Child and Family Resource Council

Protecting children, supporting families,
and strengthening our community.

Defining Abuse/Neglect

Defining Child Physical Abuse, Maltreatment and Neglect:

  1. Child Abuse: a non-accidental injury to a child which, regardless of motive, is inflicted or allowed to be inflicted by the person responsible for the child's care.
  2. Child Maltreatment: includes, but is not limited to, malnutrition, sexual molestation, deprivation of necessities, emotional maltreatment, or cruel punishment.
  3. Child Neglect: a condition in which a caretaker responsible for the child, either deliberately or by extraordinary inattentiveness, permits the child to experience avoidable present suffering and/or fails to provide one or more of the ingredients generally deemed essential for developing a person's physical, intellectual, and emotional capacities.