A CHILD  ABUSE FATALITY 

 

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child or children. Child maltreatment is any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that result in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Child abuse can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. There a four major categories of child abuse : neglect, physical abuse, phychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.

Physical abuse involves physical aggression directed at a child by an adult. Most nations with child-abuse laws consider the deliberate infliction of serious injuries, or actions that place the child at obvious risk of serious injury or death, to be illegal. Physical abuse is the intentional or non-accidental production of a physical injury. Bruises, scratches, burns, broken bones, lacerations, as well as repeated "mishaps" and rough treatment that could cause physical injury, are the results of physical abuse.

Child Sexual abuse is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Sexual abuse refers to the participation of a child in a sexual act aimed toward the physical gratification or the financial profit of the person committing the act.

Psychological/ emotional abuse is defined as the production of psychological and social deficits in the growth of a child as a result of behavior such as loud yelling, coarse and rude attitude, inattention, harsh criticism, denigration of the child's personality, destruction of personal belongings, torture or killing of a pet, inappropriate  or excessive demands, withholding communication, and routine labeling or humiliation.

Child neglect  is the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provided needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child's health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm.

A child abuse fatality occurs when a child's death is the result of abuse or neglect, or when abuse and/or neglect are contributing factors to a child's death. A 1988 study of child murdered in the US found that children are 100 times more often killed by a "non-biological parent "( e.g. step-parent, co-habitee or boyfriend/girlfriend of a biological parent) than a biological parent. An evolutionary psychology explanation for this is that using resources in order to take care of another person's biological child is likely not a good strategy for increasing reproductive success. More generally, stepchildren have a much higher risk of being abused which is sometimes referred to as the Cinderella effect. The Cinderella Effect is often regarded as one of the great successes of  Evolutionary Psychology research - the parents are more likely to kill their stepchildren than their biological children using evolutionary logic - as described by Daly and Wilson (Mr Samsa,The Chinderella Effect: Just a Fairytale?, 2010).