The World Health Organization (WHO) defines child abuse as any act of abuse or neglect of which children and adolescents under 18 years of age are victims, which harms their health or development. Discover everything you need to know in this post.
Classification of child abuse
There are different types of abuse that typically occur outside the family context, but the most common forms of child abuse, those that affect a larger proportion of children, occur within the family (nuclear or extended).
Various classifications of child abuse have been made. For clarity in its exposition (and consensus with it), the one synthesized by authors Palacios, Jiménez, Oliva, and Saldaña (1998) is offered below:
Abandonment or neglect as child abuse
A situation in which a minor’s basic physical needs and safety are not met by those responsible for their care.
Emotional Abuse
The psychological needs of the minor are not taken into consideration, particularly those related to interpersonal relationships and self-esteem.
Physical Abuse
Non-accidental action by an adult that causes physical harm or illness to the minor, or places them at serious risk of suffering it as a consequence of intentional negligence.
Sexual Abuse
The use of a minor under 18 years of age by an adult to satisfy sexual desires.
Prenatal Abuse
Situations and characteristics of the pregnant woman’s lifestyle that, being avoidable, harm the development of the fetus.
Begging
The child is habitually or sporadically used to beg, or the minor engages in begging on their own initiative.
Corruption
Conduct of adults who promote in the child patterns of antisocial or deviant behavior, particularly in the areas of aggression, misappropriation, sexuality, and drug trafficking or consumption.
Child Labor Exploitation
For economic gain, the child is obligatorily assigned to perform tasks that exceed normal limits, that should be performed by adults, and that clearly interfere with the minor’s school activities and needs.
Münchhausen Syndrome by Proxy
Pathological physical symptoms are provoked in the minor, requiring hospitalization or repeated medical treatment.
Institutional Abuse
Situations that occur in centers or organizations that care for minors and in which, by action or omission, basic rights to protection, care, and development stimulation are not respected.
Child abuse is a phenomenon that, with exceptions, occurs in private, even when it occurs within the family, as is typically the case with sexual abuse. This makes it difficult to quantify and makes figures very unreliable. According to research data carried out throughout Spain, but focused only on cases opened in child protection services of the different Autonomous Communities (Jiménez, Oliva, and Saldaña, 1996), they indicate that:
> Between 30% and 50% of abused children suffer more than one type of abuse.
> Parents are usually the figures who most frequently cause abuse.
> It is very common that, within the same family, abuse affects more than one child.
> The overall incidence of abuse usually decreases after puberty, undoubtedly as a consequence of minors being more capable of defending themselves against their aggressors.
Unfortunately, the latest research reveals that violence against minors grew by 13.6% in 2012 in Spain. 1,778 children and adolescents were attended that year as victims of physical and psychological abuse, school violence, neglect, or sexual abuse, among others. In most cases, the aggressors are usually the father, classmates, or the mother; in any case, mainly people close to the minor.
Indicators of child abuse
In general terms, among the indicators of child abuse we can find: the minor’s attitude and behavior (distrustful, frightened, startled, fearful child, indifference, apathy, sadness, downcast gaze, avoidance of adult gaze, real or apparent mental retardation, school failure. Malnutrition, dehydration, growth parameters below normal for age, low weight. Poor hygiene, dry fecal residue adhered to the skin, parasites, significant diaper dermatitis.
The characteristic clinical picture of Battered Child Syndrome includes lesions, generally multiple, of different nature, in various periods of evolution, located in different anatomical planes, more frequently in protected organic areas. Excessive crying in infants, for no apparent reason. Irritable behavior or extreme agitation in infants. Regression of a developmental stage that had already been reached, for example, enuresis, encopresis, thumb sucking. Excessive fears, for example, fear of darkness, going to bed, staying with certain people.
A careful look at the set of indicators previously presented allows the reader to realize early on the absence of specific indicators of abuse.
Consequences of child neglect
Trickett and McBride-Chang (1995) point out that abuse introduces a distortion in basic emotional relationships, in the foundations of personality construction and relationships. The main consequences of child abuse are physical and psychological: children raised in abusive homes often show post-traumatic and emotional disorders. Many experience feelings of low self-esteem and suffer from depression and anxiety, so they often use alcohol or other drugs to mitigate their psychological stress, with addiction in adulthood being more frequent than in the general population.
The effects of child abuse do not cease after childhood, with many of them showing difficulties in establishing healthy interpersonal relationships in adulthood.
Some children are afraid to talk about what is happening to them because they think no one will believe them. Other times they do not realize that the abuse they are subjected to is abnormal behavior and, thus, unconsciously learn to repeat this “model”.
In case of suspected abuse, a meticulous interdisciplinary study of the victim is necessary (forensic doctors, pediatricians, forensic psychologists, psychiatrists, gynecologists, social workers, etc.).
Child protection requires well-trained professionals who, far from being swayed by impartial or subjective impressions, are capable of applying knowledge derived from psychological research.
ISEP offers specialized training in forensic psychology, essential for the study of child abuse victims and their intervention.