This paper attempts to understand the causes of child abuse, its occurrence, and incidence. It looks at how the four main
types of child mistreatment are physical abuse, sexual abuse,
emotional abuse, and neglect and how, in many cases, children are victims of more than one type of abuse at a time. Child
abusers can be anyone with contact or interaction with the child and can include parents or other family members or caretakers, such as teachers and babysitters. It examines the profiles of the abusers and how sexual abuse seems more likely to be committed by males, whereas females were responsible for the majority of the neglect cases. It also evaluates potential sociological factors and how, in general, the reported cases usually involve poor families with little education, young mothers, single-parent families, and parental alcohol and drug abuse.