State intervention in the child rearing process is one of the most difficult issues confronting families and the American justice system. For example, when does discipline become abuse?

Child abuse can include physical, sexual, and in some situations, even mental abuse. Hitting a child, molesting a child, locking a child in the closet – all may be child abuse.

Protection of Children
Most states have criminal statutes to punish those who commit child abuse. Some states also have specific laws dealing with child abuse that are designed to identify and remove children from abusive situations.

When legislators began writing child abuse laws, they fully understood that parents have a right to discipline their own children without facing criminal censure. However, parents do not have the right to willfully harm their children beyond the general notion of what is deemed proper punishment. Rather, children have the right to be protected from malicious acts of abuse.

The laws dealing with child abuse generally do not involve punishment (such as putting an abusive parent in jail), but tend to regulate those parents who have demonstrated some problems in parenting. Options prescribed under such laws may range from parenting classes to the removal of the child from the problem parent or parents.

Standard for Determining Abuse
Whether child abuse exists is fact intensive and depends upon the circumstances of each individual case. Parents are allowed to inflict some pain to discipline their children, but only what is reasonable under the circumstances. This “reasonableness” standard is quite flexible and what is deemed reasonable may be different in each case.

Child Abuse Generally
A person may have committed child abuse if he or she willfully causes unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering or allows the child to be in a position where the child’s health or physical body is endangered (in cases of a person with custody of a child).

Additionally, the child does not have to suffer actual harm for someone to be guilty of child abuse. Most statutes focus on the potential harm that a child might suffer; so the actual harm suffered is not a necessary element of the crime.

Misdemeanor Child Abuse
If someone willfully harms a child under circumstances less than those likely to produce great bodily harm or death, they may be found guilty of misdemeanor child abuse.

Felony Child Abuse
Felony-misdemeanor child abuse is very similar to misdemeanor child abuse. The major difference, which justifies harsher penalties, is that the person inflicts harm or suffering that is likely to produce great bodily harm or death. This makes the crime egregious and justifies harsher punishment.

Duty to Report
Some states require certain people to report incidents of child abuse, usually because they are in a special relationship with the child or they have access to the child that others may not have. This group of people includes teachers, childcare workers, health care practitioners, social workers, and law enforcement personnel. If one of these people knows or reasonably suspects that there is child abuse, he or she may be required to immediately report the matter to a child protective agency.