Difference Between Child Abuse And Neglect

Abuse refers to any nonaccidental infliction of injury that severely impairs a child’s physical or mental health (Doerner & Lab, 2012). Child abuse is causing bodily harm to a person who is not 18. There is not a single thing that can contribute to child abuse. However, several risk factors can lead to the abuse taking place. Some of those variables include but are not limited to serious marital problems and violence between family members. These factors can build stress among caregivers and lead them to take it out on a helpless victim in the children. Neglect is the withholding of life essentials (Doerner & Lab, 2012). Neglect is holding things away from the child-like food, clothing or things of that nature. The difference between child abuse and child neglect is that systematic violence is talking about harming the child in a …show more content…
In both ill-treatment and neglect cases, the child could die as a result. The abuse is more forceful in how that is carried out. Neglect is more drawn out over time that and result in the death of a child by withholding necessary items from a child. I believe the reason why people prefer to use child maltreatment is that it includes more. Child maltreatment includes both mental and physical abuse, of which emotional abuse can be just as harmful and lead to devastating results. The Federal Child Abuse, Prevention and treatment act, has had a lot to do with defining child maltreatment. One thing that is in the act is going after the caregiver responsible for the abuse of the child. Another reason why people prefer the term maltreatment Child maltreatment includes all types of ill-treatment and neglect of a child under the age of 18 by a parent, caregiver, or another person in a custodial role (Center For Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). I believe this is the main reason why people prefer maltreatment because it includes more than one area of