The Importance Of Child Maltreatment

Child maltreatment, or child abuse, as it is sometimes referred to, is a behavior that inflicts substantial harm to a child. These behaviors or acts by an adult towards a child includes physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect; which is the failure to provide for the basic needs of a child. Child maltreatment is associated with neurological damage, delayed physical growth, physical injuries, and psychological and emotional issues (Butchart & Harvey, 2006; Guterman, 2001). Child abuse is also linked to increased risk of drug abuse, eating disorders, alcoholism, obesity, smoking, high-risk sexual behaviors, and suicide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014; Merrick & Latzman, 2014). Historically, the awareness of child maltreatment in the United States dates back to 1962 when Henry Kempe, a pediatrician, wrote an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the “battered child syndrome” (as cited in Child Maltreatment Prevention: Past, Present, and Future, 2011). In the article Kempe shed light on the children who were suffering

States passed child abuse reporting laws (Child Maltreatment Prevention: Past, Present, and Future, 2011). In 1974, the first Federal Child, Abuse and Neglect Prevention and Treatment Act was put into place (Child Maltreatment Prevention: Past, Present, and Future, 2011). These acts and laws were key to paving the way for ongoing awareness, prevention, and interventions for victims of maltreatment and their families. As awareness of the problem has increased, the number of children under the age of eighteen determined each year as having been abused, is shocking; each year thousands of children in the United States are identified as having been victims of maltreatment. An estimated one out of every four children in the U.S. experience child abuse at some point in their lifetime (Finkelhor, Turner, Ormond, & Hamby,