title: Child abuse

text: On the other hand, there are some children who are raised in child abuse, but who manage to do unexpectedly well later in life regarding the preconditions. Such children have been termed "", as inspired from the way that dandelions seem to prosper irrespective of soil, sun, drought, or rain. Such children (or currently grown-ups) are of high interest in finding factors that mitigate the effects of child abuse.


title: Child abuse

text: Child abuse is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. No single factor can be identified as to why some adults behave abusively or neglectfully toward children. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) identify multiple factors at the level of the individual, their relationships, their local community, and their society at large, that combine to influence the occurrence of child maltreatment. At the individual level, studies have shown that age, mental health, and substance use, and a personal history of abuse may serve as risk factors of child abuse. At the level of society, factors contributing to child maltreatment include cultural norms that encourage harsh physical punishment of children, economic inequality, and the lack of social safety nets. WHO and ISPCAN state that understanding the complex interplay of various risk factors is vital for dealing with the problem of child maltreatment.


title: Child abuse

text: Factors related to relationships include marital strife and tension. Parents who physically abuse their spouses are more likely than others to physically abuse their children. However, it is impossible to know whether marital strife is a cause of child abuse, or if both the marital strife and the abuse are caused by tendencies in the abuser. Parents may also set expectations for their child that are clearly beyond the child's capability (e.g., preschool children who are expected to be totally responsible for self-care or provision of nurturance to parents), and the resulting frustration caused by the child's non-compliance may function as a contributory factor of the occurrence of child abuse.


title: Child abuse

text: Most acts of physical violence against children are undertaken with the intent to punish. In the United States, interviews with parents reveal that as many as two thirds of documented instances of physical abuse begin as acts of corporal punishment meant to correct a child's behavior, while a large-scale Canadian study found that three quarters of substantiated cases of physical abuse of children have occurred within the context of physical punishment. Other studies have shown that children and infants who are spanked by parents are several times more likely to be severely assaulted by their parents or suffer an injury requiring medical attention. Studies indicate that such abusive treatment often involves parents attributing conflict to their child's willfulness or rejection, as well as "coercive family dynamics and conditioned emotional responses". Factors involved in the escalation of ordinary physical punishment by parents into confirmed child abuse may be the punishing parent's inability to control their anger or judge their own strength, and the parent being unaware of the child's physical vulnerabilities.


title: Child abuse

text: Children resulting from unintended pregnancies are more likely to be abused or neglected. In addition, unintended pregnancies are more likely than intended pregnancies to be associated with abusive relationships, and there is an increased risk of physical violence during pregnancy. They also result in poorer maternal mental health, and lower mother-child relationship quality.


title: Child abuse

text: There is some limited evidence that children with moderate or severe disabilities are more likely to be victims of abuse than non-disabled children. A study on child abuse sought to determine: the forms of child abuse perpetrated on children with disabilities; the extent of child abuse; and the causes of child abuse of children with disabilities. A questionnaire on child abuse was adapted and used to collect data in this study. Participants comprised a sample of 31 pupils with disabilities (15 children with vision impairment and 16 children with hearing impairment) selected from special schools in Botswana. The study found that the majority of participants were involved in doing domestic chores. They were also sexually, physically and emotionally abused by their teachers. This study showed that children with disabilities were vulnerable to child abuse in their schools.


title: Child abuse

text: Substance use disorder can be a major contributing factor to child abuse. One U.S. study found that parents with documented substance use, most commonly alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, were much more likely to mistreat their children, and were also much more likely to reject court-ordered services and treatments. Another study found that over two-thirds of cases of child maltreatment involved parents with substance use disorders. This study specifically found relationships between alcohol and physical abuse, and between cocaine and sexual abuse. Also, parental stress caused by substance increases the likelihood of the minor exhibiting internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Although the abuse victim does not always realize the abuse is wrong, the internal confusion can lead to chaos. Inner anger turns to outer frustration. Once aged 17/18, drink and drugs are used to numb the hurt feelings, nightmares, and daytime flashbacks. Acquisitive crimes to pay for the chemicals are inevitable if the victim is unable to find employment.


title: Child abuse

text: Unemployment and financial difficulties are associated with increased rates of child abuse. In 2009 CBS News reported that child abuse in the United States had increased during the economic recession. It gave the example of a father who had never been the primary care-taker of the children. Now that the father was in that role, the children began to come in with injuries. Parental mental health has also been seen as a factor towards child maltreatment. According to a recent Children's HealthWatch study, mothers with positive symptoms of depression display a greater rate of food insecurity, poor health care for their children, and greater number of hospitalizations.


