Child Abuse Laws

Child abuse has been around for a long period of time. Children have been subjected to abuse at the hands of their parents and other adults since the beginning of time. For many centuries, our laws failed to protect children against being abused. Under English common law children were considered property of their father and women were property of their husbands until the late 1800s. During the 16th and 17th century the American colonist carried this philosophy of children being property of their fathers until the early years of the United States. In the early 1870s was when the abuse of a child captured the nations attention. It was the case of Mary Ellen Wilson that captured the attention of the nation, due to it being reported that an 8 …show more content…
Nearly 10 years after the article being published, every state had a statue known as “mandatory reporting” laws. The mandatory reporting laws require certain professionals (doctors and teachers) to report suspected child abuse to the proper authority (Macfie, J., Cicchetti, D., and Toth, S. 2001). The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was established in 1974 and provided funding for those programs to help identify and report child abuse and also to provide shelter for the victims of abuse. Although there are laws in effect to help eliminate child abuse, it still occurs. Child abuse is a common occurrence in the United States. It is estimated that 3 million reports of child abuse are reported each year and involve almost 6 million children (Child Welfare Information Gateway. 2013). It is also reported that 4 to 5 children are killed by child abuse or neglect a day and children whose parents use drugs or abuse alcohol are 3 times more likely to be abused and 4 times likely to be