What Is Abuse?

Abuse can be defined as being neglect, physical, sexual, emotional, verbal, or a combination of any or all of those.

Physical Abuse is often the most evident form of abuse. The signs of physical abuse can be visible as it may be the direct result of any kind of hitting, burning, pinching, biting, choking, throwing, beating, and other actions that cause physical injury, leaving marks, or producing significant physical pain.

Sexual abuse is defined as the forcing of undesired sexual acts by one person to another. Child sexual abuse is any type of sexual contact between an adult and anyone younger than 17, or between a significantly older child and a younger child.

Emotional abuse is defined as the systematic tearing down of another human being and it is considered a pattern of behavior that can seriously interfere with a child's positive development. Emotional abuse happens when yelling and anger go too far or when parents constantly criticize, threaten, or dismiss kids or teens until their self-esteem and feelings of self-worth are damaged. Emotional abuse can hurt and cause damage just as physical abuse does.

Neglect it is defined as a "type of maltreatment that refers to the failure to provide needed age-appropriate care," such as shelter, food, clothing, education, supervision, medical care and other basic necessities needed for development of physical, intellectual and emotional capacities. Emotional neglect happens when a parent doesn't provide enough emotional support or deliberately and consistently pays very little or no attention to a child. But it's not neglect if a parent doesn't give a kid something he or she wants, like a new computer or a cell phone.