title: Child abuse

text: The American psychoanalyst Elisabeth Young-Bruehl maintains that harm to children is justified and made acceptable by widely held beliefs in children's inherent subservience to adults, resulting in a largely unacknowledged prejudice against children she terms "childism". She contends that such prejudice, while not the immediate cause of child maltreatment, must be investigated in order to understand the motivations behind a given act of abuse, as well as to shed light on societal failures to support children's needs and development in general. Founding editor of the "International Journal of Children's Rights", Michael Freeman, also argues that the ultimate causes of child abuse lie in prejudice against children, especially the view that human rights do not apply equally to adults and children. He writes, "the roots of child abuse lie not in parental psycho-pathology or in socio-environmental stress (though their influences cannot be discounted) but in a sick culture which denigrates and depersonalizes, which reduces children to property, to sexual objects so that they become the legitimate victims of both adult violence and lust".


title: Child abuse

text: Child abuse is an international public health crisis. Poverty and substance use disorders are common social problems worldwide, and no matter the location, show a similar trend in the correlation to child abuse. Differences in cultural perspectives play a significant role in how children are treated. Laws reflect the population's views on what is acceptable - for example whether child corporal punishment is legal or not.


title: Child abuse

text: A study conducted by members from several Baltic and Eastern European countries, together with specialists from the United States, examined the causes of child abuse in the countries of Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia and Moldova. In these countries, respectively, 33%, 42%, 18% and 43% of children reported at least one type of child abuse. According to their findings, there was a series of correlations between the potential risk factors of parental employment status, alcohol abuse, and family size within the abuse ratings. In three of the four countries, parental substance use was considerably correlated with the presence of child abuse, and although it was a lower percentage, still showed a relationship in the fourth country (Moldova). Each country also showed a connection between the father not working outside of the home and either emotional or physical child abuse. After the fall of the communism regime, some positive changes have followed with regard to tackling child abuse. While there is a new openness and acceptance regarding parenting styles and close relationships with children, child abuse has certainly not ceased to exist. While controlling parenting may be less of a concern, financial difficulty, unemployment, and substance use remain dominating factors in child abuse throughout Eastern Europe.


title: Child abuse

text: There is some evidence that countries in conflict or transitioning out of conflict have increased rates of child abuse. This increasing prevalence may be secondary to displacement and family disruption, as well as trauma.


title: Child abuse

text: Asian parenting perspectives hold different ideals from American culture. Many have described their traditions as including physical and emotional closeness that ensures a lifelong bond between parent and child, as well as establishing parental authority and child obedience through harsh discipline. Balancing disciplinary responsibilities within parenting is common in many Asian cultures, including China, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam and Korea. To some cultures, forceful parenting may be seen as abuse, but in other societies such as these, the use of force is looked at as a reflection of parental devotion.


title: Child abuse

text: These cultural differences can be studied from many perspectives. Most importantly, overall parental behavior is genuinely different in various countries. Each culture has their own "range of acceptability," and what one may view as offensive, others may seem as tolerable. Behaviors that are normal to some may be viewed as abusive to others, all depending on the societal norms of that particular country. The differences in these cultural beliefs demonstrate the importance of examining all cross-cultural perspectives when studying the concept of child abuse. Some professionals argue that cultural norms that sanction physical punishment are one of the causes of child abuse, and have undertaken campaigns to redefine such norms.


title: Child abuse

text: , between 25,000 and 50,000 children in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, had been accused of witchcraft and abandoned. In Malawi it is common practice to accuse children of witchcraft and many children have been abandoned, abused and even killed as a result. In the Nigerian, Akwa Ibom State and Cross River State about 15,000 children were branded as witches.


title: Child abuse

text: In April 2015, public broadcasting reported that the rate of child abuse in South Korea had increased to 13% compared with the previous year, and 75% of attackers were the children's own parents.


title: Child abuse

text: There are studies providing evidence of a link between child abuse and cruelty to animals. A large national survey by the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies found a "substantial overlap between companion animal abuse and child abuse" and that cruelty to animals "most frequently co-occurred with psychological abuse and less severe forms of physical child abuse," which "resonates with conceptualizations of domestic abuse as an ongoing pattern of psychological abuse and coercive control."


title: Child abuse

text: Suspicion for physical abuse is recommended when injuries occur in a child who is not yet able to walk independently. Additionally, having multiple injuries that are in different stages of healing and having injuries in unusual location, such as the torso, ears, face, or neck, may prompt evaluation for child abuse. Medical professionals may also become suspicious of child abuse when a caregiver is not able to provide an explanation for an injury that is consistent with the type or severity of the injury.


