Child Abuse

2 Pages 518 Words

The key word in the definition of child abuse is deliberate. Why would anyone deliberately do something like that to their own child?
In 2001, 3 million referrals concerning the welfare of approximately 5 million children were made to Child Protective Service agencies throughout the United States. Professionals, including teachers, law enforcement officers, social services workers, and physicians, made more than half of the reports. Others, including family members, neighbors, and other members of the community, made the remaining referrals.
More than one-quarter of investigations or assessments 28 percent resulted in a finding that the child was abused or at risk of abuse. The remaining investigations resulted in a finding that the abuse did not occur, the child was not at risk of abuse, or the information wasn’t good enough.
Approximately 903,000 children were to be victims of child abuse. Not in just physical but in, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and psychological. To get these numbers down, there are lots of things us as a country can do. We can start by letting kids be kids, and being parents to kids not their friend, but not their worst enemy.
Most States define perpetrators of child abuse or neglect as a parent or other caretaker, such as a relative, babysitter, or foster parent, who has abused a child. Fifty-nine percent of perpetrators were women and 41 percent were men. The median age of female perpetrators was 31 year, the median age of male perpetrators was 34 years. More than 80 percent of victims were abused by a parent or parents.

The 2001 victimization rate of 12.4 per 1,000 children in the population is comparable to the 2000 rate of 12.2, especially given that the child population base numbers were estimated. Both the 2000 and 2001 rates are lower than the 1998 rate. The 1999 rate is considered an outlier that was unduly influenced by the census population estimates. Children in the age group of birth to ...