When you are involved in a custody case and child abuse is at the center of it all, you may have many concerns about your child’s safety. There are many types of child abuse that we will discuss with you today to give you a better understanding of what you may witness in your case and the effects that it has on your child.
4 Major Types
- Physical Abuse: When a parent is physically aggressive, they could seriously injure their child. Physical abuse could stem from beating or slapping, pushing or kicking, pinching or biting, burning the child with cigarettes, or severe physical punishment. Each year, hundreds of thousands of children are bused and they suffer emotionally from these scars.
- Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse can include many different types of sexual act that happens between an adult and a child. Sexual abuse can take place by mothers and fathers, as well as many other important people in the child’s family.
- Emotional Abuse: Emotional abuse is treating a child badly through your attitude, behavior, or failure to act. In many cases, this takes the form of verbal insults or extreme punishment and can interfere with the child’s mental health or social development. Emotional abuse can have lasting effects on the child, even more so than other types of abuse.
- Neglect: There are many types of neglect that can harm a child, such as failing to provide them food or clothing, failing to enroll them in school, and failure to provide emotional support and love to the child.
How Abuse Affects Your Custody Case
In an abuse case, both parents are at risk. For instance, the parent abusing the child runs the risk of losing custody with their child due to the nature of the abuse. The parent who stood by and knew the abuse was happening but did nothing to stop it could also risk losing rights. In some cases, a parent may have gotten involved with child protective services because they knew abuse was happening and worked to prevent it. When a judge sees child abuse happening, they may reduce a parent’s visitation hours, prevent overnight visits, and require supervised visitation. If you have concerns, the best thing that you can do is contact us today to speak with an experienced custody attorney. Call us today for more.
