Child Abuse: CAPTA & Prevention Efforts in US - Research Paper

Introdution

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the primary national statute that addresses child abuse in the US. The act was enacted in 1974 (P.L.93-247) (Chasnoff et al., 2018). Child abuse is the sexual molestation or physical maltreatment of the child, while neglect is the inability to deliver shelter, safety, nutritional, and supervision needs to the child. Over the years, the areas covered by the Act have been expanded to include the Adoption Opportunities program, among others, through amendments. The complete official text of CAPTA is found on the US Government Printing Office website at 42 USC chapter 67, sections 5101-5116i (Chasnoff et al., 2018). CAPTA is a legal act with a long history characterized by a large number of groups that participated in its enactment, intense debate on the expected impacts, presence of negative and positive unintended consequences, and amendments.

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The process of the creation of laws to protect children dates back to as early as 1868 when the 14th Amendments of the constitution was ratified. According to the 14th Amendment, it is illegal for any state to deprive any individual of liberty, property, or life without a court order. Besides, in the case: Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), the supreme court held that the term "liberty" in the amendment means the right of any person to start a family and raise children as well as freedom from bodily restrained (Chasnoff et al., 2018). As a result, during the time, reasonable corporal punishment was common, and the government rarely interfered with parent practices of punishing children.

Before the creation of CAPTA, Americans had a long history of child abuse and neglect. Before 1875, children did not have any special legal protection from the law. People who abused children were prosecuted under criminal statutes. For example, in 1809, a shopkeeper in New York was convicted for assaulting her 3-year-old daughter (Stalker & McArthur, 2012). In 1810, a woman who admitted to killing her newborn child was not found guilty by the jury (Stalker & McArthur, 2012). Besides, most of the rape cases recorded in the country, mainly, in California involved children as victims. In 1869, a father in Illinois was arraigned for detaining a blind child into an icy basement in winter (Pletcher v. People, 1869). The defense lawyer in the case argued that the law allows parents can raise their children as wish. It was not until the Mary Ellen Wilson case in 1874 that society became aware that children needed special laws to protect them against abuse from their parents and guardians (Stalker & McArthur, 2012). It was, however, nine decades later, in the 1960s, that the American society experienced an outburst of attention towards child abuse, with physicians playing critical roles in the awakening (Patton, 2016). In 1962, Henry Kempe, a pediatrician, published a blockbuster article, "The Battered-Child Syndrome" popularized the topic of child abuse in the country (Patton, 2016). Consequently, the media also gained interest in cases of children are abused and propagated the need for children protection policies that culminated in the creation of CAPTA in 1974 (Stalker & McArthur, 2012).

The rise of organizations that championed the protection of children is traced to the case of Mary Wilson in the late 19th century (Patton, 2016). The incident led to the formation of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) in 1874 (Patton, 2016). Consequently, the formation of child protection organizations became popular movements across the US. By 1880, there were 37 organizations in the country, and 300 by 1922 (Chasnoff et al., 2018). In 1912, Children Bureau, the first government organization the dealt with the welfare policy and funding for children, was established. Children's Bureau and other non-governmental associations play a critical role in the creation of CAPTA.

Impact of CAPTA

The intended impact of the policy was to protection of children against abuse and neglect by authorizing the use of federal funds to enhance the ability of states to respond to abuse and neglect of children. The act concentrated on enhanced research and reporting. Besides, it financed training and the creation of regional multidisciplinary centers where topics of child abuse and neglect were demonstrated (Sperry & Widom, 2013). The act placed the responsibility of administering and implementing CAPTA in the new agency: National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN). The center was entitled with the responsibility of funding critical studies on maltreatment of children to determine the degree of the problem in the society (Patton, 2016). The first wave of funding by NCCAN was to address topics such as: conducting public awareness campaigns; developing a model on how to terminate parental rights as well as evaluate child neglect laws; the needs of children in a specific population; and training individual working with children how to identify abuse and neglect of children in the society.

The actual impacts of the CAPTA include achieving most of the intended goals, such as funding the research on child maltreatment. The content and themes of these significant technical and training assistance reflect both the emerging work of NCCAN and Changing CAPTA requirements and later the Children Bureau's OCAN, their partners, and stakeholders (Sperry & Widom, 2013). Forty years after the creation of CAPTA, the policy has led to the provision of assistance to states to enhance their children protection systems, and active cooperation with tribes and states, various national organizations, and different experts on the matter, who offer critical guidance and support (Raz, 2017). Consequently, the CAPTA had become the most ambitious project commenced that had a compressive child welfare system to support communities, families, and children to stop the occurrence of maltreatment.

