Abuse Of Law Research Articles

Child Abuse Law

Pediatrics deserves congratulations for publishing the article by Clark1 on decisions to withdraw or withhold medical treatment in pediatrics. Clark is right to point out the disturbing discrepancy between federal and state standards on this important matter. A number of other important points deserve emphasis. First, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement, "Guidelines on Forgoing Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment,"2 developed by its Committee on Bioethics, was published earlier this year. Although guidelines do not constitute a standard of medical care, they do provide a useful approach that pediatricians might follow when faced with these difficult situations.

Female circumcision as a public health issue.

Female circumcision is practiced in 26 African countries, and it is estimated that at least 100 million women are circumcised. The mildest form is clitoridectomy and the more severe type is infibulation. Girls are commonly circumcised between the ages of 4 and 10 years. Since the operator is usually a nonprofessional without surgical experience, complications are common: hemorrhage and severe pain that can even result in shock and death. The most common long-term complication is the formation of dermoid cysts in the line of the scar. Childbirth adds other risks for infibulated women and vesicovaginal fistula is often the result. The attendant urinary incontinence leads to ostracism of these women. In sum, female circumcision is a major contributor to childhood and maternal mortality and morbidity in communities with poor health services. The physical complications add to the psychological trauma: many infibulated women have a syndrome of chronic anxiety and depression arising from their condition, intractable dysmenorrhea, and the fear of infertility. The psychological sequelae of immigrant women who live in societies where such practice is condemned is even worse and may need professional counseling to address their sexual identity and cultural identification. Tightly infibulated women require clinical intervention for deinfibulation in order to preclude serious maternal and fetal complications during childbirth. Reinfibulation is medically harmful and even though some women request it, health professionals who comply are ethically reprehensible. In Sweden a 1982 law makes all forms of female circumcision illegal, as does a law that was passed in the United Kingdom in 1985. In France several cases were brought against parents under child abuse laws for circumcising or attempting to circumcise their French-born daughters. In the United States a 1993 bill drafted by the Congressional Women's Caucus would make the practice illegal and fund a program to assist immigrant communities to deal with the problem.

Massachusetts' New Child Abuse and Neglect Felony Law Repeals Religious Exemption

Massachusetts' New Child Abuse and Neglect Felony Law Repeals Religious Exemption

Waiting for reform: developments in the law of health care access and finance: 1992-1993.

The last year, June 1992 through September 1993, has seen a great deal of ferment with respect to access to and financing of health care in the United States. The elections of 1992 portend dramatic changes in the American health care system, and vigorous debate regarding both expansion of access to health care and transformation of the health care financing system is taking place at the federal and the state levels. In fact, however, the time period covered here produced remarkably few changes in the law, particularly at the federal level. The one piece of Medicare and Medicaid legislation passed by Congress in the fall of 1992, H.R. 11, was vetoed by President Bush immediately after the election. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (ORBA) of 1993 contained a host of minor adjustments to the Medicare and the Medicaid programs, but only the Medicaid asset transfer provisions and extensions to the self-referral provisions of the fraud and abuse laws, discussed below, are of import to us.

The impact of health-care reform on the cancer patient.

Reform of the United States' health-care system as we know it will require a reevaluation of the methods used in health-care delivery. Many changes are emerging in the health-care marketplace, and there is a prevailing trend toward universal coverage through managed care/competition. Global cost-control measures will become more prevalent, as we have seen already in the Clinton Administration's plan to become the sole and price-controlling customer for all childhood vaccines. Health-care delivery is evolving toward local care networks involving managed competition, a system in which patient groups will trade volume for price. Legal barriers presently include antitrust laws, which restrict collaboration among health providers, fraud and abuse laws, and tax considerations. Licensure and regulatory issues also may have an impact on reforms. The benefits most likely will include guaranteed health care, reduced health-care costs, and a better, more efficient quality of medical care. With these changes, however, there will be less freedom of choice in health care and a greater burden on certain sectors of the economy.

Transcultural nursing considerations of child abuse/maltreatment in American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia.

