Legal Definitions
of Child
Maltreatment
Includes
2007 Legislation
These legal
definitions include
physical abuse,
sexual abuse, and
neglect.
Mandated Reporters
• Child care worker of • Domestic violence center
foster care worker volunteer
• Coroner • Employee of the
• Day care center worker Department of Human
• Dentist Services
• Dental Hygienist • Employee working under
contract for DYS
• Domestic abuse advocate
• Foster parent
• Domestic violence shelter
• Judge
employee
• Law enforcement official
Mandated Reporters cont.
• Licensed nurse • Surgeon
• Medical personnel engaged in • Teacher
admission, examination, care • CASA – program staff or
or treatment of persons volunteer
• Mental health professional • Juvenile intake or probation
• Osteopath officer
• Peace officer • Clergy (with exceptions)
• Physician • Employee of a child advocacy
• Prosecuting attorney center
• Resident intern
• School counselor
• Social worker
Child abuse is considered
acts or omissions by:
• Parent;
• Guardian;
• Custodian;
• Foster Parent; or
• Any person that is entrusted with the juvenile’s
care including but not limited to an agent or
employee of a public or private home, child care
facility, school or any person legally responsible
for juvenile’s welfare.
• STOP: There is one exception!
Abandonment
• Parent fails to provide reasonable support
and to maintain regular contact and parent
intends for this to go on indefinitely;
• Failure to support or maintain contact
without just cause; or
• An articulated intent to forego parental
responsibility. (STOP: Examples!)
Abandoned Infant
• An infant less than 9-months-old and whose
parent, guardian, or custodian left the child
alone or in the possession of another person
without identifying information or expression of
intent by words, actions, or omissions not to
return for the infant.
• (Please note: This definition comes from the
Juvenile Code, not the Maltreatment Act).
Abandonment (From
maltreatment Act)
• Failure of a parent to:
– Provide reasonable support and to maintain regular
contact with a juvenile through statement or contact
when the failure is accompanied by an intention on
the part of the parent to permit the condition to
continue for an indefinite period in the future;
– Support or maintain regular contact with a juvenile
without just cause; or
• An articulated intent to forego parental
responsibility.
Abuse
• Extreme or repeated cruelty to a juvenile;
• Creating a realistic and serious threat of
death, permanent or temporary
disfigurement, or impairment of any bodily
organ;
• Injury to juvenile’s intellectual, emotional,
or psychological development;
• Any injury that is at variance with history
given;
• Any non accidental physical injury;
Abuse
• Any of the following intentional or knowing
acts with physical injury and without
justifiable cause:
– Throwing, kicking, burning, biting or cutting a
child;
– Striking a child with a closed fist;
– Shaking a child;
– Striking a child on face or head;
Abuse
• Any of the following intentional or knowing
acts, with or without physical injury:
– Striking a child 6 or younger on the face or
head;
– Shaking a child age 3 or younger;
– Interfering with a child’s breathing; or
– Pinching, biting, or striking a child in the
genital area.
Abuse
• Tying a child to a fixed or heavy object or
binding or tying a child’s limbs together;
• Giving a child or permitting a child to
consume or inhale a poisonous or noxious
substance not prescribed by a physician
that has the capacity to interfere with
normal physiological functions;
Abuse
• Giving a child or permitting a child to
consume or inhale a substance not
prescribed by a physician that has the
capacity to alter the mood of a child
including:
– Marijuana;
– Alcohol (except for religious reasons);
– Narcotics;
– Over-the-counter drugs if purposely
overdosed or inappropriate over-the-counter
drugs and child is detrimentally impacted;
Abuse
• Exposing a child to chemicals that have the
capacity to interfere with normal physiological
function, including chemicals used or generated
during the manufacture of methamphetamine;
• Subjecting a child to Munchausen’s Syndrome
by Proxy or a Factitious Illness by Proxy if the
incident is reported and confirmed by medical
personnel.
• STOP: What is MSBP Maltreatment?
Abuse
• Shall not include physical discipline of a
child when it is reasonable and moderate
and is inflicted by a parent or guardian for
purposes of restraining or correcting a
child.
• Stop! How do you determine reasonable
and moderate?
Reasonable and Moderate
• Age, size and condition of the child
• Location of the injury
• Frequency/reoccurrence
Abuse
• Shall not include when a child suffers
transient pain or temporary marks as a
result of restraint if:
– Restrainer is employee of licensed agency;
– Agency has policy regarding restraints;
– Child is in danger of hurting self or others;
– There are no other alternatives;
– Restrainer has been trained properly; and
– Restraint is for reasonable period of time.
Dependent-Neglected Juvenile
• Any juvenile who is at substantial risk of harm as
a result of:
– Abandonment; abuse; sexual abuse; sexual
exploitation; neglect; parental unfitness to the
juvenile, a sibling, or another juvenile; or
– Being present in a dwelling or structure during the
manufacturing of methamphetamines with the
knowledge of a parent, guardian, or custodian.
– The definitions on this slide come from the Juvenile
Code
Deviate Sexual Activity
• Any act of sexual gratification involving:
– Penetration, however slight, of the anus or
mouth of one person by the penis of another
person; or
– Penetration, however slight, of the labia
majora or anus of one person by any body
member or foreign instrument manipulated by
another person;
Forcible Compulsion
• Means physical force, intimidation, or a threat,
expressed or implied, of physical injury to or
death, rape, sexual abuse, or kidnapping of any
person;
• The age, developmental stage, and stature of
the victim and the relationship of the victim to the
assailant, as well as the threat of deprivation of
affection, rights, and privileges from the victim by
the assailant weigh in when proving
“compulsion”
• STOP: Why do you think this is important?
