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Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect

www.childwelfare.gov

 

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serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or

exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an

imminent risk of serious harm

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The CAPTA definition of sexual abuse includes:

The employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement,

or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other

person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or

simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a

visual depiction of such conduct; or

The rape, and in cases of caretaker or interfamilial

relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, or

other form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with

children

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Types of Abuse

Nearly all States, the District of Columbia, American Samoa,

Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.

Virgin Islands provide civil definitions of child abuse and neglect

in statute.

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States recognize the different types of abuse in their

definitions, including physical abuse, neglect, sexual abuse, and

emotional abuse. Some States also provide definitions in statute

for parental substance abuse and/or for abandonment as child

abuse.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is generally defined as “any nonaccidental

physical injury to the child” and can include striking, kicking,

burning, or biting the child, or any action that results in a

physical impairment of the child. In approximately 38 States and

American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto

Rico, and the Virgin Islands, the definition of abuse also includes

acts or circumstances that threaten

he child with harm or create

a substantial risk of harm to the child’s health or welfare.

 

Traffickers ~ Definitions of Child Abuse 

 

CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING

 

 

Teenage prostitutes in Southeast Asia. A study commissioned by UNICEF and Save the Children and headed by sociologist Annjanette Rosga conducted research on child prostitution in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Rosga reported that poverty was a strong contributing factor. She stated, in part, "The global sex trade is as much a product of everyday people struggling to survive in dire economic straits as it is an organized crime problem. Attacking the crime and not the poverty is treating the symptom but not the disease...It's not uncommon for girls to know what they're entering into, and to enter voluntarily to some degree. Maybe they think they'll be different and able to escape, or maybe they'd rather take the risk than feel powerless staying at home in poverty."[17] However, Jaffe and Rosen disagree and write that poverty alone does not often force children into prostitution, as it does not exist in a large scale in several impoverished societies.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_of_children

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