A conceptual analysis focuses on defining child maltreatment from the perspective of two Island nations in the Pacific Basin, American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia. Based on a review of the literature on child maltreatment laws and cultural factors in each region, a range definition is proposed. The range definition is comprised of defining features and borderline features for child maltreatment as it exists across these cultures in the Pacific Basin. Defining features were derived from evaluation of child abuse and neglect laws in each specified population. Borderline features were derived from cultural factors in American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia. While these Island nations already have child abuse and neglect laws, they are adapted from the United States. The degree at which unreasonable harm becomes abuse is culturally dictated, hence, these territories of the Pacific Basin are seeking culturally specific terminology when defining child maltreatment. The findings of this analysis indicate the significance of transcultural knowledge in nursing practice and the legal accountability nurses hold on the issue of child maltreatment.

The education of the adolescent chemical dependence worker in the field of child abuse

Abstract A review of adolescent chemical dependence weekly case conferences was explored by the program's chief psychologist and consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, in order to determine areas of knowledge gaps in the certified chemical dependence counselors and trainees toward abused adolescents. These teens were on an adolescent chemical dependence 8‐week inpatient unit. Informational and therapeutic gaps were discovered in areas of abuse and neurological impairment, abuse generational lines, abuse defenses, abuse psychopatholpgy, and abuse law reporting comprehension. These findings are discussed in regard to inservice training needs and clinical supervision issues.

Reporting elder abuse: limitations of statutes.

When it comes to protecting abused elders and determining physicians' legal responsibilities, each state has its own legislation - there is no federal policy. In the extreme, this can mean 50 variations on a theme. Few laws clearly delineate differences between neglect and abuse, nor do they provide graduated remedies to address differing degrees of severity. Even though many states have passed mandatory reporting laws, most provide little or no funding for meaningful intervention. All physicians should become familiar with applicable elder abuse laws and the procedure for referring a suspected case. This presentation of our findings is necessarily brief and should not take the place of familiarity with the legislation in the reader's own state. A copy of relevant state legislation generally can be obtained from the local state legislator's office or law library.

Child Abuse Reporting Trends: An Unprecedented Threat to Confidentiality

Some recent interpretations of the child abuse laws are creating serious and unprecedented erosions of therapist/patient confidentiality. In contrast to the Tarasoff decisions and laws, the child abuse statutes introduced a new element of mandatory reporting which permits no discretionary alternatives and presents prospects of criminal penalties for failure to report. A recent development suggests a possible requirement for therapists to violate confidentiality for the sole purpose of punishing perpetrators. Overinterpretations of the laws by some child protective services have led to recommendations that long past child abuse must be reported, even when no current child is in danger. The California Attorney General's Office has issued a clarification stating that the child abuse statute refers to children and not to adults molested as children. A survey of forensic psychiatrists and psychologists shows that most perceived an ethical problem in reporting adults molested as children when no child is presently in danger, and the purpose of the report is solely for maximal legal self-protection. The survey indicates that fears induced by rigid and intimidating child abuse laws can influence therapists to act in ways most consider unethical. Recommendations are made for improving the current child abuse laws so that they accomplish their goals more effectively.

Washington Reviews: National PEN Reimbursement System in Place; Medicare Claims Processing Issues Become New Focus of PEN Industry Concern; Congress Passes New Medicare Fraud and Abuse Law

Nutrition in Clinical PracticeVolume 2, Issue 6 p. 223-224 Article Washington Reviews: National PEN Reimbursement System in Place; Medicare Claims Processing Issues Become New Focus of PEN Industry Concern; Congress Passes New Medicare Fraud and Abuse Law First published: 01 December 1987 https://doi.org/10.1177/088453368700200601AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume2, Issue6December 1987Pages 223-224 RelatedInformation

Congressional review of national problems in drug abuse and its control

The addition of a psychologist to its staff provided the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control with an opportunity to add survey technology to its traditional oversight information gathering armamentarium. Surveys of state and local drug abuse program managers, law enforcement and prosecutorial officials, state attorneys general, and members of congress itself provided the Select Committee with information that supplemented that obtained by hearings and congressionally sponsored conferences. Answers to different questions in the different surveys were in general agreement with each other and with information obtained through hearings, providing a rough measure of the reliability and utility of the technique for oversight purposes. Survey results were incorporated in committee reports and are credited with providing information necessary to sustain the Select Committee's recommendations for drug abuse and control to the Congress. Language: en

WRONGED RIGHTS IN NURSING HOMES

Maureen Cushing, RN, JD, is a practicing attorney in the Boston, MA, law firm of Mooney, Mahoney, Cushing, and Cusak.

