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Chapter 11 - Child Maltreatment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2023

By
Nisha Narayanan  and
Dana Lauture
Edited by
Mark Curato ,
Kaushal Shah  and
Christopher Reisig
Mark Curato
Affiliation:
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York
Kaushal Shah
Affiliation:
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York
Christopher Reisig
Affiliation:
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York
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Summary

While child maltreatment is a global problem, urban settings highlight the problem due to large concentrations of people, which increase the likelihood that the maltreatment will be noticed and reported; urban Emergency Departments (EDs) are particularly situated for the detection of child maltreatment. The ability of the emergency physician to recognize and respond to child maltreatment is crucial in preventing further harm to the child. Emergency physicians are also mandated reporters, and are required by law to inform child protective services of all suspected cases. There are certain risk factors for child abuse and subtle red flags in the history and physical exam that we must familiarize ourselves with in order to appropriately identify child abuse. These risk factors and rates of child abuse may be unique for the clinician practicing emergency medicine in an urban setting. The evaluation of a child with suspected abuse also requires an extensive workup and detailed documentation, and such cases are prone to medical and legal consequences.

Keywords

Mandated reporterChild maltreatmentChild abuseChild neglectPhysical abuseSentinel injurySexual abuseEmotional abusePhysical neglectMedical neglect
Type
Chapter
Information
Urban Emergency Medicine , pp. 133 - 147
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

References

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Further Reading

King, W, Kiesel, E, Simon, H. Child abuse fatalities: are we missing opportunities for intervention? Pediatr Emerg Care. 2006;22(4):211–214. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16651907/Google Scholar
The American College of Radiology. ACR-SPR Practice parameter for the perfroance and interpretation of skeletal surveys in children. 2021. Available from: www.acr.org/-/media/ACR/Files/Practice-Parameters/Skeletal-Survey.pdfGoogle Scholar
Lawson, M, Piel, M, Simon, M. Child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic: consequences of parental job loss on psychological and physical abuse towards children. Child Abuse Negl. 2020;110(Pt 2):104709. doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104709Google Scholar
Griffith, A. Parental burnout and child maltreatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. J Fam Violence. 2022;37(5): 725–731. doi:10.1007/s10896-020-00172-2CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Physical child abuse. 2022. VisualDx. Available from: www.visualdx.com/visualdx/diagnosis/physical+child+abuse?diagnosisId=51004&moduleId=102.Google Scholar
Bechtel, K, Bennett, B. Evaluation of sexual abuse in children and adolescents. 2021. UpToDate.Google Scholar

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