Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment is the general term used to describe all forms of child abuse and neglect. There is not a common accepted definition of "child abuse and neglect." Although most of the government defines child abuse and neglect in the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act as "the physical and mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of a child under the age of 18 by a person who is responsible for the child’s welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child’s health or welfare is harmed or threatened." Each state provides its own definition of child abuse and neglect.

We can say child abuse is an intentional act that results in physical and emotional harm to children. The term child abuse covers a wide range of behaviours, from actual physical assaults by the parents or other adult caretakers to neglect of child’s basic needs. Child abuse is also sometimes called child maltreatment.

Although the extent of child abuse is difficult to measure, it is recognized as a major social problem, especially in industrialized nations. It occurs in all income, racial, religious, and ethnic groups and in urban and rural communities. It is, however, more common in some groups, especially those below the poverty line.

Cultures around the world have different standards in deciding what constitutes child abuse. In Sweden, for example, the law prohibits any physical punishment of children, including spanking. By contrast, in some countries of Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, parents are expected to punish their children by hitting them.


Child maltreatment encompasses physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse, which can be defined as follows:

1) Physical Abuse: It is non-accidental physical injury as a result of caretaker acts. Physical abuse frequently includes shaking, slapping, punching, beating, kicking, biting and burning. Physical abuse includes deliberate acts of violence that injure or even kill a child. Unexplained bruises, broken bones, or burn marks on a child may be signs of physical abuse.

2) Sexual Abuse: Making the involvement of dependent, developmentally immature children and adolescents in sexual activities that they do not fully comprehend and to which they are unable to give informed consent. Sexual abuse occurs when adults use children for sexual gratification or expose them to sexual activities. Sexual abuse may begin with kissing or fondling and progress to more intrusive sexual acts, such as oral sex and vaginal or anal penetration.
Sexual abuse frequently does not come to light until the older girl develops a psychosomatic illness, tells it to her mother or friends or other family members.
Talking about child sexual abuse in our society is taboo. People would rather pretend that it does not happen to them or people they know. The truth is that every child is a probable victim and most perpetrators are people around them. Sexual abuse exists in two forms– contact and non-contact. The non-contact forms include use of obscene language and showing of pornographic material. In a research done by CWIN and UNICEF, use of obscene language was found to be the most prevalent form of sexual abuse with 33.5 percent of 3,960 of the children surveyed being exposed to it, 22 percent had been exposed to exhibitionism and nearly 18 percent had experienced contact forms of sexual abuse such as fondling over or under clothes or kissing. Nearly eight percent of girls and six percent of boys named family members as abusers.

3) Neglect: It is the Failure of caretakers to provide for a child’s fundamental needs. Although neglect can include children’s necessary emotional needs, neglect typically concerns adequate food, housing, clothing, medical care and education. Neglect of a child’s physical or emotional needs is the most common form of child abuse, followed by physical abuse. It may also include inadequate supervision and a consistent failure to protect a child from hazards or danger. Emotional neglect occurs when a parent or caretaker fails to meet a child’s basic needs for affection and comfort. Examples of emotional neglect include behaving in a cold, distant, and unaffectionate way toward a child, allowing a child to witness chronic or severe spousal abuse, allowing a child to use alcohol or drugs, and encouraging a child to engage in delinquent behavior.

Another form of neglect involves failing to meet a child’s basic education needs, either by failing to enroll a child in school or by permitting a child to skip school frequently. This is the case of deprivation of children from their basic needs.

4) Emotional / Psychological Abuse: The habitual verbal harassment of a child by disparagement, criticism, threat and ridicule. Emotional or psychological abuse includes behavior that threatens or intimidates a child. It includes threats, name calling, belittling and shaming. Emotional abuse destroys a child’s self-esteem. Other types of emotional abuse are confinement, such as shutting a child in a dark closet, and social isolation, such as denying a child friend.

A recent case of HIV- infected children being discriminated by friends in schools and even by the school authority came into light on newspapers. There are also evidences of children of HIV- infected parents being discriminated in social institutions. Certainly these are the case of emotional abuse or can also be categorized under neglect.