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Ken Hammond, USDA
Child abuse and neglect are defined by both
Federal and State laws.
Federal Definitions
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment
Act (CAPTA) is the Federal legislation that provides minimum
standards for the definition of child abuse and neglect that
States must incorporate in their statutory definitions (CWIG,
2010).
Under CAPTA, child abuse and neglect means,
at a 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.
The term sexual abuse includes: The employment,
use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any
child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in,
any sexually explicit conduct or simulation of such conduct
for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct;
or the rape, and in cases of caretaker or interfamilial relationships,
statutory rape, molestation, prostitution or other form of
sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.
Iowa State Law Definitions
While the Federal CAPTA law provides for
the minimum standards needed for State laws, it is important
to know the specific legal definitions in the States in which
you practice, in particular, it is important to know how Iowa
laws define who is a child, what is considered to be abuse,
maltreatment and neglect and who is the subject of the report
of abuse. Indeed, the law that mandates certain professionals
in Iowa to take this coursework that you are now reading,
requires that you receive this training regarding the specific
laws in Iowa.
In Iowa, a child is defined, per Iowa
Code section 232.68, as any person under the age of 18 years.
A perpetrator of child abuse must be a person
responsible for the care of a child. A person responsible
for the care of a child is defined in Iowa Code section
232.68 as:
- Parent, guardian, or foster parent;
- A relative or any other person with whom the child resides
and who assumes care or supervision of the child, without
reference to the length of time or continuity of such residence;
- An employee or agent of any public or private facility
providing care for a child, including an institution, hospital,
health care facility, group home, mental health center,
residential treatment center, shelter care facility, detention
center, or child care facility;
- Any person providing care for a child, but with whom
the child does not reside, without reference to the duration
of the care.
- A person who assumes responsibility for the care or supervision
of the child may assume such responsibility through verbal
or written agreement, or implicitly through the willing
assumption of the caretaking role.
The victim of child abuse is a person under the age
of 18 who has suffered one or more of the categories of child
abuse as defined in Iowa law (IDHS, 2010):
- Physical Abuse is defined as any non-accidental
physical injury, or injury which is at variance with the
history given of it, suffered by a child as the result of
the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care
of the child.
- Mental Injury is defined as any mental injury to
a child's intellectual or psychological capacity as evidenced
by an observable and substantial impairment in the child's
ability to function within the child's normal range of performance
and behavior as the result of the acts or omissions of a
person responsible for the care of the child, if the impairment
is diagnosed and confirmed by a licensed physician or qualified
mental health professional as defined in Iowa Code section
622.10.
- Sexual Abuse is defined as the commission of a
sexual offense with or to a child pursuant to Iowa Code
Chapter 709, Iowa Code section 726.2, or Iowa Code section
728.12, subsection 1, as a result of the acts or omissions
of the person responsible for the care of the child. Notwithstanding
Iowa Code section 702.5, the commission of a sexual offense
under this paragraph includes any sexual offense referred
to in this paragraph with or to a person under the age of
18 years. There are several sub-categories of sexual abuse:
first degree sexual abuse, second degree sexual abuse, third
degree sexual abuse, lascivious acts with a child, indecent
exposure, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, indecent
contact with a child, lascivious conduct with a minor, incest,
sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, sexual
exploitation of a minor, sexual misconduct with offenders
and juveniles, invasion of privacy-nudity.
- Denial of Critical Care is defined as the failure
on the part of a person responsible for the care of a child
to provide for the adequate food, shelter, clothing or other
care necessary for the child's health and welfare when financially
able to do so or when offered financial or other reasonable
means to do so. Denial of critical care is the category
of abuse in Iowa law that is relevant to what most consider
to be "neglect". This does not apply to a parent or guardian
legitimately practicing religious beliefs who do not provide
specified medical treatment for a child for that reason
alone shall not be considered abusing the child. However,
this does not preclude a court from ordering that medical
service be provided to the child where the child's health
requires it.
Denial of critical care includes the following eight sub-categories:
- Failure to provide adequate food and nutrition;
- Failure to provide adequate shelter;
- Failure to provide adequate clothing;
- Failure to provide adequate health care;
- Failure to provide mental health care;
- Gross failure to meet the emotional needs of the
child;
- Failure to provide proper supervision of a
child which a reasonable and prudent person would exercise
under similar facts and circumstances, to such an extent
that there is danger of the child suffering injury or
death. This definition includes cruel and undue confinement
of a child and the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle
when the person responsible for the care of the child
is driving recklessly or driving while intoxicated with
the child in the vehicle. Other items in this subcategory
includes legal drug usage by the caretaker (some drugs
cause more impairment than others); children home alone
(Iowa law does not define an age that is appropriate
for a child left alone, however, each situation is unique;
some questions that may be asked are, "Does the child
have a phone and know how to use it? Could the child
get out of the house in an emergency? How long a period
of time will the child be alone? Etc.; and lice and
truancy (while often reported as an abuse allegation,
other conditions must be present, or the situation must
pose a risk to the child's health and welfare); and
- Failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening
conditions by failing to provide treatment which
in the treating physician's judgment will be most likely
to be effective in ameliorating or correcting all conditions.
