The following definitions of child abuse and neglect are based on Michigan's Child Protection Law and are in the Child Protective Services Policy manual.  

Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect

Physical abuse

Physical abuse is a non-accidental injury to a child by the person responsible for the child's health and welfare. Physical abuse may include, but is not limited to, burning, beating, kicking, and punching. It is usually the easiest abuse to identify because of the physical evidence of bruises, burns, broken bones or other unexplained injuries. Internal injuries may not be readily apparent.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse encompasses several different types of inappropriate sexual behavior:

• Sexual contact meaning any intentional touching that can be reasonably construed as being for the purposes of sexual arousal, gratification, or any other improper purpose.
• Sexual penetration.
• Accosting, soliciting, or enticing a child to commit, or attempt to commit, an act of sexual contact or penetration, including prostitution.

Maltreatment

Maltreatment is defined as the treatment of a child that involves cruelty or suffering that a reasonable person would recognize as excessive. Possible examples of maltreatment are:

• A parent, who knowing that their child has a phobia or deep fear of closed places, utilizes locking the child in a closet as a means of punishment.
• A parent who forces their child to eat dog food out of a dog bowl during dinner as a method of punishment and/or humiliation.
• A parent who is found to be teaching their child how to be an accessory in their criminal activities, e.g., shop-lifting.
• A parent who responds to their child's bed-wetting by subjecting them to public humiliation, such as hanging a sign on the child at school, which lets others know that the child has wet his or her bed.

Mental Injury

A psychological condition (diagnosed by a mental health practitioner) caused by physical or verbal acts, omissions, (including the denial of appropriate treatment), or maintaining an environment by the person responsible for the child's health and welfare which: renders the child chronically anxious, agitated, depressed, socially withdrawn, psychotic, or unreasonable fear that his or her life and/or safety or that of another family member is threatened, or chronically interferes with the child's ability to accomplish age appropriate milestones.

Neglect

Child neglect encompasses several areas:

• Neglect - harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare by the person responsible for the child's health and welfare through failure to provide the child with food, clothing, or shelter necessary to sustain the life or health of the child, excluding those situations solely attributable to poverty.
• Failure to Protect - knowingly allowing another person to mistreat or abuse the child without taking appropriate measures to stop such mistreatment or abuse and prevent it from recurring when the person is able to do so and has, or should have had, knowledge of the mistreatment.
  Improper Supervision - placing the child in or failing to remove the child from a situation that a reasonable person would realize requires judgment or actions beyond the child's level of maturity, physical condition, or mental abilities and results in bodily injury or a substantial risk of immediate harm to the child.
• Abandonment - The person responsible for the child's health and welfare leaves a child with an agency, person, or other entity (DHS, hospital, mental health facility, etc.) unable or unwilling to assume responsibility for the child.
• Medical Neglect - The failure to seek, obtain, or follow through with medical care for the child, with the failure resulting in or presenting substantial risk of death, disfigurement or bodily harm or with the failure resulting in an observable and material impairment to the growth, development, or functioning of the child.