However, Missouri's defines child abuse as " any physical injury, sexual abuse or emotional abuse inflicted on a child other than by accidental means by those responsible for the child's custody and control, except that discipline including spanking, administered in a reasonable manner, shall not be considered to be abuse". The definition for neglect is as follows "as a failure to provide, by those responsible for the care, custody and control of the child, the proper or necessary support, education as required by law, nutrition, medical, surgical or any other care necessary for the child's well-being" (Goldman, Salus, Wolcott and Kennedy 2003, p.31). Although defining child abuse is complicated there are 4 common types of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional abuse.
First, it is important to know what indicators of physical abuse are. According to the (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) some acts of physical abuse: punching, beating, kicking, biting, stabbing, and choking are some of the more extreme actions. It is a safe to say when saying that children do better when they live in safe, stable and nurturing environments, yet too many children lack this fundamental foundation. Every year millions of children are abused or neglected, some of which so frequently and traumatically that they are removed from their homes by the state and placed in the foster care system. But for too many of these children a foster home is no safe haven. In the best cases, the child gets removed from that particular home whether it be biological or their foster home. Hopefully to never return unless proper implications are taken, otherwise the child will be returning to the same dangerous environment they previously removed from. In worse cases children are murdered. Another form of abuse children experience is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse can be simply defined as touching or non-touching offences.
