Child abuse came about in the twentieth century. There are multiple types of child abuse such as physical, abuse, abuse, and neglect. Studies show child abuse recognized more in economically developed countries than in developing countries. Children, however, have been beaten and abandoned for many thousands of years, based primarily on the belief that children are the property of their parents. Children have always been susceptible to abuse by their parents or other adults for many centuries because laws failed to protect them. In earlier years civilizations usually abandoned deformed or unwanted children. In Roman society the father had total control over the family. The men were known for even killing their children for disobedience. In Roman and Greek societies sexual abuse of children was common. Children were often sold as prostitutes.

In the thirteenth-century England had a law that read, "If one beats a child until it bleeds, it will remember, but if one beats it to death, the law applies"( Library Index 2011). Children and parents thought of beatings as in the child's best interest. Children were also beaten by their teachers. In the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries child abuse was still common. However, there was decrease of abuse in wealthy communities. Later in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century fathers commonly placed their children in internships to provide cheap labor. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries this tradition continued into the early years of the United States.

Child abuse first captured the nation's attention with an eight-year-old orphan named Mary Ellen Wilson. She suffered daily beatings at her foster home. With no type organizations, services, programs to protect abused children, the case fell under the charge of cruelty to animals. When the case went before a judge, the foster mother was convicted of