Abuse of the Elderly

To the Editor.— The editoral Violence Begins at Home by Samuel Vaisrub, MD (1981;245:1852), reports two increasingly recognized forms of domestic violence—child and spouse abuse—whose victims now receive some small protection by laws and social services. It ignores, however, an even more hidden and shameful group of abused people—the elderly living at home. This group has failed to receive even the minimal protections provided by child abuse laws. Usually the victim is burdensome and confused and is absolutely dependent on his abuser for food, shelter, and human contact. The signs of abuse are easily overlooked, and the physician and social worker have strong incentive to overlook them, since raising the issue does not allow any options for improvement in the patients' situation. We have seen patients drugged, beaten, starved, and taunted by overburdened families and have had to expend extraordinary efforts to improve the situation. With a declining economy, a

The Legal Side: Adult Abuse Laws

The Legal Side: Adult Abuse Laws

Constitutional Change in an Interest-Group Perspective

Constitutional Change in an Interest-Group Perspective

Abuse of the child abuse law

In the belief that public officials potentially can affect health more than physicians, for the past 15 years I have engaged in the part-time practice of "political medicine." When I started as a starry-eyed rookie, I viewed successful passage of some legislation as a big deal. As a scarred, and perhaps burned-out, veteran I now know that getting a law enacted by Congress is simple compared to seeing that it is implemented in the manner intended by its original sponsors. The reason is as much due to the fraility of human nature as to the constitutional separation of powers among the three branches of government.

Computer Abuse and Criminal Law

Computer Abuse and Criminal Law

Compassion vs Control

A broadened understanding of child abuse has enabled practitioners to think of the parents of abused children not as evil murderers but as human beings caught in a complex web of social isolation and deprivation. Concomitantly, child abuse laws have changed dramatically in the last decade to include virtually all childhood physical symptoms of family crisis; physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and child neglect are now reportable by nearly all professionals who have contact with children. There has been a dramatic increase in case reports, but the services for which families become eligible do not approach the humane rhetoric and intent of child abuse legislation. Society and the helping professions are caught in a dilemma that we characterize and address clinically as compassion vs control.

Compassion vs control. Conceptual and practical pitfalls in the broadened definition of child abuse.

A broadened understanding of child abuse has enabled practitioners to think of the parents of abused children not as evil murderers but as human beings caught in a complex web of social isolation and deprivation. Concomitantly, child abuse laws have changed dramatically in the last decade to include virtually all childhood physical symptoms of family crisis; physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and child neglect are now reportable by nearly all professionals who have contact with children. There has been a dramatic increase in case reports, but the services for which families become eligible do not approach the humane rhetoric and intent of child abuse legislation. Society and the helping professions are caught in a dilemma that we characterize and address clinically as compassion vs control.

Child Abuse Laws: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract In 1970, a five-month-old baby was admitted to a California hospital. The X-rays showed that his skull was fractured from ear to ear. His mother explained that the baby had fallen off a bed. The child was returned to the mother three days later. Twice within the next four weeks further medical treatment was required for injuries which included whip welts on the back, puncture wounds in the neck, and burned fingertips. The last time he was brought in he had strangulation marks and no respiration. Spontaneous respiration was restored but the baby suffered extensive brain damage. As a result, this small child will be confined in a home for the mentally retarded for the rest of his life. Time reported that The mother's boyfriend was convicted of child beating and sentenced to from one to ten years in prison (the mother.., was not charged ...). Meanwhile, the child's father brought a $5,000,000 suit against four doctors, for failing to report the attacks, and against the city and police chief ... for failing to investigate when another doctor did make charges.[1]