Each day, the safety and well-being of children across the Nation are threatened by child abuse and neglect. Intervening effectively in the lives of these children and their families are not the sole responsibility of any agency, but rather the safety and the care of the children in need. Child Protective Services (CPS) was created by law to make sure children are safe and to help families create a safe environment for their children. When investigating a report of abuse or neglect, CPS seeks active involvement from the children’s parents and other family members to help solve issues that lead to abuse or neglect. The objective of CPS is to reunify parents and children whenever possible, and if reunification is not possible, CPS will seek to
The overarching goal of Child Protective Services (CPS) is to protect children from instances of future abuse or neglect. In general, CPS is responsible for investigations of allegations of abuse and neglect, to initiate child protective proceedings and place children into foster homes when needed, with each state taking a different approach in how their agency is structured and operated. In the state of New York, CPS “first obligation is to help the family with services to prevent its break-up or to reunite it if the child has already left home” (FindLaw, 2016). The protection of the child focuses “on the child in the context of the family, and recognizes the value of the family to the child” (NY Committee on Children and Families, 2001).
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 has been enacted to that purpose which grants permission to the States to implement child abuse and neglect preventing programs. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1974 empowered the States to receive federal reimbursement for the foster care to create social programs in order to help the families for preventing them from putting any children into risk and removing the children if required. When a child is removed from his biological family, the court tries its best to reunite the child which his family, but the rehabilitation process include a number of formalities which results into the child’s stay with a foster family for a long time. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 supported that and suggested the States to take necessary steps to do so, for eg., in every six months, a judicial or administrative review of a child’s plan and the families are given a goal for a set of eighteen months for making it better to reunite the children with their respective families or terminating the parental rights and make the child free for adoption.
The nature of child abuse and neglect and the impact it may have on children and young people.
According to Crosson-Tower (2010), children enter foster care for causes such as but not limited to physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment, domestic violence, substance abuse, and physical or mental illness of parents. In addition, she states that the death of parents can cause a child to enter foster care if no available relatives could undertake their care. Many of these causes of child maltreatment may also come from parents who are poor, uneducated, and experienced childhood trauma (Crosson-Tower, 2010). Therefore, the cycle of child abuse and neglect will continue if not provided the necessary services to prevent and treat the
Policies are put in place for people to follow not only in the government setting but also in much smaller settings. According to Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016) defines policy as a clearly stated or implicit procedure, plan, rule, or stance concerning some issue that serves to guide decision making and behavior (p. 87). In the social work field policies are put into place so that there is guarantee that all clients are treated with the same respect and are offered the resources that are available to them in their community. In this paper I will discuss policies that are in place for children that are being abused and what is in place to help them. Not only are we concerned with if these policies are working but also how are they being paid
It focuses on the death from abuse and neglect of nearly 68% of children 4 years old and younger. The consequences of child maltreatment can be severely damaging to a child and can result in poor health, depression, cancer, premature death, and substance abuse into adulthood. It talks about the different type of abuse and neglect whether physical, medical, educational, emotional and sexual. Abandonment is the most common type of commitment in contradiction of children. It also focuses on the solutions and outcomes of helping new parents gain knowledge of basic parenting skills by matching new families with trained nurses or
The subject of child abuse made headlines in America again in the year 1962, when an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association described the symptoms of child abuse and considered child abuse to be diagnosed medically. Due to the heavy press and media coverage around this one particular article, inside 10 years each state had statutes known as "obligatory reporting”. Compulsory reporting laws require certain experts, for example, specialists, and educators, to report speculated children mishandle to the state, child defensive administrations office or other appropriate powers. CAPTA was marked into government law. This further supported endeavor to end child mishandle by financing programs that help people perceive and report child abuse and to give shelter and numerous different administrations to ensure
American Academy of Pediatrics. "Child Abuse and Neglect: the section of child abuse and neglect (SOCAN)." n.d. A. aap Organizaton Website. Print. 22 November 2016.
Every year, 2 million children come into contact with the child welfare system due to investigations of parental abuse or neglect (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2004). A recent policy implemented by Anytown’s Department of Job and Family Services pertains to the issue of child endangerment. It states that, “any household having one or more documented offenses of domestic violence, child abuse, or drug or alcohol related offenses committed by the mother, father, guardian, and/ or caregiver, will result in the removal of any child or children from the home.” The child will be placed in the care of the state until documentation can be provided on the offender, whereas they are “offense free” for a period of no less than six
No research to date has indicated that applying harsher penalties or mandating national registries has reduced the recidivism rates among sex offenders, reduced sex trafficking against minors, nor child pornography. Despite the ongoing efforts of The Adam Walsh Act alongside other child safety acts as well, children in the United States are still perishing from sexual and physical abuse each day. According to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), “49 States reported a total of 1,585 fatalities. Based on these data, a nationally estimated 1,670 children died from abuse or neglect in FFY 2015, which is 5.7 percent more than in 2011. This translates to a rate of 2.25 children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of nearly five children dying every day from abuse or neglect”.(www.childwarefare.gov) Human Rights Watch shares that “the real risks that children face are quite different: government statistics indicate that most sexual abuse of children are committed by family members or trusted authority figures, and by someone who has not previously been convicted of a sex offense.”(www.hrw.org) Consequently, when evaluating the evidence that is present it is safe to say, that despite all of the efforts that are put forth every day to protect our youth, some people still have the potential to prey on those whom cannot defend themselves. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 has afforded the public with ammunition to fire back at those who prey on the vulnerable. Therefore, the foundation has been laid, for the public to build upon and grow with the knowledge that we are able to obtain to keep our children safe. Furthermore, we cannot solely rely on law enforcement, and others to keep our children safe we have to be proactive within the
The first is the Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), which attempt to protect children from maltreatment and neglect. CAPTA provides state guidelines to determine child abuse and neglect, based on a set of behaviors. For example, a child can be neglected and/or maltreated still in the mother’s womb because the child was “prenatally exposed to illegal substances” (Price, Bergin, et al, 2012). Thus, in this instance professionals who are aware of this occurrence are required to report it to CPS, specifically under CAPTA because of the guidelines that are enforced to protect these children from neglect and/or maltreatment. Another is the Protect Our Kids Act. Congress passed this legislation in 2012, which enables the President and Congressional leaders to designate a group of people to determine strategies to help reduce child abuse and neglect tragedies and fatalities (Congress Passes Protect Our Kids Act to Reduce Child Abuse Fatalities,
The federal law, “The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006”, took effect July 27, 2006 signed by President Bush. It established the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, also known as “SORNA”. This law played a big role to make federal laws stronger and protect those who cannot protect themselves. It helped to prevent our children from sexual crimes, and and make the internet safer. If failure to register, it’s a federal criminal penalty of up to 10 years of imprisonment. Among its many requirements, the sex offenders are divided into three tiers and having different registry periods for each.
Each year in America alone, an estimate of two million children, ranging from infants to teenagers go through minor or major kinds of abuse which include neglect, physical, emotional, and sexual maltreatment. According to the National American Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse represented 22%, sexual abuse represented 8%, emotional maltreatment represented 4%, and other forms of maltreatment represented12%. It also indicates that child abuse is far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are
Child abuse can be committed in several ways and the impact it has on the victim is extremely serious and does not only affect them in childhood but also adulthood.