Maltreatment Of A Child Essay

1852 Words8 Pages

Answer the following in 600 – 900 words:

What are some of the factors that contribute to child maltreatment? What can be done to reduce the risk of maltreatment? Be sure to address primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention ideas in your response.

Substantiated cases of child maltreatment have steadily dropped since the 1990’s, but these numbers are still far too high (Berger, 2014). Annually 1 out of every 90 children between the ages of 2 and 5 are victims of substantiated maltreatment (Berger, 2014). These numbers may be higher because not all cases are reported; furthermore, a child is only counted once even if there are multiple incidences of maltreatment (Berger, 2014). Surprisingly, maltreatment of children is more often caused by a parent or family …show more content…

Child maltreatment is any harm or unnecessary danger intentionally imposed on a person under the age of 18. Under that umbrella also fall child neglect and abuse which cover deliberate acts. These acts range from those physically, emotionally, or sexually harmful, as well as a failure to meet the essential physical, emotional or educational needs (Berger, 2014). If you don’t feed your child, don’t allow them to bathe, verbally abuse, fondle, or neglect to keep them safe from someone else doing these things, you are guilty of abuse. When seeking help there are two types of maltreatment. Reported maltreatment means the authorities have been made aware of the issue, it does not validate or dismiss the claim in anyway; substantiated maltreatment means the case has not only been reported, but it has also been investigated by the authorities and verified (Berger, 2014). The issue with substantiated cases is they require proof. If a child does not have visible forms of abuse, maltreatment is sometimes more difficult to prove. On occasion there are false reports made, these reports take away time and manpower from true reports and leave children in harm’s way for longer periods of