Child Abuse Injuries

If your child has been abused, it can be a traumatic experience for the entire family. As parents, we do everything we can to keep our kids safe. We watch them wherever we go. We’re mindful of who their friends are. We do our research before enrolling them in different schools, programs, and activities. But, abusers still find ways to take advantage of systems where they are trusted. They betray that trust and take advantage of some of the most vulnerable people in our society: children.

Child abuse can come at the hands of anyone in any facility. However, there are certain situations where

• Family Members: No one wants to think that one of their family members would ever abuse a child. Sadly, family members often have the opportunity to abuse young children. Whether it’s at a family party or babysitting while the child’s parents are at work, predatory family members can abuse the young children they’re tasked to watch over.
• Daycares / Teachers: Whether a teacher is taking care of toddlers at a daycare or middle 7th graders in a middle school, he/she can be in a position of power over a child and take advantage of that position. When abuse does happen, it can sometimes be more devastating, as there is supposed to be a school administration in place to make sure that these things don’t happen.
• Clergy: As we’ve all come to see over the past 20 years, clergymen have abused their position and taken advantage of children of all ages and from all walks of life. To make matters worse, these abusers were protected and shuffled, which gave them a new crop of children to abuse.
• Boy Scouts: Boys are placed in Scouts in order to teach them many valuable life lessons. Whether it’s learning teamwork skills, survival skills, or even how to give back to the community, parents trusted Boy Scouts of America and local Scout leaders to instill values into their children. Instead, they took advantage of that trust and abused many young boys.

Child Abuse comes in many different forms, each devastating in their own right. They include:

• Physical Abuse: This is when any caregiver causes non-accidental physical injury to a child. This can include certain types of discipline that go beyond harmless punishment. Children who are physically abused often show signs of that abuse, and there are also behavioural signs as well.
• Emotional Abuse: Emotional Abuse is often a pattern of behavior that, over time, causes damage to a child. This can include things like rejection, shaming, humiliation, terrorizing and isolation.
• Sexual Abuse: This can invlove not only physical sexual abuse of a child, but also non-contact abuse. Sexual Abuse can result in physical injuries as well as behavioral changes in children at any age.
• Child Neglect: This is when a caregiver does not give the necessary care and supervision a child needs. This can include medical neglect, emotional neglect, and physical neglect.

At Marcotte Law Firm, we know that these situations are delicate. Not only is your child dealing with something that no one should have to go through, you’re trying to show that a trusted family member, teacher, or other caregiver has committed the ultimate crime.

If your child has been abused, please call for a free consultation.