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Abuse and Neglect Laws
What is child neglect?
State laws make it a criminal offense for parents and legal guardians to fail to meet children's
basic needs, including food, shelter, clothes, medical treatment, and supervision. Such failure
constitutes child neglect.
What persons and what types of actions are covered by child abuse laws?
It is a crime for adults to abuse children in their care. Such adults include parents, foster
parents, legal guardians, other adults in the home, family members, and baby-sitters. Supervising
adults may not go beyond reasonable physical punishment. For example, adults who beat
children so severely that they require medical treatment have violated these laws. Child abuse
laws involve not only physical abuse (such as beatings or starvation), but other types of cruelty,
such as sexual molestation and subjecting a child to extreme public humiliation.
A person may be guilty of child abuse that he or she did not personally commit if that
person had legal responsibility for the child and failed to protect the child from the abuser.
TAKING CHILDREN AWAY FROM THEIR PARENTS
Whether or not a criminal case is brought, the state may remove children from the custody of
their parents if there is reason to believe the parents are physically, sexually, or emotionally
abusing one or more of the children. The state also may remove the children if the parents are
unable or unwilling to provide adequate care, supervision, and support
Who has a duty to report suspected child neglect and abuse?
The law compels a wide range of people who have contact with children to report suspected
child abuse or neglect. Such people include doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, and
childcare providers . A person who is required to report suspected neglect or abuse may face
civil or criminal penalties for failure to do so. In addition, states often encourage the reporting of
suspected abuse by others such as neighbors and family members through special hot lines. The
laws of most states encourage persons to make reports of abuse by granting them immunity
from defamation suits by the accused parents if they make the report in good faith. Some states
keep central lists of suspected child abuse cases. This helps identify parents, for example, who
take their children to different hospitals in order to conceal the evidence that they have
repeatedly abused their children.
If the law takes children away from their parents, is the removal temporary or
permanent?
The goal usually is to reunite the family after correcting the problems that led to the removal.
This, however, is not always possible. For example, if the parents make little or no effort to
improve the children's care, then the state may ask a court to end all parental rights. If this
happens, the legal bonds between parents and children are completely and permanently cut, and
another family may adopt the children.
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