Child neglect serious failure, usually on the part of the parent or other custodial caregiver, to meet the minimal standards of a child's nutritional, clothing, shelter, medical, educational and safety needs. As a result of this failure, harm occurs or is highly likely to occur to the child. Neglect also encompasses the failure to act on the child's behalf, such as allowing or encouraging a child to use alcohol or drugs. A parent is not able to prevent a child from using drugs or alcohol when away from home (although all parents should actively discourage this use), but a parent should refrain from giving substances to a child or encouraging a child to consume alcohol and/or drugs at home.

The category of neglect may also include the failure to protect the child sexually, such as allowing the child to prostitute himself or herself or to have sex with adults, with the parent's knowledge and tacit permission.

Child abuse experts Murray A. Straus and Glenda Kaugman Kantor devised their own definition of caregiver neglect in a 2005 issue of Child Abuse & Neglect. According to these experts, "Neglectful behavior is behavior by a caregiver that constitutes a failure to act in ways that are presumed by the culture of a society to be necessary to meet the developmental needs of a child and which are the responsibility of the caregiver to provide."

Neglect is the most frequently occurring form of child maltreatment in the United States. In addition, nearly two-thirds (61%) of all children removed from their homes in 2003 suffered from neglect. According to Child Maltreatment 2003, children who were neglected were 31% more likely than children who were physically abused to suffer from a reexperience of neglect.

State Laws on Neglect Vary

Each state has its own definition of what constitutes neglectful behavior toward children, and some are more specific than others.

In some states, parents are regarded as neglectful when they are incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized, and thus, they cannot provide any care to the child. Parental substance abuse may be considered neglect, and in some states, the finding of drugs in a newborn baby or a physician observing a newborn child with apparent Fetal Alcohol Syndrome are both grounds for the termination of parental rights. Violent behavior in the presence of a child, even when the child is not harmed or threatened, may be considered neglectful. (If the parent attacks the child beyond the use of accepted corporal punishment, this is physical abuse.)

Some states consider the manufacturing of a drug in the presence of a child to be neglectful, particularly when the drugs are highly volatile and dangerous illegal drugs such as methamphetamines.

Neglectful Behavior: Acts of Omission

In contrast to other forms of child maltreatment, such as sexual abuse or physical abuse, the category of neglect encompasses acts of omission, such as the failure to provide food, shelter and clothing or the failure to supervise the child based on the child's age (such as failing to watch a two-year old, who then wanders into the street outside her home) as well as the failure to meet the child's developmental needs.

Omissions can be as serious--or even more serious--than maltreatment commissions with regard to child care. In the most serious cases, such failures may lead to the child's death. In 2003, about 36% of all child maltreatment fatalities were caused by neglect, followed by about 29% of the deaths caused by multiple maltreatment types and 28.4% caused by physical abuse.

Types of Neglect

The most common type of neglectful behavior toward a child is the failure to provide food, clothing and/or shelter. If parents are homeless, they should seek help from others. Such a failure can be fatal to a newborn or young child as they cannot ask others for help. There are other common types of neglect, such as medical neglect, safety neglect, abandonment and educational neglect.

Medical neglect

Some parents may refuse to obtain appropriate medical care for their children when the children are ill, which could be deemed medical neglect. (However, religious exemptions are sometimes made if the religion prohibits medical intervention and if state law allows for such an exemption.) Children in the United States and other Western countries usually need not die of malnutrition, rickets and other diseases that can be easily treated by physicians--but if no one intervenes on behalf of children suffering from these diseases, they can and do suffer from such ailments and may die.

Neglect in infants and small children can cause poor growth, as seen with failure to thrive. This may be caused by a failure to provide proper nutrition as well as the psychological neglect of the child.

Safety neglect Parents and other caregivers may also be neglectful when they fail to provide a safe environment, especially for small children. As authors Andrew P. Sirotnak, Joyce K. Moore and Jean C. Smith said in their chapter on neglect in Understanding the Medical Diagnosis of Child Maltreatment: A Guide for Nonmedical Professionals, "This might involve leaving poisons, open heaters, knives, or guns with the child's reach. Repeated dog bites by the family dog also represent a dangerous home environment."

The authors said that one indicator of safety neglect can be observed by the physician: "Watch how they [the parents] handle the child and react to his injury. If a baby who has fallen off the sofa is brought to the medical provider and then left unattended on the examining table, one should be concerned about the parents' ability or desire to protect that child."

