How are Children Injured?
Children are injured anytime they are harmed, killed, or threatened by words, actions, or intimidations. Child exploitation has many forms and even more dire consequences.
Children are our most precious resources. When children are mistreated, we are not only letting them down, but we are depriving our community of the positive impact that they could have had but for the exploitation. Now, we want to review some issues related to child injuries.
What is Child Abuse?
Child abuse is defined as when a relative, caretaker, friend, or another person through affirmative act or omission injures, kills, emotionally damages, or endangers a child. It can come in many forms, and it can severely alter and damage a child's future.
What Kinds of Child Abuse Are There?
Children are victims of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. However, there are other kinds, and many of them of them take place over an extended period.
- Physical: Physical child abuse occurs when someone intentionally contacts and harms a child. Note, only the contact has to be intentional, not the injuries that result, for physical child abuse to happen. Children can be physically abused in any number of ways including biting, kicking, punching, and shoving. The results can be severe: burns, bruises, blisters, broken bones, and even death. Be on the lookout for signs of child abuse. With physical abuse, they can be visible like a black eye, odd absences from planned activities, or an inability to explain medical conditions.
- Sexual: Sexual abuse among children has exploded onto the national scene over the last twenty years. Children are sexually abused when an adult or older child uses them for sexual purposes or in sexual acts. Typically, it results from actual contact, making them watch it, talk about it, or perform it with third parties. With kids, signs can include physical injuries as well as behavioral changes.
- Emotional: Emotional child abuse relates to when people harm a kid's mental development through actions and words. It can also impair a child's social abilities. Someone need only commit one act to injure children emotionally, but it usually is part of a long-term pattern. Signs of emotional abuse in children include speech problems, bed wetting, biting, anxiety, learning disability, and general developmental issues.
- Neglect: Children deserve what they need to grow up to be healthy, and smart without fear of harm through neglect. Negligence can occur when their families or caretakers do not provide the child with the physical, mental, and emotional support they need. Through neglect, the child can suffer from physical injuries like malnutrition and psychological injuries including developmental problems. There are as many signs of neglect as there are forms of neglect and it is essential to watch out to ensure that all kids get what they need to grow up properly.
What Can I do If My Child is Abused?
There are many people you can talk to and things you can do if you are the victim of child abuse or know someone that is the victim of child abuse. For instance, you can talk to doctors, lawyers, family, and friends. With their help, you can seek safety, justice, and compensation following an incident of abuse.
Child abuse is always costly. Whatever form of abuse you endured, you will inevitably be left with scars whether they run across your self-esteem, skin, or another part of your person. Following the incident, you, your parent, or your guardian might want to take action against the offender for damages or criminal punishment. However, you first should meet with other professionals such as a doctor, a counselor, or even a police officer. You need to treat the victim first and realize that he or she may still be in danger. Courts will always be available to you to focus on the well-being of the abused before looking for legal action.
What Can a Lawyer do?
A lawyer can help you seek civil compensation and protection if you are the victim of child abuse. To understand more about all the options that are available to you, call us at (888) 424-5757.
A lawyer can be instrumental in the context of child abuse. In some cases, the abusive behavior of other may still be ongoing. If that is true, then a lawyer can help separate the victim from the abuser by obtaining a restraining order or speaking with law enforcement officials to remove the kid from offender's vicinity. Following the abuse, if the prosecutor decides to move forward with charges against the person who committed the child abuse, then the attorney can work with the child and the child's family to coordinate matters with the state's office.
Additionally, the abused can decide to file a civil suit for damages against the abuser. Here, a skilled attorney can build and prosecute the case against that person to obtain compensation for the kid and help him or her move beyond this tragedy.
Speak to a Child Injury Attorney Today!
Contact our offices today. You can reach us at (888) 424-5757 or through our site. We have a capable team of attorneys with experience in child injury litigation and a passion for making victims whole again. Much more should be said on this topic, and while the preceding paragraphs give a good sense of the issue, we prefer to lay these things in greater depth when we meet with you in person. During a consultation, we can also walk you through each stage of a lawsuit, so you get a grip on the timeline, challenges, and opportunities of child abuse litigation.
For additional information see the following pages:
- What Can a Child Obtain in a Personal Injury Case?
- What Are Child Injury Laws?
- What Is Institutional Child Abuse?
- What Can I do If I Have Been Harmed or Know a Child That Has Been Harmed?
- What Are Child Injury Cases Worth?
- What Resources Are There For Injured Children?
- How Can a Lawyer Fight For Your Injured Child?
- What Medical Injuries do Children Suffer?
- What Are Typical Childhood Injuries?
- Are Children Injured More Frequently Than Adults?
- Do Children Get Hurt More Than Adults in Hospitals?
- Can I Spank My Child?
- Can I Get in Trouble For Falsely Reporting Child Injuries?
- Do Children's Injury Cases Normally Settle or Go To Trial?