There are indicators of physical abuse, although these injuries may not necessarily be from abuse. These include bruises, and burning, like cigarette burns on hands or feet, rope burns from confinement, dry burns caused by an iron. There may be lacerations and skeletal injuries, such as bone fractures, stiff, swollen and enlarged joints, or head injuries with missing or loosened teeth, hair tufts missing, and jaw fracture. Internal injuries may also be a sign of child physical abuse.
Physical neglect is a facet of physical abuse. It occurs when a parent or caregiver fails to make proper provision of food, clothing, shelter, hygiene, education or medical care, although financially able or assisted to do so. It may also be reckless disregard for the child’s safety, such as inattention to hazards in the home, drunk driving with children in the car and leaving a baby unattended. It also includes abandoning children without providing for their care, putting them out of the home without making such a provision, or failing to protect them from danger. Statistics show, for example, that 63% of child mistreatment in the United States is from neglect.
I believe that child neglect includes financial abuse. A child is entitled to share in a family’s wealth for their support. They are financially abused, when others appropriate their share for their own use. Sometimes children are forced to steal to meet the financial needs of abusers. Fagin, the ‘merry old gentleman’ in Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist, is the archetypal financial abuser of children, whom he trains to be pickpockets. In real life, the author Martha Long outlines how she was forced to steal from shops, and sell butter to raise money for her mother’s abusive partner.
Neglected children are often unkempt, appear unwashed, have body odour, and wear dirty, ill-fitting, ragged, clothes. They may be hungry, beg for and steal food, search rubbish cans, or gulp down food when it is provided for a group. It is also suspicious if children seem abandoned, are wandering about alone, left in a car, or left alone at home. Physical ill health, chronic tiredness, infected cuts, and stunted growth may be signs of physical neglect. Babies who fail to thrive, or who seem indifferent to their surroundings or to other people may be victims, also.
Adapted from Jim O’Shea’s book Abuse. Domestic Violence, Workplace and School Bullying published by Cork University Press
THERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
PSYCHOTHERAPISTS IN TIPPERARY
COUNSELLORS IN TIPPERARY
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
ABUSE
DEATH OF A CHILD
Blogged to here 10th december 2016