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WHAT IS CHILD ABUSE?
- Physical
abuse includes beating, burning, or punching
a child.
- Emotional
abuse may involve criticizing, insulting,
rejecting, or withholding love from a child.
- Sexual
abuse includes rape, touching/fondling,
or involving a child in pornography.
- Neglect
includes failure to provide for a child's basic
physical, emotional, or educational needs. Leaving a young child
home alone or failing to provide needed medical care may be considered
neglect.
The
Iowa Legislature has defined "child
abuse" as
several types of harm suffered as the result of the acts or omissions
of someone who is responsible for the care of a child. This harm includes:
- A nonaccidental physical injury
- A mental injury to a child's intellectual or psychological capacity
- A sexual offense with or to a child, including involving a child
in prostitution
- The failure to provide for adequate food, shelter, clothing or other
care necessary for the child's health and welfare
- The presence of an illegal drug in a child's body as a direct and
foreseeable consequence of someone's acts or omissions
- Manufacturing a dangerous substance in a child's presence.
- Cohabiting with a sex offender, who is not the caretaker’s
spouse or child’s biological parent
- Committing bestiality in
the presence of a child
SOME FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT CHILD ABUSE:
Who abuses children?
Most often, the abuser is someone the child knows, such as a parent, neighbor,
or relative. (But note that most adults are not abusers.)
Where does it happen?
Child abuse usually happens in the child's home. Sometimes it happens
in other settings, such as a child-care center, (But this is fairly
uncommon.)
Isn't child abuse rare?
Each year, close to 3 million reports of suspected abuse are filed in
the United States. Many more never get reported. One victim
of child abuse is too many.
2010
CHILD ABUSE STATISTICS
In Iowa, the Department of Human Services ("DHS") is responsible for responding to reports of possible abuse. In 2010, there were 12,595 “unique” children confirmed as abused in Iowa. This is an increase from the previous year when 12,442 children were abused in 2009. These numbers count a child only once as abused, even if the child suffers abuse on multiple occasions.
Approximately 53.1% of the children confirmed as abused in Iowa in 2008 were under six years of age and, in 2009 that percentage dropped to 51.5%. In 2010, 50.8% of the children confirmed as abused were under the age of six years.
In Warren County, there were 164 “unique” children confirmed as abused in 2008. This number dropped to 137 children in 2009 with 140 confirmed abused children in 2010. Of those 140 children confirmed as abused in Warren County last year, 50.7% of them were less than six years of age.
For more information on child abuse statistics in Iowa, go to www.pcaiowa.org
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Child Abuse Prevention Council of Warren County