title: Child abuse

text: In many jurisdictions, suspected abuse, even if not necessarily proven, requires reporting to child protection agencies, such as the Child Protection Services in the United States. Recommendations for healthcare workers, such as primary care providers and nurses, who are often suited to encounter suspected abuse are advised to firstly determine the child's immediate need for safety. A private environment away from suspected abusers is desired for interviewing and examining. Leading statements that can distort the story are avoided. As disclosing abuse can be distressing and sometimes even shameful, reassuring the child that he or she has done the right thing by telling and that they are not bad or that the abuse was not their fault helps in disclosing more information. Dolls are sometimes used to help explain what happened. In Mexico, psychologists trial using cartoons to speak to children who may be more likely to disclose information than to an adult stranger. For the suspected abusers, it is also recommended to use a nonjudgmental, nonthreatening attitude towards them and to withhold expressing shock, in order to help disclose information.


title: Child abuse

text: A key part of child abuse work is assessment. A few methods of assessment include projective tests, clinical interviews, and behavioral observations.


title: Child abuse

text: A particular challenge arises where child protection professionals are assessing families where neglect is occurring. Neglect is a complex phenomenon without a universally-accepted definition and professionals cite difficulty in knowing which questions to ask to identify neglect. Younger children, children living in poverty, and children with more siblings are at increased risk of neglect.


title: Child abuse

text: A support-group structure is needed to reinforce parenting skills and closely monitor the child's well-being. Visiting home nurse or social-worker visits are also required to observe and evaluate the progress of the child and the caretaking situation. The support-group structure and visiting home nurse or social-worker visits are not mutually exclusive. Many studies have demonstrated that the two measures must be coupled together for the best possible outcome.


title: Child abuse

text: Studies show that if health and medical care personnel in a structured way ask parents about important psychosocial risk factors in connection with visiting pediatric primary care and, if necessary, offering the parent help may help prevent child maltreatment.


title: Child abuse

text: Children's school programs regarding "good touch … bad touch" can provide children with a forum in which to role-play and learn to avoid potentially harmful scenarios. Pediatricians can help identify children at risk of maltreatment and intervene with the aid of a social worker or provide access to treatment that addresses potential risk factors such as maternal depression. Videoconferencing has also been used to diagnose child abuse in remote emergency departments and clinics. Unintended conception increases the risk of subsequent child abuse, and large family size increases the risk of child neglect. Thus, a comprehensive study for the National Academy of Sciences concluded that affordable contraceptive services should form the basis for child abuse prevention. "The starting point for effective child abuse programming is pregnancy planning," according to an analysis for US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.


title: Child abuse

text: Findings from research published in 2016 support the importance of family relationships in the trajectory of a child's life: family-targeted interventions are important for improving long-term health, particularly in communities that are socioeconomically disadvantaged.


title: Child abuse

text: Resources for child-protection services are sometimes limited. According to Hosin (2007), "a considerable number of traumatized abused children do not gain access to protective child-protection strategies." Briere (1992) argues that only when "lower-level violence" of children ceases to be culturally tolerated will there be changes in the victimization and police protection of children.


title: Child abuse

text: Child sexual abuse prevention programs were developed in the United States of America during the 1970s and originally delivered to children. Programmes delivered to parents were developed in the 1980s and took the form of one-off meetings, two to three hours long. In the last 15 years, web-based programmes have been developed.


title: Child abuse

text: Since 1983, April has been designated Child Abuse Prevention Month in the United States. U.S. President Barack Obama continued that tradition by declaring April 2009 Child Abuse Prevention Month. One way the Federal government of the United States provides funding for child-abuse prevention is through Community-Based Grants for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (CBCAP).


title: Child abuse

text: An investigation by "The Boston Globe" and ProPublica published in 2019 found that the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico were all out of compliance with the requirements of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, and that underfunding of child welfare agencies and substandard procedures in some states caused failures to prevent avoidable child injuries and deaths.


title: Child abuse

text: A number of policies and programs have been put in place in the U.S. to try to better understand and to prevent child abuse fatalities, including: safe-haven laws, child fatality review teams, training for investigators, shaken baby syndrome prevention programs, and child abuse death laws which mandate harsher sentencing for taking the life of a child.


title: Child abuse

text: A number of treatments are available to victims of child abuse. However, children who experience childhood trauma do not heal from abuse easily. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, first developed to treat sexually abused children, is now used for victims of any kind of trauma. It targets trauma-related symptoms in children including PTSD, clinical depression and anxiety. It also includes a component for non-offending parents. Several studies have found that sexually abused children undergoing TF-CBT improved more than children undergoing certain other therapies. Data on the effects of TF-CBT for children who experienced non-sexual abuse was not available . The purpose of dealing with the thoughts and feelings associated with the trauma is to deal with nightmares, flashbacks and other intrusive experiences that might be spontaneously brought on by any number of discriminative stimuli in the environment or in the individual's brain. This would aid the individual in becoming less fearful of specific stimuli that would arouse debilitating fear, anger, sadness or other negative emotion. In other words, the individual would have some control or mastery over those emotions.


