Home » How Do I Recognize Child Abuse and Neglect? » Checklist of Possible Indicators of Abuse and Neglect
Physical Abuse: Physical Indicators |
Bruises, welts, and bite marks |
- Depends on location of injuries, severity, circumstances, frequency, and age of child
- On face, lips, mouth, neck, wrists, ankles
- On both eyes or cheeks (accidents usually injure only one side of the face)
- Clustered, forming patterns reflecting the shape of an article (child was struck with something)
- In the form of a hand (grab mark) on several different surface areas of skin
- On torso, back, buttocks, thighs
- In various stages of healing regularly appearing after absence, weekend, vacation
Note: People of color such as African/American and Asian infants and children may have areas of darker pigment on their skin (known as Mongolian spots) which are not bruises, but rather a type of birthmark. |
Lacerations
(cuts) or abrasions
(scrapes) |
Depends on location of injuries, severity, circumstances, frequency, and age of child
- To mouth, lips, gums, eyes
- On back or arms, legs or torso
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Burns |
Depends on location of injuries, severity, circumstances, frequency, and age of child
- Cigar, cigarette, especially on soles, palms, back, buttocks
- Scalding water immersion (sock-like, glove-like, doughnut shaped on buttocks or genitalia)
- Patterned, like curling iron, electric iron, burner, etc.
- Rope burns on arms, legs, neck, torso
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Fractures |
- To jaw and nasal structures
- To skull, facial structures
- Skeletal trauma accompanied by other injuries, such as dislocations
- Multiple or spiral fractures
- Fractures ‘accidentally’ discovered in the course of an exam or in various stages of healing
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Head Injuries |
- Subdural hematoma (a hemorrhage beneath the outer covering of the brain, due to severe hitting or shaking)
- Retinal hemorrhage or detachment, due to shaking ‘whiplash shaken baby syndrome’
- Eye injury (such as black eye)
- Tooth or frenulum (under the tongue) injury
- Absence of hair and/or hemorrhaging beneath the scalp, caused by vigorous hair pulling
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Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy |
- Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a pattern of parental behavior in which a child is frequently brought into medical care with symptoms suggestive of parentally induced or fabricated illness. An example might be a parent seeking attention by repeatedly causing a child to ingest quantities of laxatives sufficient to cause diarrhea and dehydration, thus requiring hospitalization.
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