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Maltreatment/Neglect
Maltreatment/neglect includes a parent or
caretaker's failure to give the child food, clothing, hygiene,
shelter, medical care and supervision. Maltreatment/Neglect
may be difficult to identify correctly. What appears as maltreatment/neglect
may be the result of poor parental or caretaker judgment.
Or it may be the result of poverty rather than neglect.
Maltreatment/neglect is a term used to encompass
many situations. What they all have in common is that maltreatment/neglect
is often determined by a lack of action-an act of omission-regarding
a child's needs. Most commonly, maltreatment/neglect is related
to a failure to meet a child's physical needs (including food,
clothing, shelter, supervision, and medical needs), but it
also can refer to a failure to meet a child's educational
and emotional needs. Maltreatment/neglect can range from a
caregiver's momentary inattention to willful deprivation.
Single incidents can have no harmful effects or, in some cases,
they can result in death. Chronic patterns of maltreatment/neglect
may result in severe developmental delays or severe emotional
disabilities.
Physical Indicators
of Maltreatment/Neglect
- Consistent hunger;
- Obvious malnourishment, listlessness or fatigue;
- Poor hygiene; is consistently dirty or malodorous;
- Lacks sufficient clothing; inappropriate dress for age
or season;
- Consistent lack of supervision, especially in dangerous
activities or long periods;
- Abandonment;
- Child may frequently go to neighbors saying parents told
them to stay away;
- Unattended physical problems or medical or dental needs,
immunizations or glasses;
- Delayed physical development;
- Abuses alcohol or other drugs.
Child's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Maltreatment/Neglect
- Begging or stealing food or money;
- Extended stays in school (early arrival and late departure);
- Frequent tardiness to school;
- Infrequent school attendance;
- Constant fatigue, falling asleep in class;
- Alcohol and drug abuse;
- States there is no caretaker.
Parent's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Maltreatment/Neglect
- Misuses alcohol or other drugs;
- Has disorganized, chaotic or upsetting home life;
- Is apathetic, feels nothing will change;
- Is isolated from friends, relatives and neighbors;
- Has long-term chronic illness;
- Cannot be found;
- Has history of neglect as a child;
- Exposes child to unsafe living conditions;
- Evidences limited intellectual capacity.
Emotional Abuse
Physical Indicators of Emotional
Abuse
- Conduct disorders (fighting in school, anti-social behavior,
destructive, etc.);
- Habit disorders (rocking, biting, sucking fingers, pulling
out hair, etc.);
- Anxiety disorders, speech disorders, sleep problems,
inhibition of play; phobias, hysterical reactions, compulsions,
hypochondria;
- Lags in physical development;
- Failure to thrive.
Child's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Emotional Abuse
- Overly adaptive behavior, such as inappropriately adult
or inappropriately infantile;
- Developmental delays (mental and emotional);
- Extremes of behavior (compliant, passive, aggressive,
demanding);
- Self-mutilation;
- Suicide attempts or gestures.
Parent's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Emotional Abuse
- Treats children in the family unequally;
- Ignores the child, failing to provide necessary stimulation,
responsiveness and validation of the child's worth in normal
family routine;
- Doesn't seem to care much about the child's problems;
- Blames or belittles the child;
- Is cold and rejecting;
- Inconsistent behavior toward child;
- Verbally terrorizes the child with continual verbal assaults,
creating a climate of fear, hostility, and anxiety, thus
preventing the child from gaining feelings of safety and
security.
- Continually and severely criticizes the child;
- Failure to express any affection or nurturing;
- Humiliation;
- Engages in actions intended to produce fear or extreme
guilt in a child;
- Rejects the child's value, needs, and request for adult
validation and nurturance;
- Isolates the child from the family and community; denying
the child normal human contact;
- Corrupts the child by encouraging and reinforcing destructive,
antisocial behavior until the child is so impaired in socioemotional
development that interaction in normal social environments
is not possible;
- Overpressures the child with subtle but consistent pressure
to grow up fast and to achieve too early in the areas of
academics, physical or motor skills, or social interaction,
which leaves the child feeling that he or she is never quite
good enough.
Sexual Abuse
Sexual abuse can include promoting prostitution, fondling,
intercourse, or using the child for pornographic materials.
Consider the possibility of sexual abuse when the child
exhibits some of the following (CWIG,2006a; IDHS, 2005):
Physical Indicators
- Possible sexual abuse
Physical indicators
of sexual abuse can include:
- Has difficulty walking or sitting;
- Reports nightmares or bedwetting;
- Experiences a sudden change in appetite; or complains
frequently of abdominal discomfort of pain;
- Becomes pregnant, particularly in early adolescent years;
- Contracts a sexually transmitted disease, including venereal
oral infections in pr-adolescent age group;
- Has sudden, unusual difficulty with toilet habits;
- Experiences pain or itching, bruises or bleeding in the
genital area;
- Has torn, stained, or bloody clothing.
Child's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Sexual Abuse
The child's behavior can also be possible indicators of sexual
abuse:
- Suddenly refuses to change for gym or to participate in
physical activities;
- Demonstrates bizarre, sophisticated, or unusual sexual
knowledge or behavior, particularly given the child's age;
- Sexual victimization of other children;
- Exhibits withdrawal, fantasy or infantile behaviors;
- Poor peer relationships;
- Aggressive or disruptive behavior, delinquency, running
away or school truancy;
- Any sudden change in behavior;
- Self-injurious behaviors;
- Suicide attempts;
- Reports sexual abuse by caretaker;
- Exaggerated fear of closeness or physical contact.
Parent's Behavior - Possible Indicators
of Sexual Abuse
- Very protective or jealous of child;
- Encourages or forces child to engage in prostitution;
- Encourages or forces sexual acts in the presence of caretaker;
- Misuses alcohol or other drugs;
- Is geographically isolated and/or lacking in social and
emotional contacts outside the family;
- Has low self-esteem.
Child Prostitution
Child prostitution may be identified by similar physical
and behavioral indicators as the child who is sexually abused.
Children are recruited into prostitution through forced abduction,
pressure from parents, or through deceptive agreements between
parents and traffickers (USDOJ, 2007). The majority of American
victims of commercial sexual exploitation tend to be runaway
or thrown away youth who live on the streets who become victims
of prostitution. These children generally come from homes
where they have been abused, or from families that have abandoned
them and often become involved in prostitution as a way to
support themselves financially or to get the things they want
or need (USDOJ, 2007).
Manufacturing or Possession of a
Dangerous Substance In the Presence of a Child
Manufacturing or possession of a dangerous substance
in the presence of a child is defined in Iowa law as child
abuse. If the person responsible for the child's care engages
in the following, a report of child abuse should be made:
- Has manufactured a dangerous substance in the presence
of the child, or
- Knowingly allows the manufacture of a dangerous substance
by another person in the presence of a child, or
- 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.
Presence of Illegal drugs in Newborn
Presence of illegal drugs in a newborn infant as determined
by laboratory testing due to the illegal drug usage by the
mother before the baby's birth; a three-year-old child tests
positive for illegal drugs due to exposure to the illegal
drugs when the child's caretakers used illegal drugs in the
child's home (IDHS, 2005).
Continue to Recognizing Child
Abuse, Con't.
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