Single Mother Upbrings her Child Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Single Mother Upbrings her Child - Case Study Example She is a high school graduate, with no college or vocational training. As a result, her jobs have always been minimum wage, unskilled jobs. Currently, she is employed as an inventory clerk in a building supplies warehouse. She has fairly good benefits at this job, including some health insurance for herself and her child. An incident happened approximately a week ago; Amy picked her daughter up at day care after work and she needed to stop at the grocery store before going home. While at the grocery, Angie was misbehaving and was taking items off the shelf and putting them into the cart. Despite several verbal reprimands, Angie continued to disobey her mother. Amy then slapped Angie’s hands making her to begin wailing thus attracting the attention of several customers in the store. After purchasing her groceries, Amy pushed Angie to her car. As she was putting Angie into her car seat, she noticed something protruding from one of the pockets of Angie’s dress. When she pu lled it out, she realized that Angie had taken candy bars and gum from the shelves next to the checkout line and put them in her pockets. Amy wanted to make sure that her daughter understood that taking things without paying for them is wrong as it amounted to stealing. So, she shook her several times, slapped her hands, and then put her hand over Angie’s mouth when she began screaming. Angie then bit her mother’s hand, prompting her to instinctively slap her across the face. Even though she did not mean to hurt her, everything was happening very fast. Angie suddenly became very quiet, so Amy shut the backdoor to the car and drove home. After 10 minutes of driving, she realized that she had not heard from Angie since they left the store parking lot prompting her to glance in the back seat where Angie appeared asleep. Upon arriving home, she realized that Angie was unconscious, not asleep. She then took Angie to the house and tried to wake her up but to no avail. She pa nicked and called 911. When the ambulance arrived, she gave an explanation to the paramedics that Angie had fallen and must have hit her head against something. Angie was initially admitted to the hospital for observation, but she remains there still with a possibility of a concussion or fractured skull. Legal Issues 1. Can Amy be arrested for child abuse if someone had found out that she had hit Angie the previous night in the parking lot of the grocery store and reported to the police? Also, since Angie has not gotten better, Amy is afraid that if the hospital finds out she hit Angie, they may report her to the police and yet she never intended to hurt her daughter, and she was just disciplining her. 2. Can Amy be answerable for child abuse on the basis of giving false information (about the incident at the parking lot) to the hospital staff, since Angie is not getting better after Amy said that Angie hit her head and yet the doctors suspect that Angie may be suffering from a skul l fracture or a concussion? 3. Can Amy loose child custody to Angie’s father whom they have not been in communication with for the past two years since their daughter is in hospital and she is frightened that someone might contact Angie’s father especially if she is arrested for child abuse? Non- Legal Issue 1. Is Amy in need of counseling as pertains to her anger management strategies, disciplining initiatives, and effects of alcohol abuse in parenting since she had been drinking with her friends that night before she picked Angie? Discussion Amy can be arrested for child abuse Child abuse is defined as mental and physical injury, negligent treatment of the child or exploitation and also inculcates sexual abuse of a child.