The Governor of American Samoa has signed a law that further defines and criminalises acts of child abuse and neglect.
Lolo Matalasi Moliga says children of American Samoa are its most precious resource, and their physical and emotional well-being and development rely upon safe, loving, and nurturing homes.
Lolo says he cannot ignore situations where a home is insecure and becomes a haven for abuse and neglect, and where parents become a threat to their children.
The bill states that a person commits the crime of child abuse if he or she purposely or knowingly causes in injury to a child by unreasonable force by burning, biting, or cutting a child, striking a child with a closed fist, shaking, kicking or throwing the child, interfering with the child's breathing, threatening or injuring a child with a dangerous instrument, or other acts that create a substantial risk of harm or death.
Additionally a person commits child abuse if he inflicts serious emotional damage to a child, evidenced by the child's severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal, substantial change in behavior, emotional response or any injury diagnosed by a medical doctor or psychologist.
