Physical Abuse Of Children

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Child abuse and neglect, child maltreatment, and child victimization are interchangeable terms that refer to a major public health problem confronting children and families over centuries. Abuse manifests when the child of adolescent’s caregiver fails to provide for the youth’s health and well being either by causing an injury or by not meeting a basic need. Child maltreatment is categorized into different categorizes such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional and psychological abuse and lastly neglect. This paper will mainly focus on the physical abuse of children and the social and cultural factors.

Physical abuse of a child is defined as the deliberate physical violent behavior towards a child, committed by a parent or caretaker (Burrows Horton, 2001). Physical abuse of children may take many forms and vary in both severity and duration. Injuries from physical abuse may result from extended physical altercations such as hitting, kicking, and shaking, or brief incidents like being burned, bitten, or drowned. The Children’s Bureau reported that a survey of state protection agencies there were over 2 million reports of maltreatment received in 2010. Of these, 17.6 percent were physical abuse children making it the second most …show more content…

The families and individuals are often isolated and have poor relationships with their extended families and communities. Their relationships are strained, negative, or aggressive. Also, they might have troubles finding employment, are suffering from illness, or other type of stressors that affect the entire family. Regardless of all the factors and ongoing reporting it is extremely difficult to identify children who are victims of physical abuse because many times the injuries are not visible to the

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