Any kind of physical touching not done in a loving, nurturing, AND respectful way is violence. Young children may need some physical contact to set safe boundaries for them, like restraining a child from reaching up to touch a hot stove or keeping them from running out into a busy street. But the difference between violence and boundary setting is clear. Is the child being touched out of love and concern for their well being? Or are they being touched as a way for the adult to vent their own anger, fear, or frustration? If it is the latter, the contact is violence. The adult is using the child as a way to help themselves feel better.
Violence also includes "depriving a child of basic needs" like blocking them from getting : - Medical attention
- Food
- Clean water
- Shelter
- Clean air
- Heat
- A sense of safety (forcing the child into potentially life threatening conditions)
- The right to physical freedom (restraining a child in lock-up areas, binding a child, trapping a child, etc)
- The right to expel body wastes (urine, feces, vomit, etc)
- The right to sanitation
- The right to expel tears, vomit, fear, anger, etc (the right to cry, the right to vomit, etc)
Making a child feel ashamed or humiliated or threatening to injure them in connection with the access to basic needs is a type of violent deprivation. Children react to this type of treatment by practicing self-deprivation as a way to avoid the shaming, humiliation,terrorization, and/ or injury. Violence also includes being forced to witness or observe trauma, ritual, pornography, punishment, death, destruction, dismemberment, or pain. Even if not forced into watching or participating in these things, knowing that the child has experienced any of them without providing a support system for the child to grieve or psychologically process the event is violent in nature. This includes the destruction or disposition of pets, farm animals, personal property, toys, clothing, bicycles, etc. |