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The History of Child Protection
Mary Ellen McCormack--1874, at the age of 10 years
In 1866, Henry Bergh, a philanthropist and diplomat, who recognized the inhumane treatment suffered by many animals in our society, founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) prompting the New York state legislators to pass the country's first effective anti-cruelty to animals law. The ASPCA is the oldest humane organization in America.
Eight years later, a young girl was found tied to a bed like an animal, neglected and brutally beaten by her foster parents. In 1874, animals were legally protected from inhumane treatment, children weren't. Child abuse and neglect was considered a family matter and there was no one to intervene on behalf of the child. That is until a small group of concerned citizens in New York City came to gether in 1875--with the assistance of Henry Bergh-- to become the first orgainized child protective institution in the world--The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC). [NOTE: The information regarding Mary Ellen was gathered from the NYSPCC web site http://www.nyspcc.org/index.html]
Thus ... the beginning of an American society to confront its inherent moral obligation to protect kids --- even from their parents. But, reporting abuse was not required; reports stemmed only from incidents which involved serious physical injury or death.
And so it was, still in the late 1950's, what happened in the family was regarded as a very private manner; children were considered their parent's chattel, until:
•   In 1962, Dr. Henry C. Kempe described "The Battered Child Syndrome" and urged physicians to report suspected child abuse.
For more information on Dr. Kempe go to:  http://www.kempecenter.org/
For more information on The Battered Child Syndrome: http://my.webmd.com/content/asset/adam_disease_child_abuse
•   In large part due to Dr. Kempe's focus on child abuse, one hundred and fifty thousand cases of child maltreatment were reported to authorities in 1963.
Eventually many states responded to their perceived moral and legal responsibility by making child abuse a criminal act during the late 1960's.
However, reporting child abuse was still not legally required. Consequently, most incidents of suspected child abuse remained behind closed doors and were neither acknowledged nor challenged.
Finally in 1974, The United States Congress, in enacted the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) which provided federal funds - dedicated to prevent child abuse - for states that passed laws requiring certain professionals (law enforcement professionals, educators, and medical and mental health care professionals) to report suspected child maltreatment. In short order, every state had mandatory reporting laws enacted in their legislatures.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974
Congress finds that--
(1) each year, close to 1,000,000 American children are victims of abuse and neglect;
(2) many of these children and their families fail to receive adequate protection or
(3) the problem of child abuse requires a comprehensive approach that--
(A) integrates the work of social service, legal, health, mental health, education, and substance abuse agencies and organizations;
(B) strengthens coordination among all levels of government, and with private agencies, civic, religious, and professional organizations, and individual volunteers;
(C) emphasizes the need for abuse and neglect prevention, assessment, investigation, and treatment at the neighborhood level;
(D) ensures properly trained and support staff with specialized knowledge, to carry out their child protection duties; and
(E) is sensitive to ethnic and cultural diversity;
(4) the failure to coordinate and comprehensively prevent and treat child abuse and neglect threatens the futures of thousands of children and results in a cost to the Nation of billions of dollars in tangible expenditures, as well as significant intangible costs;
(5) all elements of American society have a shared responsibility in responding to this national child and family emergency;
(6) substantial reductions in the prevalence and incidence of child abuse and neglect and the alleviation of its consequences are matters of the highest national priority;
(7) national policy should strengthen families to prevent child abuse and neglect, provide support for intensive services to prevent the unnecessary removal of children from families and promote the reunification of families if removal has taken place;
(8) the child protective system should be comprehensive, child-centered, family-focused, and community-based, should incorporate all appropriate measures to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of child abuse and neglect, and should promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration in an environment that fosters the health, safety, self-respect, and dignity of the child;
(9) because of the limited resources available in low-income communities, federal aid for the child protection system should be distributed with due regard tot he relative financial need of the communities;
(10) the Federal government should assist States and communities with the fiscal, human, and technical resources necessary to develop and implement a successful and comprehensive child and family protection strategy;
(11) the Federal government should provide leadership and assist communities in their child and family protection efforts by--
(A) promoting coordinated planning among all levels of government;
(B) generating and sharing knowledge relevant to child and family protection, including the development of models for service delivery;
(C) strengthening the capacity of States to assist communities;
(D) allocating financial resources to assist State's in implementing community plans;
(E) helping communities to carry out their child and family protection plans by promoting the competence of professional, paraprofessional, and volunteer resources; and
(F) providing leadership to end the abuse and neglect of the nation's children and youth.

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