It is also known as "withholding of medically indicated
treatment." The type of treatments included are appropriate
nutrition, hydration, and medication.
- Child Prostitution is defined as the acts or omissions
of a person responsible for the care of a child which allow,
permit, or encourage the child to engage in acts prohibited
pursuant to Iowa Code section 725.1. Notwithstanding Iowa
Code section 702.5, acts or omissions under this paragraph
include an act or omission referred to in this paragraph
with or to a person under the age of 18 years. Prostitution
is defined as a person who sells or offers for sale the
person's services as a partner in a sex act, or who purchases
or offers to purchase such services.
- Presence of Illegal Drugs is defined as occurring
when an illegal drug is present in a child's body as a direct
and foreseeable consequence of the acts or omissions of
the person responsible for the care of the child. Iowa Code
section 232.77 states that, "If a health practitioner discovers
in a child physical or behavioral symptoms of the effect
of exposure to cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine,
or other illegal drugs or combination or derivatives thereof,
which examination of the natural mother of the child that
the child was were not prescribed by a health practitioner,
or if the health practitioner has determined through exposed
in utero, the health practitioner may perform or cause to
be performed a medically relevant test as defined section
232.73, on the child. The practitioner shall report any
positive results of such a test on the child to the department.
The department shall begin an assessment pursuant to section
232.71B upon receipt of such a report." Illegal drugs
are defined as cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine,
other illegal drugs (including marijuana), or combinations
or derivatives of illegal drugs which were not prescribed
by a health practitioner.
- Manufacturing or Possession of a Dangerous Substance
is defined in Iowa Code section 232.2, subsection 6, paragraph
p, as occurring when the person responsible for the care
of a child:
- Has manufactured or knowingly allows the manufacture
of a dangerous substance by another person in the presence
of a child;
- Possesses a product containing ephedrine, its salts,
optical isomers, salts of optical isomers, or pseudoephedrine,
its salts, optical isomers, salts of optical isomers,
with the intent to use the product as a precursor or
an intermediary to a dangerous substance in the presence
of the child.
- For the purposes of this definition, "in the presence
of a child" means the manufacture or possession
occurred: In the physical presence of a child; in a
child's home, on the premises, or in a motor vehicle
located on the premises; or under other circumstances
in which a reasonably prudent person would know that
the manufacture or possession may be seen, smelled,
or heard by a child.
- Iowa Code section 232.2, subsection 6, paragraph
p, defines "dangerous substance" as: Amphetamine, its
salts, isomers, or salts of its isomers; methamphetamine,
its salts, isomers, or salts of its isomers; a chemical
or combination of chemicals that poses a reasonable
risk of causing an explosion, fire, or other danger
to the life or health of people who are in the vicinity
while the chemical or combination of chemicals is used
or is intended to be used in any of the following: The
process of manufacturing an illegal or controlled substance;
as a precursor in the manufacturing of an illegal or
controlled substance; as an intermediary in the manufacturing
of an illegal or controlled substance.
- DHS must report this type of allegation to law
enforcement, as this is a criminal act.
- Bestiality in the Presence of a Minor is defined
as the commission of a sex act with an animal in the presence
of a minor as defined in Iowa Code section 717C.1 by a person
who resides in a home with a child, as the result of the
acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of
the child. DHS must report this type of allegation to
law enforcement, as this is a criminal act.
- Allows Access by a Registered Sex Offender is
child abuse if a caretaker who knowingly allows unsupervised
access to a child by a registered sex offender or allows
a registered sex offender to have custody or control of
a child up to age 14 or a child up to age 18 if the child
has a mental or physical disability. The exceptions are
if the registered sex offender is the caretaker' spouse
or is a minor child of the caretaker. Note: DHS must report
this type of allegation to law enforcement, as this is a
criminal act under child endangerment.
- Allows Access to Obscene Material - This type
of abuse is defined as a caretaker knowingly allowing a
child access to obscene material, exhibiting obscene material
to a child, or disseminating obscene material to a child,
as defined in Iowa Code Section 728.1.
Continue to Recognizing
Child Abuse
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