Safety neglect is a significant cause of death among young children. Children under the age of three have not developed a safety consciousness, and they are especially susceptible to accidents. While all children are likely to suffer preventable accidents on occasion, repeated serious accidents indicate that a child's caretaker is unable or unwilling to take the necessary steps to protect the child.

Considering abandonment

Abandonment is a form of neglect, and it may be criminal, depending on state laws and the circumstances of the case. Often children as young as two or three years (or younger) are left in charge of their younger siblings with no food, no instructions and no idea where their parents are.

Abandonment can be fatal, as when the child is left alone with no food and starves, or a child who is severely harmed by an accident when left alone is unable to seek help from others.

Educational neglect

Educational neglect is the failure to ensure that a child attends school in accordance with state law. If the parent does not encourage or even discourages a child from going to school without a valid reason, this act is neglectful and harmful to the child, potentially preventing the child from learning important skills, such as how to read and how to make calculations.

Victimized children

Boys or girls may be neglected; however, most maltreated children (including all forms of abuse) are young children. Small children are also the most likely to die of neglect.

In considering all categories of abuse and neglect, the victimization rate (per 1,000 children) was highest among children ages 0-3 years, or a rate of 16.4 children per 1,000. The rate steadily declined with age; for example, the rate for children ages four to seven years was 13.8 per thousand. The rate for children ages eight to 11 years was 11.7 per 1,000, and the rate of victimized children ages 12-15 years was 10.7 per 1,000. Children ages 16-17 years had the lowest rate of 5.9 per 1,000 children in this age group.

In considering the race and ethnicity of neglected children, the highest percentage of children who experienced neglect only (and not other forms of child maltreatment) in 2003 were American Indian or Alaska Native (67.8%), followed by children of multiple races (55.9%).

Categories of neglectful perpetrators

Neglect was the largest maltreatment category among perpetrators, according to Child Maltreatment 2003, and more than half of all perpetrators (57%) had neglected children. Parents were the largest category of neglectful perpetrators (62%); however, parents and custodial caregivers were not the only individuals who may be neglectful of children.

In considering different categories of perpetrators, as can be seen from Table II, various types of people may maltreat children (parents, other relatives, foster parents and so on). However, despite the disparity of maltreatment perpetrators, in almost every category, neglect is the most frequently occurring category of child maltreatment.

For example, among maltreating other relatives, 37.5% were neglectful. Among maltreating foster parents, 50% were neglectful. Among maltreating child day-care providers, 48.4% were neglectful. Among unmarried partners of the parent, 37.0% were neglectful. The same pattern of the dominance of neglect among all forms of maltreatment was found among most other categories, with the one exception of the category of friends and neighbors. Of people in this category who harmed children, they were most likely to be sex abusers (75.9%) rather than be guilty of other forms of maltreatment.

Neglect may cause long-lasting harm

Some longitudinal research indicates that neglected children may suffer more lasting emotional damage than physically abused children. In addition, studies have revealed that neglected children, along with children who have been abandoned or are in failed placements, suffer from more health problems and worse health overall than children who were sexually or physically abused.

Neglect may also affect a child's cognitive development. Said Patricia Yashima in her chapter in Child Victimization, "Among school-age children, neglect is associated with decreases in children's cognitive functioning, as measured by IQ scores, standard academic achievement tests, language ability, and school performance."

Purposeful v. nonpurposeful neglect

Neglect may be willful, as when a parent refuses to send a child to school, refuses to take a very sick child to the doctor or refuses to buy the child winter clothes in a cold environment, despite having sufficient funds to do so. Neglect may also be unintended, as in the case of a caretaker who is suffering from a severe mental illness or a developmental delay and who is incapable of providing adequate care to a child.

Parents may lack education or knowledge about child care, as with younger teenage parents and, as a result, may neglect their children. Parents may also live in poverty and/or may have substance abuse problems. However, whether the neglect was intentional or not, the end result is the same: the child suffers from neglect. Protective services workers who discover neglect will seek to help the parents rectify the problems that led to the neglectof their children.

In some cases, and especially if the parent or other caregiver acknowledges the problem, children who have been placed in foster care can return home. In other cases, the problems at home cannot be resolved, and children must be placed with other relatives or foster parents. If the parental problem cannot be resolved within about one to two years, the parent's parental rights may be involuntarily terminated, and the child may be then permanently placed with relatives or placed for adoption with relatives, foster parents or nonrelatives.

