Child Neglect

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The relationship between poverty and child neglect has been studied vastly. It is a relevant topic to child welfare because the implications of poverty and the implications of child neglect are both far reaching. The effects of poverty and neglect on child welfare are immense on their own, but together they can create a storm of problems within developing children. A large proportion of neglect cases are found in impoverished neighborhoods, which makes poverty and important factor to look at when trying to prevent child neglect. It is important to note that poverty is not the cause of neglect, as there are many factors which affect the family system leading the neglect of a child, but it does play an important part in how we look at cases. …show more content…

Escaravage (2014) defines it as “failure by caregiver to provide needed, age appropriate care although financially able to do so or offered financial or other means to do so.” Zuravin and Depanfilis (1997) say it is the “failure (either by omission or intention) of the primary caregiver to provide a child with the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, clothing, medical and mental health care, education and supervision of child’s activities.” The Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse And Neglect defines it as “encompassing physical neglect, child abandonment and expulsion, medical neglect, inadequate supervision, emotional neglect, and educational neglect by parents, parent substitutes, or other adult caretakers of children” (Carter & Miles, …show more content…

Almost three out of every one hundred children in America are affected by this. In 2003, more children suffered from neglect than from physical and sexual abuse combine (Carter & Miles, 2007). From 1968 through 1996, the rate of neglect increased by nearly 100%. The most common form of neglect is failure to supervise, resulting is physical harm (Hildyard & Wolfe, 2002).
The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System reports only two types of neglect: neglect and medical neglect. However the Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect places neglect into three categories: physical, emotional, and educational (Johnson-Reid, Drake, & Zhou, 2012). There are actually four different categories of child neglect: physical, emotional, educational, and