What is Child Abuse?

In Iowa, the Legislature has defined “child abuse” as several types of harm suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of someone who is responsible for the care of a child. The Iowa Department of Human Services (“DHS”) is responsible for responding to reports of possible abuse.

Child abuse includes:

A nonaccidental physical injury
A mental injury to a child’s intellectual or psychological capacity
A sexual offense with or to a child
Involving a child in prostitution
The failure to provide for adequate food, shelter, clothing or other care necessary for the child’s health and welfare
The presence of an illegal drug in a child’s body as a direct and foreseeable consequence of someone’s acts or omissions
Manufacturing a dangerous substance in a child’s presence
Allowing unsupervised access to a sex offender, who is not the caretaker’s spouse or child’s biological parent
Committing bestiality in the presence of a child
Allowing a child to have access to obscene material

Physical Abuse

“Physical abuse” is defined as any non-accidental physical injury, or injury which is at variance with the history given of it, suffered by a child as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child.

Common indicators could include unusual or unexplained burns, bruises, or fractures.

Mental Injury

“Mental injury” is defined as any mental injury to a child’s intellectual or psychological capacity as evidenced by an observable and substantial impairment in the child’s ability to function within the child’s normal range of performance and behavior as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child, if the impairment is diagnosed and confirmed by a licensed physician or qualified mental health professional as defined in Iowa Code section 622.10.

Examples of mental injury may include:

Ignoring the child and failing to provide necessary stimulation, responsiveness, and validation of the child’s worth in normal family routine.
Rejecting the child’s value, needs, and request for adult validation and nurturance.
Isolating the child from the family and community; denying the child normal human contact.
Terrorizing the child with continual verbal assaults, creating a climate of fear, hostility, and anxiety, thus preventing the child from gaining feelings of safety and security.
Corrupting the child by encouraging and reinforcing destructive, antisocial behavior until the child is so impaired in socioemotional development that interaction in normal social environments is not possible.
Verbally assaulting the child with constant, excessive name–calling, harsh threats, and sarcastic put downs that continually “beat down” the child’s self–esteem with humiliation.
Overpressuring the child with subtle but consistent pressure to grow up fast and to achieve too early in the areas of academics, physical or motor skills, or social interaction, which leaves the child feeling that he or she is never quite good enough.

Sexual Abuse

“Sexual abuse” is defined as any incident of sexual contact including but not limited to rape, sodomy, incest and sexual penetration with a foreign object a result of the acts or omissions of the person responsible for the care of the child.

Sexual abuse includes contacts and interactions in which a child is used to sexually stimulate or gratify either the child or the other person and includes, but is not limited to: exposing oneself before a child, exposing the genitals of a child, fondling, sexual harassment, and forcing, permitting, or encouraging a child to watch sexual activities.

Behavioral indicators of sexual abuse could include things such as excessive knowledge of sexual matters beyond their normal developmental age or seductiveness. Physical indicators of sexual abuse could include things such as bruised or bleeding genitalia, venereal disease, or even pregnancy.

Child Prostitution

“Child prostitution” is defined as the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of a child which allow, permit, or encourage the child to engage in prostitution.

Prostitution is defined as a person who sells or offers for sale the person’s services as a partner in a sex act, or who purchases or offers to purchase such services.

Allows Access to a Registered Sex Offender

A caretaker who knowingly allows unsupervised access with person who is a registered sex offender or with a person who is required to register commits child abuse. The exceptions are if the sex offender is the caretaker’s spouse; or the sex offender is the parent of the alleged victim child, or the sex offender is a minor child of the caretaker.

Bestiality in the Presence of a Minor

Bestiality in the presence of a minor is defined as the commission of a sex act with an animal in the presence of a minor by a person who resides in a home with a child, as the result of the acts or omissions of a person responsible for the care of the child.