Mentally ill caregivers

Various forms of mental illness or emotional disturbances can play a rolein parental neglect. Actively psychotic parents are usually unable to care for children, and they may become neglectful or abusive.

Parents who are developmentally delayed may be very well intentioned but may be unable to provide for the needs of their children; however, they may be able to manage parenting with the assistance of others.

Norman Polansky, author of several studies on child neglect, described a condition known as Apathy-Futility Syndrome, similar to psychological depression, which may be observed in severely and chronically neglectful mothers. This syndrome is characterized by emotional numbness, limited intellectual ability and other factors that are often related to the mother's own deprivation during childhood.

Neglect caused by lack of knowledge

Parents who neglect a child's needs because they lack anadequate knowledge of parenting often respond to teaching when it is given sensitively, although sometimes they refuse to comply with appropriate guidance for child care and safety. Ignorance of proper child care can often be corrected by arranging for instruction from a visiting nurse or parent aide.

In some cases, however, it is necessary to terminate the parents' parental rights, so that the child can have a chance at a normal life with another family member, foster parent or adoptive parent.

Living in poverty

Poverty may affect parents' ability to provide the physical necessities for their children. By itself, poverty does not provide a sufficient reason for labeling parents as neglectful. Studies show that the majority of children living in poor families are not neglected. Often conditions that are unhealthy for children can be corrected by the provision of adequate support for food, clothing and housing. The failure by a society to provide an adequate minimum level of support for all children is sometimes called social abuse.

Substance abuse

Substance abuse is another major cause of child neglect, because addicts are often more centered on obtaining their next "fix" than on feeding or clothing their children. Experts say that as many as 75 percent of children in foster care have been removed from their families because of problems with substance abuse, primarily alcohol and/or cocaine as well as other illegal drugs.

Reporters of neglect

Most individuals who report neglectful behavior toward children to the authorities are individuals who are professionals (60.6%), and in 2003, individuals in the legal, law enforcement or criminal justice fields represented 25.7% of all reporters of maltreatment. Among individuals who were nonprofessionals, the largest percentage of reporters of neglect were other relatives (8.4% of the total), anonymous reporters (8.3%) and other reporters (8.1%)

Signs of neglect in children

According to the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information, there are signs that may signal the child is neglected, such as when the child

-           Is frequently absent from school

-           Begs or steals food or money

-           Lacks needed medical or dental care, immunizations or glasses

-           Is consistently dirty and has severe body odor

-           Lacks sufficient clothing for the weather

-           Abuses alcohol or other drugs

-           States that there is no one at home to provide care

Adult caregivers who are neglectful may exhibit particular behaviors as well. Child neglect may be a problem when the parent or other adult caregivers

-           Appears indifferent to the child

-           Seems apathetic or depressed

-           Behaves irrationally or in a bizarre manner

-           Is abusing alcohol or other drugs

Investigation of child neglect

Any investigation of suspected neglect should take into account each child's unique situation. A thorough evaluation includes a medical examination; a review of medical records for evidence of immunization status, a discovery of the number of a child's accidental injuries and the frequency of medical checkups; a report from day care or school officials concerning attendance, academic performance, behavior and diet; and a family assessment that is conducted by a trained social worker, including home visits to assess the child's environment.

References:

1)         Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Child Maltreatment 2003. Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., 2005.

2)         Hashima, Patricia Y. "Prevention of Child Neglect--Toward a Community-Level Approach." In Child Victimization. Kingston, N.J.: Civic Research Institute, 2005, pp. 17-1-17-14.

3)         National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information. "Recognizing Child Abuse and Neglect: Signs and Symptoms," September 2003.

4)         Sirotnak, Andrew P., Joyce K. Moore, and Jean C. Smith. Understanding the Medical Diagnosis of Child Maltreatment: A Guide for Nonmedical Professionals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 169-170.

5)         Straus, Murray A., and Glenda Kufman Kantor. "Definition and Measurement of Neglectful Behavior: Some Principles and Guidelines." Child Abuse & Neglect 29 (2005): 19-29.

Free term papers are not written to satisfy your specific instructions. You can use our professional writing services to buy a custom written research paper, term paper, or essay on Child Abuse at affordable price. CustomTermPapers is the best solution for those who seek help in writing term papers, essays, and research papers related to Child Abuse and other relevant topics.