Child Abuse: Who's At Risk And The Outcomes?

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a child out of school have all been defined at various times and in various laws as "child abuse"(p. 82). The definition of child abuse varies over time, across cultures, and between different social and cultural groups. Many of the books and articles that were researched for this paper had difficulty defining child abuse. Professional groups were given a list of items and were told to choose which ones they considered to be child abuse. The results were at varying degrees which shows that there is not a precise definition that society adheres to when classifying such abuse. As Starr has noted, "Two major characteristics seem to be common to conditions defined as abuse. First, there must be some clear, identifiable harm or injury to the child and second, there must be evidence of clear intent on the part of the parent to produce this injury or harm" (p. 11).
Socioeconomic Status and Race

Parton points out that "There is substantial evidence of a strong relationship ...

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suffering from major injuries were more likely to be classified as abused than were upper-class white children"(p. 646). Social Learning Theory

When looking at factors to determine who is at risk, one must consider the social learning model. This says that people are in large a product of their social environment. This model is put into perspective by Gerbner et al (1980), "If people are indeed a product of their social history, then prevention of many of the conditions with which our professional fields have been concerned means changing the social conditions. But this idea threatens economic arrangements that are very profitable. Moreover, it threatens the psychiatric ...

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