Prevention of Child Abuse

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Every year there are hundreds of thousands cases of children abuse occurring in the United States (Richardson 2002). In fact, there has been an increasing amount of attention being given to the problem of child abuse in recent years. Most attention is paid to this problem of child abuse in the media. This is as a measure to fight and reduce it. However, according to Christie, (2013), The Director of Arizona’s child welfare system said that many of child abuse reports have gone uninvestigated in recent years. Under these circumstances, there is an indication that more needs to be done to control this threaten.
In order to deal with this problem properly, it would be wise first to have an understanding of what child abuse is. Child abuse can be defined as any act of neglect, commission, or omission, which may risk a child’s mental, emotional, and physical health and growth. It represents any form of injury done to a child, which cannot be explained rationally. It is often portrayed through injuries or series of injuries that are usually non-accidental in nature. There are many forms of child abuse including neglect, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.
In an article by Tiffany Sharples about unreported child abuse, which appeared on TIME on Tuesday December 2nd 2008, it is clear that children in first world nations endure neglect and child abuse which often goes unreported by the existing child-protective agencies.
In this article, researchers estimate that about 4 to 16 percent of children suffer physical abuse every year in developed nations such the United States of America. Yet as many as 15 percent of such cases are neglected. A round 10% of girls while 5% of boys experience brutal sexual abuse. Nevertheless, research s...

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Schols, Manuela WA, de Ruiter, Corine, & Öry, Ferko G. (2013). How do public child healthcare professionals and primary school teachers identify and handle child abuse cases? A qualitative study. (BioMed Central Ltd.) BioMed Central Ltd.
Richardson, C. (January 01, 2002). Physician/hospital liability for negligently reporting child abuse. The Journal of Legal Medicine, 23, 1, 131-50.
Sharples, T. (2013). Time. In Study: Most Child Abuse Goes Unreported. Retrieved 25 November, 2013, from http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1863650,00.html
Press Association. (2013). The Guardian. In Children still at risk of abuse in schools, clubs and care homes. Retrieved 25 November, 2013, from http://www.theguardian.com/uk- news/2013/oct/24/child-abuse-schools-care-national-crime-agency-uk.

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