Children: Victims of Violence

What is Child Abuse? By definition, child abuse is the deliberate and willful
injury of a child by a caretaker hitting, beating with an object, slamming
against a wall, even killing. It involves active, hostile, aggressive treatment.
The key word in the definition of child abuse is deliberate. Over three million children are abused or neglected (CPS). Why would anyone physically harm a child? The physical destruction of a child is the extreme reaction of parents to the stress of having children. Most people are not aware of the fact that deliberately hitting a child is considered a felony in all fifty states. Abuse of children is more common than most people realize. At least one out of five adult women and one out of every ten adult men report having been abused in childhood. Recognizing child abuse in its several forms is a twentieth century phenomenon. Child abuse is also more likely to be recognized in economically developed countries than in other parts of the world. Childr...