Crimes are unlawful, unjust, shameful or senseless activities. It can also be defined as a violation of morality and is punishable by law. Crimes are defined by criminal law that is a body that has rules that prohibit character that the government indicates as harmful to the society. Crimes can be divided into four major types that are personal crimes, beginning or incomplete crimes, statutory crimes, and property crimes. Beginning or incomplete crimes are the crimes that begun but were not completed, they include attempted robbery and conspiracy. Statutory crimes are the crime of a state and can be a personal offence or property offence. Property crimes are crimes that do not involve harm against an individual but a right to enjoy their belonging. While personal crimes are crimes or crimes against an individual that may be physical or mental, they include kidnapping, false incarceration, rape, assault and battery (Jaudes et al., 2011). Crimes against children is an example of personal crimes since it is a violation against the child. A child can be defined as a person between birth and puberty and according to different countries, the age of a child varies. Normally a child is at the age of below eighteen years of age. There are various types of crimes against children, and they involve sexual assault, assault, homicide, robbery and theft, physical child abuse, child neglect, child injury and child abuse. Child crimes can, therefore, be emotion, psychological, physical, neglect, abandonment, sexual, parental drug abuse and child abuse.
Sexual assault or sexual offences against children can be defined as forced sexual contact this may include molestation, rape, sexual threats, and sexual harassment. Sexual assault has increased with the abuse of all stages in childhood including infants this has led to the expansion of the body of literature on sexual assault and the increased media and social coverage of sexual assault. Sexual abuse ranges from sexual intercourse to sexual touching to non-touching offenses. The sexual violations cam include engaging a child in prostitution, using children to film pornography, exposing a child to sexual intercourse, pornographic material, masturbation in front of the child, fondling and forcing a child to play with someone’s sexual organs. Sexual abuse in children is hard to prove or identify since children most of the time fear the consequences of reporting the action. In most case the child’s statement is the only statement and unless there is a good reason to overlook the claim the sexual assault report should be taken seriously. It is sometimes difficult to prove sexual abuse hence it is important to note the indirect signs if the child does not make a direct disclosure. The indirect pointer of sexual assault may be diseases contracted or in the case of a girl little, pregnancy. In some instances, the child grows up traumatized without the parents or guardian noting anything and can maybe open up at their forties or even fifties.
Parents at times may suspect sexual abuse and in this case, the immediate behavioral changes to look up for include feeding and bowel problems, problems with thriving and sleep disturbance. Fear of specific people or places, vomiting, excessive crying, nightmares, shame, guilt, and masturbation that is in excess, bed wetting and even anxiety, suicidal gestures, evil, depression, poor school performance, aggression, anger and early marriage or pregnancy. When there are combinations of some signs, then action should be taken before it is beyond control. Sexually abused children are affected greatly, it affects their childhood and may lead to loss of self-esteem and loss of identity and later in life it can cause difficulty in relationships when the time is right for relationships. Prevention and protection of children against child abuse are much better than waiting to solve the problem (Dubowitz et al., 2000). Parents, therefore, ought to protect their children from abuse by teaching them about their sexuality and teaching them how to handle themselves around the opposite sex in case of teenagers. Protection is also necessary, parents ought to protect their children from sexual abuse by observing their behavior around certain people. In case a child is already abused, it is important to let them know that it was never their fault, and they should not feel guilty or ashamed. Immediately on discovering abuse it is important to report the matter to the police after visiting the hospital for various tests on infections.
Child physical abuse is the non-accidental trauma or harm caused to another person by bodily contact. It mostly happens to children, but adults can also be victims that is by domestic violence. Physical trauma can be due to beating, punching, biting and kicking. Physical abuse in children is the most visible form of abuse and can result from some factors that include ignorance of the parents, inappropriate discipline by a parent or caretaker in anger, domestic violence, alcohol and substance abuse. Poor parenting skills is another factor, social isolation, and cries situations that are frequent. To identify physical child abuse, one has to look out for some signs that include swollen areas on their body, bruise, wound that may have resulted from human bite marks, broken bones, missing the hair, marks that maybe on the child’s face, chest, thighs, and buttocks. The child may at times claim to have been injured due to playing with their friends because of the fear of exposing their abuser, but parents have to ensure that the story of the injury matches the damage (Jaudes et al., 1992). There are also behavioral signs that may indicate abuse and they include movements that seem uncomfortable, inappropriate dressing for a particular weather especially when it is sunny, and one wears clothes that cover all over, this is unusual for a child who has been normal in their dressing. Withdrawal behavior, aggressiveness, discomfort when it comes to physical contact or can even lead to them being runaways.
Child neglect and abandonment is another form of child crimes. Neglect can be defined as the failure to care for someone properly that is unable to care for themselves for instance children. Children cannot provide basic needs for themselves they require someone to care for them. A child may lack food, clothing, and shelter (Cohn et al., 1986). Emotional needs that is love care and attention that is to be provided by parents or guardian. Neglecting a child can expose them to even further abuse. There are different forms of neglect, and they involve physical neglect, educational neglect, emotional neglect, and medical neglect. Parents may be financially stable but can still neglect their children unintentionally. The obvious signs of neglect are seen when a child is always dirty, malnutrition due to lack of provision of proper diet. Leading to even further illnesses and may even result in deformation, there is both physical and emotional effect of neglect. When a child is denied education their range of socialization decreases as their peer's progress to higher levels. Neglect can be caused by ignorance of the caregiver that a child requires certain needs. Lack of the basic needs and poverty can also lead to neglect; this is mostly in poor nations. Poverty can lead to all forms of neglect, educational, physical, emotional and medical negligence. Emotional neglect is when a child is denied the needs to be nurtured and stimulated by maybe ignoring them, intimidating them, isolation and humiliation. Medical neglect is a failure to give a child the appropriate health care in case of illnesses or their early stages when they require vaccination, (Winterfield et al., 2003).Physical neglect is when a caregiver fails to a child the basic needs that are food, clothing, shelter, and security.
Child exploitation is another form of crime against children. Child exploitation is the fact of treating a child brutally to gain from their work. It is usually for personal or financial profits. During child exploitation, there may be a chance of harmful treatment especially when they are forced to carry out tasks that they are not capable of doing. For instance working in a processing company, operating the machinery may be difficult beyond the child’s capability. Children often pose as cheap labor and thus large profits can be made out of them. Sexual and economic or criminal exploitation are the main form of operation. In criminal or economic child exploitation, children are involved in child labor, illegal distribution of drugs, children being used during the war, child slavery, illegal sale or adoption of children. Laws that govern against child exploitation vary from state to state but the sentences increase with the intensity of the offenses. Children have been seen working in production, farms and even pornography production, this illegal and is punishable by law.
References.
Cohn, A. H., and Gordon, T. (1986). Tips on parenting, IL: the national Center for the prosecution of child abuse (NCPCA).
Dubowitz, H. (2000). What is physical abuse? In H . Dubowitz & D. DePanfilis (Eds.), Handbook for child protection practice. Thousand oaks , CA; Sage.
Jaudes, P ., & Mitchel L.(1992). Physical.Child abuse.Chicago, IL; The National center for prosecution of child abuse (NCPCA)
U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect. (1995). A nation’s shame: Fatal child abuse and neglect in the united states. Washington, DC: U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Winterfield, A., & Hunt., D. E. (2003). The Legal Framework For Child Protective Services. In C. Brittain & D. E. Hunt (Eds), Helping in child protective services:A competency-based casework handbook. New York:Oxford University Press.
