Crimes Against Children

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Crimes Against Children

Introduction

Children are the most vulnerable members of society and are unable to protect themselves from harm. The vulnerability makes them easy targets for crimes of physical and emotional abuse. Sadly, the people in charge of protecting children from harm are some of the main perpetrators of these criminalities. Statistics indicate that about 12% of all reported crimes relate to juveniles with girls being the majority of victims (Finkelhor & Ormrod, 2002). The legal definition of a child is any person under the age of seventeen. This article discusses the different types of child-related crimes, characteristics of these crimes as well as their legal consequences. It also critically analyzes the effectiveness of the current legal repercussions of child-related crimes on decreasing the instances of repeat child abuse offenders.