and children lessened the need for this sort of intervention.
Nonetheless, for most of this century, the use of physical force to "educate" or discipline a child was accepted by the law as a private prerogative of a parent, the limiting of which was thought to undermine the family. In the 1960s, however, new theories about physical abuse were popularized by the medical community, and laws to detect and prevent physical abuse multiplied. At long last the physical abuse of children was becoming a national priority. And concern over the problem, along with interventions designed to reduce it in society continues to this day.
The Unites States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS, 1997) defines physical child abuse as deliberate physical injury perpetrated upon a child. Physical abuse injuries tend to result from punching, beating, kicking, biting, or burning. The longer the abuse continues, the more serious the injuries to the child and the more difficult it is to eliminate the abusive behavior.
According to the DHHS (1997), approximately one million children each year are substantiated as having been physically abused (3 million per year are reported) with most cases being reported by professionals, including educators, law enforcement, and justice officials, medical and mental health professionals, social service professionals, and child care providers. In about 25 percent of the cases, reports come from either relatives or the child him- or herself.
While child abuse affects children of all ages, the DHHS (1997) reports that about half of all abused and/or neglected children are under 7 years of age. About 27 percent of all children physically abused are school age children between the ages of 8 and 12.
In America, children under eight years of age tend to be more frequently neglected than abused whereas school-aged children tend to be more frequently physically abused than neglected. It is also noted by ...