Institutional abuse refers to abuse or neglect that occurs where?

• A. In the home
• B. At an institution where the person perpetrating is an employee or other staff responsible for the child’s care
• C. In public places
• D. At a playground

Answer: (B)

Institutional abuse is harm that happens in a setting where someone is entrusted with the child’s care, such as a school, hospital, residential care home, or another organized care facility. The person responsible is typically an employee or staff member who has ongoing access to and a duty of safeguarding the child. This makes the abuse a product of the care setting and the power dynamics within it.

Abuse at home falls under domestic or family contexts, not an institutional one, because there isn’t the same formal care structure and duty of care. Likewise, harmful incidents in public places or on a playground aren’t institutional because they occur outside a care-setting framework with staff responsible for the child’s welfare.

So the defining idea is abuse occurring within a care institution, carried out by someone whose job is to care for the child.