WHAT IS CHILD ABUSE?

It is an act that endangers or impairs a child's physical or emotional health or development. It includes any damage done to a child that cannot be reasonably explained and is often represented by an injury or series of injuries that appear to be non-accidental in nature.
 In the simplest terms - Child Abuse is hurting a child.....Not by accident.

Types of Abuse:

*      Physical Abuse - A non-accidental injury to a child. Including hitting, punching,  kicking, slapping, burning, shaking, pinching, hair-pulling, biting, choking, throwing, shoving.

*      Sexual Abuse - Any sexual act between an adult and child. Including fondling, penetration, intercourse, exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, child prostitution, group sex, oral sex, or forced 
observation of sexual acts.

*      Emotional Abuse - An attitude or behavior that interferes with a child's mental health or emotional       development. Including yelling, screaming, name-calling, shaming, negative comparisons to others,
telling them they are "bad, no good, worthless" or "a mistake". It also includes the failure to 
provide the affection and support necessary for the development of a child's emotional, social, 
physical and intellectual well-being. Including ignoring, no positive reinforcement or praise, no 
physical affection (hugs and saying "I love you").

*      Neglect - Failure to provide for a child's physical needs. Including supervision, housing or shelter, food,
clothing, medical care and hygiene.



SOME STATISTICS:

Sexual victimization of children is an enormous problem that is largely unrecognized and under-reported.

*      Statistics show that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 10 boys are sexually exploited before they reach 
                 adulthood, yet fewer than 35% of these child sexual assaults are reported to authorities.²      

*      A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds.³                                                             

*      Four children die every day as a result of child abuse, and three out of four of these      
victims are under the age of 4.³                                                                                    

*      Of the reported rapes of children under 12 years old, 90% of the victims knew the          
perpetrator.³                                                                                                                 

*      Child abuse occurs at every socio-economic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within   
all religions and at all levels of education.³                                                                   

*      36.7% of all women in prison and 14.4% of all men in prison in the United States were      
abused as children.³                                                                                                       

*      Children who have been sexually abused are 2.5 times more likely to abuse alcohol and    
3.8 times more likely to become addicted to drugs.³                                                   

*      One third of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing
the horrible cycle of abuse.³

   ²National  Center of Missing & Exploited  Children                                                                                                                  
³Childhelp