Child Abuse

Defining Child Abuse and Neglect

Criteria for defining and identifying child abuse and neglect were developed in European and North American societies by professionals working primarily in clinical settings. Early definitions of child mal-treatment centered on physical harm resulting from acts of omission or commission by parents and other caretakers. Over the next 40 years, definitions expanded in both the national and international literatures to encompass a broad range of harms to children. The four basic categories of child maltreatment are physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional maltreatment, and child sexual abuse. Neglect may also include medical neglect or educational neglect. Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, an illness fabricated by a parent that can cause harm to a child, is also generally included in the spectrum of child maltreatment. Fatal maltreatment, in which a child dies from a repetitive pattern of abuse and/or neglect, is often a separate category in the professional literature.

As international work in child abuse expanded, additional definitional categories were added. Even though these problems exist in Euro-American nations, the international literature brought them more to the fore-front. These include child labor that extends beyond family-based subsistence and is exploitative, and child prostitution. In addition, selective neglect, or underinvestment, has been identified in international demographic data through patterns of differential mortality in which some categories of children are less likely to thrive or survive due to medical, nutritional, and other forms of inattention and neglect.

Establishing culturally valid definitions of child maltreatment has been complex. Identification of child maltreatment relies on a complex interaction of (a) harm to the child, (b) caretaker behaviors that produced or contributed to that harm, and (c)societal or cultural assignment of responsibility or culpability. Just as there is no absolute standard for optimal child rearing that would be considered valid cross-culturally, there has been difficulty in establishing a universal definition of abusive or neglectful behavior. Three definitional levels have been suggested for culturally informed definitions of child maltreatment. First, cultural practices vary, and what one group considers abusive, another group may consider well within the normative range of behavior. Differences in definitions of child maltreatment that can be ascribed to differences in normative cultural beliefs and practices are not, strictly speaking, abuse, since they are not proscribed, at least by the group in question. This does not preclude discussions and evaluations of the relative harm and benefit of different culturally accepted practices but puts different practices in context. Second, idiosyncratic departure from cultural standards and norms affords an intracultural view that highlights those individuals who violate the continuum of acceptable behavior. And third, societal-level maltreatment of children is sometimes confused with culturally acceptable behaviors. Societal[Page 490]neglect refers to the level of harm or deprivation, such as poverty or war, that a larger political body (nation)tolerates or inflicts on its children. Because child maltreatment has not always been labeled as such in other cultures, some anthropological works have examined physical punishment or emotional climate, as maltreatment requires that behaviors meet three criteria. First, the behavior must be proscribed by the culture in question. Second, it must be proximate to the child and caretaker and not be harm that results from broader conditions beyond parental or caretaker control, such as warfare or famine. And third, it must be potentially preventable.

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