The unintended consequences of CAPTA have been the problems associated with the creation of child haven policies as a way of preventing child neglect or even murder (Sperry & Widom, 2013). The program, however, increased the number of traumatized children because of separation from parents. The fact that the policies allow children to be placed under foster care encourages people to give birth without much consideration on how to take care of children (Raz, 2017). Besides, children brought up under foster care can easily exhibit behavioral issues such as delayed development, neglect of medical problems, homelessness, and physical or sexual abuse. The challenge makes foster care an ineffective way of solving issues of child abuse.

Debates on CAPTA

Despite the critical nature of the CAPTA, the process of adopting the policy into law was characterized by various significant challenges associated with the opposing views on the act. The first area focal point for an ideological dispute in the creation of the bill was the definition of the term child abuse. The second area of contention was on issues associated with the identification of appropriate provision for state grants to be utilized in enhancing child protective services after meeting eligibility requirements (Raz, 2017). The conflicts on these matters were, however, resolved through the creation of a national commission to deal with the issue. Amendments

CAPTA has been amended several times since its initial enactment on January 31, 1974. On December 20, 2010, the act was reauthorized. The first amendment was in 1978 when it was the adoption reform act that was incorporated into the CAPTA. The amendment gave provision for the dissemination of yearly reviews of studies on the abuse and neglect of children, identification and treatment of child abuse, and training materials in the prevention. Besides, it directs the Secretary of Education, Health, and Welfare to develop studies priorities for making contracts and grants under the Act. It requires states to use funds given to them under the Act within 18 months or suffer deduction in the following periods. Besides, to make the appropriation of funds for the fiscal year 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981. Lastly, it defined the "sexual abuse" to include the pornographic or obscene filming, photographing, or depiction of children for commercial purposes, or the incest, prostitution, molestation, prostitution, and other sexual exploitation of a child under condition indicating that child's welfare or heath is threatened or harmed. Other requirements include having at least three members in the Advisory Board be experts on issues of child neglect and abuse. The most recent amendments were done in 2016, 2018, and 2019.

Lessons

The study of the CAPTA provides critical information on the scope of child neglect and abuse. First, most of the policies created under the law are based on scientific facts. Children are essential people in society and, therefore, anything affecting them must be subjected to scientific research. Unlike laws in other sectors, those affecting children are sensitive, making it necessary to ensure that experts in child welfare take part in the process. As a result, the policy is more reliable in its outcomes and is opposed to policies made without any scientific background. If other policies in America are enacted in a similar way using scientific studies as the foundation of the law, the country will solve most problems facing society.

Improving CAPTA

Although CAPTA has done much to protect the children against different types of abuse, there are some areas of improvement. One of the significant problems facing children in America is the lack of sufficient supervision and disciplinary measures from parents resulting from declining discipline among children. The policy needs to stipulate rules on how to punish children for petty mistakes. The problem with the law is that it abolishes corporal punishment without proposing alternative ways of punishing errant children. The Act needs to take into consideration that too much protection has a limitation. As a result, CAPTA should invest in research on how to protect children against the possible negative effect associated with the abolition of corporal punishment.

From the above discussion, it is evident that the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act has played a critical role in minimizing child maltreatment in the US. CAPTA was established to finance and oversee the research on topics of child abuse. Since its enactment, the Act has been amended several times. The Act has been successful in making policies that have helped reduce the case of child abuse in society. Despite the benefit of the policy, some aspect of the act has increased the exposure of children to child abuse. Generally, however, the policy has played a significant role in making the country safe for children by reducing evil practices such as child rape and child trafficking. It is, however, essential to improve the effectiveness of the policy by guiding parents on how to punish errand children since corporal punishment is illegal in the US.

References

Chasnoff, I. J., Barber, G., Brook, J., & Akin, B. A. (2018). The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: Knowledge of Health care and legal professionals. Child Welfare, 96(3), 41-58. http://search.proquest.com/openview/de472912113a665ad0dea25fe3be74e2/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=40853

Patton, W. W. (2016). Systemic governmental recalcitrance in regulating confidentiality under the Child Abuse, Prevention & Treatment Act (CAPTA): A Case Study. J. Legis., 43, 193. https://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/jleg43&section=11Raz, M. (20...