Nik, Michael J. Plank - PLoS ONE, 29 Oct 2019

In this study, the authors analyse a child protection services dataset that includes a network of approximately 5 million social relationships collected by social workers between 1996 and 2016 in New Zealand to test the potential of information about family networks to improve accuracy of models used to predict the risk of child maltreatment.

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Perceptions of Neglect and Well-Being among Independent Child Migrants in Ghana

Padmore Adusei Amoah - Child Indicators Research, 14 Oct 2019

This study investigated the experiences and perception of parental neglect among independent child migrants (ICM) in Ghana and the relationship between these experiences and the children’s subjective well-being (happiness).

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Psychometric Properties of a Self-Report Measure of Neglect during Mid-Adolescence

Julia M. Kobulsky, Miguel T. Villodas & Howard Dubowitz - Child Indicators Research, 09 Oct 2019

The current study examines the Mid-Adolescent Neglect Scale (MANS), a 45-item youth, self-reported measure of neglect.

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