Denial of Critical Care (Neglect)

“Denial of critical care” is defined as the failure on the part of a person responsible for the care of a child to provide for the adequate food, shelter, clothing or other care necessary for the child’s health and welfare when financially able to do so or when offered financial or other reasonable means to do so. A parent or guardian legitimately practicing religious beliefs who does not provide specified medical treatment for a child for that reason alone shall not be considered abusing the child. However, this does not preclude a court from ordering that medical service be provided to the child where the child’s health requires it.

Denial of critical care includes the following eight sub–categories:

Failure to provide adequate food and nutrition to such an extent that there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
Failure to provide adequate shelter to such an extent that there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
Failure to provide adequate clothing to such an extent that there is danger of the child suffering injury or death.
Failure to provide adequate health care to such an extent that there is danger of the child suffering serious injury or death.
Failure to provide the mental health care necessary to adequately treat an observable and substantial impairment in the child’s ability to function.
Gross failure to meet the emotional needs of the child necessary for normal development evidenced by the presence of an observable and substantial impairment in the child’s ability to function within the normal range of performance and behavior.
Failure to provide proper supervision of a child which a reasonable and prudent person would exercise under similar facts and circumstances, to such an extent that there is danger of the child suffering injury or death. This definition includes cruel and undue confinement of a child and the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle when the person responsible for the care of the child is driving recklessly or driving while intoxicated with the child in the vehicle.
Failure to respond to the infant’s life–threatening conditions by failing to provide treatment which in the treating physician’s judgment will be most likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting all conditions. This subcategory or the denial of critical care abuse type is also known as “withholding of medically indicated treatment.” The type of treatments included are appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication.

Presence of Illegal Drugs

“Presence of illegal drugs’ is defined as occurring when an illegal drug is present in a child’s body as a direct and foreseeable consequence of the acts or omissions of the person responsible for the care of the child.

“Illegal drugs” are defined as cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, methamphetamine, other illegal drugs (including marijuana), or combinations or derivatives of illegal drugs which were not prescribed by a health practitioner.

Examples of situations that may result in a determination of this type of abuse:

An infant is born with illegal drugs present in the infant’s system as determined by a medical test. The illegal drugs were present in the infant’s body due to the illegal drug usage by the mother before the baby’s birth.
A three year old child tests positive for illegal drugs due to exposure to the illegal drugs when the child’s caretakers used illegal drugs in the child’s home.

Manufacturing or Possession of a Dangerous Substance

“Manufacturing or possession of a dangerous substance” is defined as occurring when the person responsible for the care of a child:

- Has manufactured a dangerous substance in the presence of the child, or
- Knowingly allows the manufacture of a dangerous substance by another person in the presence of a child, or
- Possesses a product containing ephedrine, its salts, optical isomers, salts of optical isomers, or pseudoephedrine, its salts, optical isomers, salts of optical isomers, with the intent to use the product as a precursor or an intermediary to a dangerous substance in the presence of the child. For the purposes of this definition, “in the presence of a child” means the manufacture or possession occurred:
- In the physical presence of a child, or
- In a child’s home, on the premises, or in a motor vehicle located on the premises, or Under other circumstances in which a reasonably prudent person would know that the manufacture or possession may be seen, smelled, or heard by a child.
- “Dangerous substance” is defined as: Amphetamine, its salts, isomers, or salts of its isomers. Methamphetamine, its salts, isomers, or salts of its isomers.
- A chemical or combination of chemicals that poses a reasonable risk of causing an explosion, fire, or other danger to the life or health of people who are in the vicinity while the chemical or combination of chemicals is used or is intended to be used in any of the following:

∗ The process of manufacturing an illegal or controlled substance.
∗ As a precursor in the manufacturing of an illegal or controlled substance.
∗ As an intermediary in the manufacturing of an illegal or controlled substance.

Allows Access to Obscene Material

A caretaker knowingly allowing a child access to obscene material, exhibiting obscene material to a child, or disseminating obscene material to a child, as defined in Iowa Code Section 728.1.