Child Abandonment
Definition
The act of a parent or guardian permanently leaving a child without arranging for their care, treated in most jurisdictions as grounds for the state to assume custody.
Related terms
- Child in Need of Care and Protection
- A child who has committed no offence but is abandoned, missing, abused, exploited, trafficked, or otherwise without a fit and willing caregiver,...
- Child Trafficking
- The recruitment, transport, transfer, harbouring, or receipt of a child for exploitation, including labour, sexual exploitation, or forced marriage, which does not...
- Parens Patriae
- A common-law doctrine under which the state acts as an ultimate guardian of persons who cannot fully protect their own legal interests,...
- Protective Custody
- The temporary removal and placement of a child in state or state-approved care, ordered to secure the child's immediate safety while their...
- Vulnerability Factors
- Individual, family, or community characteristics statistically associated with a higher probability of harm to, or offending by, a child; cumulative and probabilistic...