Indecent Exposure
• Means the exposure by a person of the
person’s sexual organs for the purpose of
arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of
the person or of any person under
circumstances in which the person knows
the conduct is likely to cause affront or
harm;
Near Fatality
• Means an act that, as certified by a
physician, places the child in serious or
critical condition;
Neglect
• Failure or refusal to prevent the abuse of the
juvenile when the person knows or has
reasonable cause to know the juvenile is or has
been abused;
• Failure or refusal to provide necessary food,
clothing, shelter, education required by law and
medical treatment; STOP: Caveats
• Failure to take reasonable action to protect the
juvenile from abandonment, abuse, sexual
abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect or parental
unfitness when the existence of the condition
was known or should have been known;
Neglect
• Failure or irremediable inability to provide
for the essential and necessary physical,
mental, or emotional needs of the juvenile
including the failure to provide a shelter
that does not pose a risk to the health or
safety of the juvenile;
• STOP: What do we mean by irremediable
inability?
Neglect
• Failure to provide care and maintenance,
proper or necessary support, or medical,
surgical, or other necessary care;
• Failure to assume responsibility for care
and custody;
Neglect
• Failure to appropriately supervise that
results in juvenile’s being left alone at an
inappropriate age or in inappropriate
circumstances creating a dangerous
situation or a situation that puts the child at
risk for harm;
Neglect (Garrett’s Law)
• Shall also include causing a child to be born
with:
– An illegal substance present in the newborn’s bodily
fluid or bodily substances as a result of the pregnant
mother knowingly using an illegal substance before
the birth of the newborn; or
– At the time of birth of a child the presence of an illegal
substance in the mother’s bodily fluids or bodily
substances as a result of the pregnant mother’s
knowingly using an illegal substance before the birth
of the child.
– “Illegal” means a drug prohibited to be used or
possessed without a prescription
Garrett’s Law Cont.
• Requires initiation of the investigation in
24 hours even though it is not defined as
“severe” maltreatment.
• When making the determination, there is
now a category of “True but Exempted” for
Garrett’s Law cases.
• STOP!! Discuss implications for
protection and case work.
Pornography
• Pictures, movies, or videos that lack
serious literary, artistic, political, scientific
value and that, when taken as a whole and
applying contemporary community
standard, would appear to the average
person to the prurient interest;
Pornography
• Material that depicts sexual conduct in a
patently offensive manner lacking serious
literary, artistic, political, or scientific value;
• Obscene or licentious material;
Serious Bodily Injury
• Bodily injury that involves substantial risk
of death, extreme physical pain, protracted
and obvious disfigurement, or protracted
loss or impairment of the function of a
bodily member, organ, or mental faculty;
Severe Maltreatment
• Sexual abuse • Burns
• Sexual exploitation • Immersions
• Acts, or omissions • Suffocation
which may or do • Abandonment
result in death • Medical diagnosis of
• Abuse involving the failure to thrive
use of a deadly • Causing a substantial
weapon and observable
• Bone fracture change in the
• Internal injuries behavior of the child
Sexual Abuse
• By a person 10-years-old or older to a
person younger than 18-years-old:
– Sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or
sexual contact by forcible compulsion;
– Attempted sexual intercourse, deviate sexual
activity, or sexual contact by forcible
compulsion;
– Indecent exposure;
– Forcing the watching of pornography or live
sexual activity;
Sexual Abuse
• By a person 18-years-old or older to a
person not his or her spouse who is
younger than 16-years-old:
– Sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or
sexual contact; or
– Attempted sexual intercourse, deviate sexual
activity, or sexual contact;
– Forcing listening to a phone sex line;
– An act of voyeurism
Sexual Abuse
• By a sibling or caretaker to a person
younger than 18-years-old:
– Sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or
sexual contact;
– Attempted sexual intercourse, deviate sexual
activity, or sexual contact;
Sexual Abuse
• By a caretaker to a person younger than
18-years-old:
– Forcing or encouraging the watching of
pornography; or
– Forcing, permitting, or encouraging the
watching of live sexual activity;
Sexual Abuse
• By a person younger than 10-years-old to
a person younger than 18-years-old:
– Sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity, or
sexual contact by forcible compulsion;
– Attempted sexual intercourse, deviate sexual
activity, or sexual contact by forcible
compulsion;
Sexual Contact
• Means any act of sexual gratification
involving:
– Touching, directly or through clothing, of the
sex organs, buttocks, or anus of a person or
breast of a female;
– Encouraging a child to touch the offender in a
sexual manner; or
– Offender requesting to touch the child in a
sexual manner;
Sexual Exploitation
• Allowing, permitting, or encouraging
participation or depiction of the child in:
– Prostitution;
– Obscene photography;
– Obscene filming;
• Obscenely depicting, obscenely posing, or
obscenely posturing a child for any use or
purpose;
Underage Juvenile Aggressor
• Any child younger than 10-years-old from
whom a report of sexual abuse has been
determined to be true for sexual abuse to
another child.