WHAT IS CHILD ABUSE?

• Jurisdiction: Australia

[41C.100] Overview

Child abuse is an "umbrella" term used to describe a wide range of actions and failings which cause or may cause harm to children: Goddard (1996). There is no universally accepted definition of what constitutes child abuse. The World Health Organisation defines child maltreatment as all physical and emotional ill treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child's health, development or dignity: WHO Child Maltreatment (2010). Within this definition, five subtypes are:

1. physical abuse;
2. sexual abuse;
3. neglect and negligent treatment;
4. emotional abuse; and
5. exploitation.

A good working definition of child abuse is that a child is considered to be abused if he or she is treated in a way that is unacceptable in a given culture at a given time: Meadow (1997).

While these categories may be useful for epidemiological or mandatory reporting purposes, they are not mutually exclusive. Definitions vary slightly between regions and so do regional categorisations of abuse. These variations result in differences in reporting of child abuse data; for example, one state in Australia might categorise a child's situation as...