You Can't Hurt Me Anymore

In case you didn't already know:

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department for Children And Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Child abuse can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.

In Western countries , preventing child abuse is considered a high priority, and detailed laws and policies exist to address this issue. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. According to the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, child abuse is "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, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm".

However, Douglas J. Besharov, the first Director of the U.S. Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, states "the existing laws are often vague and overly broad" and there is a "lack of consensus among professionals and Child Protective Services (CPS) personnel about what the terms abuse and neglect mean". Susan Orr, former head of the United States Children's Bureau U.S. Department of Health and Services- Administration for Children and Families, 2001-2007, states that "much that is now defined as child abuse and neglect does not merit governmental interference".

History
Until quite recently, children had very few rights in regard to protection from violence by their parents, and still continue to do so in many parts of the world. Historically, fathers had virtually unlimited rights in regard to their children and how they chose to discipline them. In many cultures, such as in Ancient Rome, a father could legally kill his children; many cultures have also allowed fathers to sell their children into slavery. Child sacrifice was also a common practice. Today, corporal punishment of children by their parents remains legal in most countries, but in Western countries that still allow the practice there are strict limits on what is permitted. The first country to outlaw parental corporal punishment was Sweden (parents' right to spank their own children was first removed in 1966, and it was explicitly prohibited by law from July 1979).

Types
Child abuse can take several forms: The four main types are physical, sexual, psychological, and neglect. According to the 2010 Child Maltreatment Report (NCANDS), a yearly Federal report based on submission by state Child Protective Services (CPS) Agencies, "as in prior years, neglect was the most common form of maltreatment." The cases were substantiated as follows: neglect 78.3%, physical abuse 17.6%, sexual abuse 9.2%, and psychological maltreatment 8.1%.),

According to Richard Wexler, the Director of National Coalition of Child Protection Reform, of "those labeled "substantiated" or "indicated" by protective workers, relatively few are the kind that leap to mind when we hear the words "child abuse". By far the largest category was "neglect". Often, these are cases in which the primary problem is family poverty."

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