Physical Abuse and Injury

Introduction

Physical abuse is an act that is done to intentionally hurt or injure another person through bodily harm. This includes biting, pushing, slapping, burning, kicking and other acts that cause physical harm to somebody else. In most cases, children are the victims of physical abuse whether it be by their parents/ family members or other children. However, adults can suffer from physical abuse too by their partner or somebody they know. Physical abuse is a part of bullying and harassment and is used to aggressively pressure or intimidate somebody else in order to get them to do something or to scare them.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is constant emotional maltreatment towards somebody else; Emotional abuse is also known as psychological abuse. Emotional abuse could be deliberate ongoing criticism towards someone, intimidation and threats, undermining, making somebody always feel guilty for their actions, isolating/ ignoring someone and trying to scare or humiliate them. Anybody from adult to child can suffer from being emotionally abused. However, children are more vulnerable as they are not as aware as adults are. 1 in 14 children suffer from emotional abuse from a parent or guardian which can seriously damage their emotional development and health.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse is usually undesired sexual behaviour by a person upon another. If somebody is sexually abused they are forced or persuaded to take part in any sexual act. If this is a child they are usually too scared to speak out about it or they do not understand what is happening. Therefore, they may not even understand that they have been sexually abused and that it is wrong. There are two different types of sexual abuse and these are called contact abuse and non- contact abuse.

Contact abuse can include sexual touching of any part of the child’s body with or without clothing, Rape or any sort of penetration, forcing a child to take part in a sexual activity and forcing a child to take their clothes off and touch other people. Non- contact abuse includes forcing a child to watch or hear sexual acts, online abuse, showing pornography to a child and meeting a child following sexual grooming with the intent of abusing them. Neglect Neglect is when you continuously fail to care for something.

Therefore, neglecting a child means that you fail to meet their basic needs such as clean clothing, food, water, hygiene, shelter, medical care and supervision. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse and may put the child in danger of physical or emotional abuse too. In addition, neglect can put a child in danger and give them long term damage and in serious cases, death.

Domestic Abuse

Domestic abuse occurs in relationships (and can continue even after the relationship has ended) and is any type of violence, bullying, controlling or threatening behaviour towards someone. Domestic abuse is defined broadly and can include physical, sexual, emotional, financial and psychological abuse. Both men or women can be the abuser or abused and domestic abuse can occur in adult or teenage relationships. If a child witnesses domestic abuse then it is child abuse as it will negatively affect them and may affect their emotional development and progress.