A third type of abuse is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is any type of inappropriate sexual behavior with a child. It includes fondling a child's genitals, making the child fondle the adult's genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism and sexual exploitation. To be considered child abuse these acts have to be committed by a person responsible for the care of a child (for example a baby-sitter, a parent, or a daycare provider) or related to the child. If a stranger commits these acts, it would be considered sexual assault and handled solely be the police and criminal courts.
Another type of abuse is physical abuse. Physical abuse is inflicting of physical injury upon a child. This may include, burning, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating, or otherwise harming a child. The parent or caretaker may not have intended to hurt the child; the injury is not an accident. It may, however, been the result of over-discipline or physical punishment that is inappropriate to the child's age (Khatri 2002).
These are only a few of the types of abuse that children in this and other countries suffer each day at the hands of strangers, friends, relatives, and even their own parents.
Statistics of Child Abuse.
According to the text, Juvenile Delinquency: The Core, it is almost impossible to estimate the extent of child abuse. Many victims are so young that they have not learned to communicate. Some are too embarrassed or afraid. Many incidents occur behind closed door sand, even when another adult witnesses inappropriate or criminal behavior, the adult may not want to get involved in a "family matter" (Siegel 2002).
In 1998, there were an estimated 903,000 victims of maltreatment nationwide. This rate was 12.9 per 1,000 children. An estimated 1,100 children died of abuse and neglect, a rate of approximately 1.6 deaths per 100,000 children in the general population. 37.9 percent of these were children under the age of 1 year old, and 77.
