Child Abuse and Neglect

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Child Abuse and Neglect Jill E. Korbin

INTRODUCTION Child abuse and neglect violate some of our most cherished views of human relationships. Parents are expected to nurture and care for their offspring, providing the foundation for families and societies. Nevertheless, child abuse and neglect have occurred throughout history and across cultures. Child maltreatment became a concerted field of inquiry and a matter of public and professional attention in the United States in the early 1960s (Kempe, Silverman, Droegmueller, & Silver, 1962). Many nations had similar experiences of first denying the existence of child maltreatment within their boundaries, only to later “discover” its existence. This stimulated interest in the broader cross-cultural record (Hrdy, 1999; Korbin, 1981; Levinson, 1989; Scheper-Hughes, 1987; Scheper-Hughes & Sargent, 1998).

DEFINITIONS Definitional ambiguity has been a major stumbling block in child abuse and neglect research and practice. There has been considerable difficulty in formulating valid and reliable definitions of child maltreatment. Definitions are critical because they influence case identification and thereby knowledge about child maltreatment. Identification of child maltreatment relies on a complex interaction of (1) harm to the child; (2) caretaker behaviors that produced or contributed to that harm; and (3) societal or cultural assignment of responsibility or culpability. Child maltreatment was initially defined in the medical and social welfare literature in the United States

and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Definitions centered on physical harm resulting from acts of omission or commission by parents and other caretakers. Two diagnostic criteria were particularly important. First, child abuse was identified when children had injuries that did not match with their caretaker’s explanations of how the injuries occurred. Second, because child abuse is rarely a one-time occurrence, an important diagnostic sign was the identification of multiple injuries in various stages of healing. The early work on child abuse and neglect focused on children who had been seriously harmed, either by being physically assaulted with resulting injuries or by being neglected with tangible evidence, such as severe malnutrition. 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.