Violence against children and adolescents

This refers to the prejudice, physical or mental abuse, neglect, negligent care, ill treatment, or the exploitation of children and adolescents (Convention on the Rights of the Child). This violence occurs when force or power are used against them, or when the person threatens to use them. The result is damage, injuries, deprivations, development disorders, or even death. This type of violence might be intentional or unintentional, and it could be physical or not. Examples of this violence are physical aggressions, punishment, verbal harassments, sexual abuse, rejection, isolation, or abandonment.

This can occur within a family and at home, school, the community, care and protection institutions, detention centres and prisons, in the work environment, and in the context of armed conflict, among others.

Children and adolescents can suffer violence from adults as well as from their peers, or they might even inflict it on themselves. In any case, the consequences are devastating. Those who experience violence early in life can have physical or mental problems, or effects on their cognitive development. At the same time, violence can provoke short-term and long-term consequences to their physical, sexual, and reproductive health. For example, it might affect their self-esteem and their personal relations.