Child Abuse

David A. Rembert & Howard Henderson

Child abuse is any conduct or failure to act by an adult resulting in sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect of a child under the age of 18. Race is used to distinguish persons from others based on either physical characteristics or ethnicity. Each year, disproportionately high numbers of abused Black children are removed from their families and placed into the U.S. child welfare system. Overrepresentation exists when a racial group of children are represented in foster care at a higher rate than they are represented in the general population. For example, Black children constitute 27% of the U.S. foster care population ( Figure 1 ), but 13% of the total U.S. child population ( Figure 2 ). In contrast, White, American Indian, and Alaska Native children are underrepresented in foster care compared to their representation in the U.S. child population. Differences in the relationships between race and child ...

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