Child Abuse Law

The ABA Center on Children and the Law, a program of the Young Lawyers Division, aims to improve children's lives through advances in law, justice, knowledge, practice and public policy. Our areas of expertise include child abuse and neglect, child welfare and protective services system enhancement, foster care, family preservation, termination of parental rights, parental substance abuse, adolescent health, and domestic violence.

The Legislative Assembly finds that for the purpose of facilitating the use of protective social services to prevent further abuse, safeguard and enhance the welfare of abused children, and preserve family life when consistent with the protection of the child by stabilizing the family and improving parental capacity, it is necessary and in the public interest to require mandatory reports and investigations of abuse of children and to encourage voluntary reports.

The basis for government's intervention in child maltreatment is grounded in the concept of parens patriae—a legal term that asserts that government has a role in protecting the interests of children and in intervening when parents fail to provide proper care. Beginning in the late 19th century, States and local jurisdictions started initiating mechanisms to assist and protect children. Then in 1912, the Federal Government established the Children's Bureau to guide Federal programs that were designed to support State child welfare programs as well as to direct Federal aid to families, which began with the passage of the Social Security Act (SSA) in 1935. The child welfare policy of the SSA layered Federal funds over existing State-supervised and administered programs that were already in place.

Child abuse and neglect are defined by Federal and State laws. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the Federal legislation that provides minimum standards that States must incorporate in their statutory definitions of child abuse and neglect. The CAPTA definition of "child abuse and neglect" refers to: * "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm"

The U.S. Congress has passed several laws that require states to implement sex offender and crimes against children registries: the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, the Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act, and Megan's Law. On March 5, 2003, the United States Supreme Court ruled that information about potential predators may be publicly posted on the Internet.

To provide for the registration of sex offenders and for appropriate notification of their whereabouts, and for other purposes.

A person who, while engaged in a professional capacity or activity described in subsection (b) of this section on Federal land or in a federally operated (or contracted) facility, learns of facts that give reason to suspect that a child has suffered an incident of child abuse, shall as soon as possible make a report of the suspected abuse to the agency designated under subsection (d) of this section.

The activities of the European Children’s Network are founded on a list of principles to which all members subscribe. These principles and objectives represent the core values that underpin the work of the European Children’s Network and are based on the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The programme "Building a Europe for and with children" is being implemented further to the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe (Warsaw 2005). It is also a response to the Organisation's mandate to guarantee an integrated approach to promoting children's rights and the decision to launch a three-year programme covering the social, legal, educational and health dimensions relevant to protecting children from various forms of violence.

States Parties to the present Charter shall take specific legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and especially physical or mental injury or abuse, neglect or maltreatment including sexual abuse, while in the care of the child.

Family violence is against the law in Canada. Although the Criminal Code does not refer to any specific "family violence offence," an abuser can be charged with an applicable offence.

Child abuse or maltreatment refers to all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment of commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. This definition covers a broad spectrum usually grouped in four types: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect.

Founded in 1877, the American Humane Association is the only national organization dedicated to protecting both children and animals. A nonprofit membership organization, American Humane is headquartered in Denver. Through a network of child and animal protection agencies and individuals, American Humane provides national leadership in developing policies, legislation, curricula and training programs -- and taking actions -- to protect children and animals from cruelty, abuse, neglect and exploitation.

The webpage canee.net is run by the Nobody's Children Foundation, based in Poland, with financial support of the OAK Foundation. It is dedicated to the problem of abused and neglected children in Central and Eastern Europe. It includes information on the scale and various dimensions of this negative phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe – results of research, statistics and legislation in force concerning situation of children. This page also consists of descriptions of activities undertaken in order to protect children’s rights.

The Child Abuse Prevention Network is the flagship service of LifeNET (Life Network Engineering Technologies, Inc.) Begun in 1995, the Network now serves over 30,000 visitors a month. While most of our visitors come from the USA, we also have users from over 120 countries around the world. LifeNET has as its motto: Making a World of Difference for Families. The Network is doing that: most of our users are professionals, but many are families. Besides our public websites, we also operate private communities of professionals -- on a membership-only basis -- in order to assist them in solving complex problems in the field of child abuse.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. That means we are part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces.

Since its inception in 1995, the International Child Abuse Network has held itself to the following mission statement. Working world-wide to break the cycle of child abuse.

The International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect, founded in 1977, is the only multidisciplinary international organization that brings together a worldwide cross-section of committed professionals to work towards the prevention and treatment of child abuse, neglect and exploitation globally.

The National Center has a mission: �To educate and train parents and professionals, and to conduct research that will prevent the shaking and abuse of infants in the United States�. Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is the leading cause of death in abusive head trauma (AHT) cases. An estimated 1,200 to 1,400 children are injured or killed by shaking every year in the United States. Actual numbers may be much higher as many likely go undetected. Over 300 babies a year die from being shaken in the United States.

Victims of Violence is a national nonprofit, non-government funded charitable organization that was founded in 1984. We are dedicated to the prevention of crimes against children and in this respect to educating children on personal safety issues. We have a wide variety of child safety and educational materials available through our head office.

Best Interests provides news and resources for professionals and volunteers who advocate for abused and neglected children.

The relationship between parent and child is of fundamental importance to U.S. society, because it preserves the safety and provides for the nurture of dependent individuals. For this reason, the parent-child relationship is given special legal consideration. Increasingly, local, state, and federal governments have become more involved in the relationship, especially when a child is abused or neglected. In addition, parental roles have shifted over time, and the law has moved with these changes. Legal rights that were once the sole province of the father are now shared with the mother, and, in general, the law seeks to treat parents equally.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Children's Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Resource Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention created this resource guide targeted specifically for service providers who work with parents, other caregivers, and their children with the common goal of strengthening families.

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