Maltreatment of children is not a new phenomenon. It dates back far into history, as far as the colonial times and even back to biblical times. During the recent years child maltreatment has had an increase in the publics eye. Although some countries outlawed corporal punishment, in America, parents spank their children because society accepts the practice as justifiable behavior for adults. In the 1994 USA Today / CNN Gallup Poll, 67 percent of American adults agreed with …showed first 75 words of 394 total…

…showed last 75 words of 394 total…If the biological mother is raising the child alone the chance of abuse is fourteen times higher. A child living alone with the biological father is at twenty times higher risk of abuse. When a child is living with the biological parents who are not married but are cohabiting, the risk of abuse is twenty times higher. In households where the mother is cohabiting with another man the risk of abuse is thirty-three times higher.