title: Child abuse

text: Rational Cognitive Emotive Behavior Therapy is another available treatment and is intended to provide abused children and their adoptive parents with positive behavior change, corrective interpersonal skills, and greater control over themselves and their relationships.


title: Child abuse

text: Parent–child interaction therapy was designed to improve the child-parent relationship following the experience of domestic violence. It targets trauma-related symptoms in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, including PTSD, aggression, defiance, and anxiety. It is supported by two studies of one sample.


title: Child abuse

text: School-based programs have also been developed to treat children who are survivors of abuse. This approach teaches children, parents, teachers, and other school staff how to identify the signs of child maltreatment as well as skills that can be helpful in preventing child maltreatment.


title: Child abuse

text: Other forms of treatment include group therapy, play therapy, and art therapy. Each of these types of treatment can be used to better assist the client, depending on the form of abuse they have experienced. Play therapy and art therapy are ways to get children more comfortable with therapy by working on something that they enjoy (coloring, drawing, painting, etc.). The design of a child's artwork can be a symbolic representation of what they are feeling, relationships with friends or family, and more. Being able to discuss and analyze a child's artwork can allow a professional to get a better insight of the child.


title: Child abuse

text: Interventions targeting the offending parents are rare. Parenting training can prevent child abuse in the short term, and help children with a range of emotional, conduct and behavioral challenges, but there is insufficient evidence about whether it has impact on parents who already abuse their children. Abuse-focused cognitive behavioral therapy may target offending parents, but most interventions exclusively target victims and non-offending parents.


title: Child abuse

text: Child abuse is complex and difficult to study. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), estimates of the rates of child maltreatment vary widely by country, depending on how child maltreatment is defined, the type of maltreatment studied, the scope and quality of data gathered, and the scope and quality of surveys that ask for self-reports from victims, parents, and caregivers. Despite these limitations, international studies show that a quarter of all adults report experiencing physical abuse as children, and that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report experiencing childhood sexual abuse. Emotional abuse and neglect are also common childhood experiences.


title: Child abuse

text: , an estimated 41,000 children under 15 are victims of homicide each year. The WHO states that this number underestimates the true extent of child homicide; a significant proportion of child deaths caused by maltreatment are incorrectly attributed to unrelated factors such as falls, burns, and drowning. Also, girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, exploitation and abuse in situations of armed conflict and refugee settings, whether by combatants, security forces, community members, aid workers, or others.


title: Child abuse

text: The National Research Council wrote in 1993 that "...the available evidence suggests that child abuse and neglect is an important, prevalent problem in the United States [...] Child abuse and neglect are particularly important compared with other critical childhood problems because they are often directly associated with adverse physical and mental health consequences in children and families".


title: Child abuse

text: In 2012, Child Protective Services (CPS) agencies estimated that about 9 out of 1000 children in the United States were victims of child maltreatment. Most (78%) were victims of neglect. Physical abuse, sexual abuse, and other types of maltreatment, were less common, making up 18%, 9%, and 11% of cases, respectively ("other types" included emotional abuse, parental substance use, and inadequate supervision). According to data reported by the Children's Bureau of the US Department of Health and Human Services, more than 3.5 million allegations of child abuse were looked into by child protective services who in turn confirmed 674,000 of those cases in 2017. However, CPS reports may underestimate the true scope of child maltreatment. A non-CPS study estimated that one in four children experience some form of maltreatment in their lifetimes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


title: Child abuse

text: In February 2017, the American Public Health Association published a Washington University study estimating 37% of American children experienced a child protective services investigation by age 18 (or 53% if African American).


title: Child abuse

text: According to David Finkelhor who tracked Child Maltreatment Report (NCANDS) data from 1990 to 2010, sexual abuse had declined 62% from 1992 to 2009 and the long-term trend for physical abuse was also down by 56% since 1992. He stated: "It is unfortunate that information about the trends in child maltreatment are not better publicized and more widely known. The long-term decline in sexual and physical abuse may have important implications for public policy."


title: Child abuse

text: In 1998, Douglas Besharov, the first Director of the U.S. Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, stated "the existing laws are often vague and overly broad" and there was a "lack of consensus among professionals and Child Protective Services (CPS), personnel about what the terms abuse and neglect mean".


title: Child abuse

text: A child abuse fatality occurs when a child's death is the result of abuse or neglect, or when abuse or neglect are contributing factors to a child's death. In the United States, 1,730 children died in 2008 due to factors related to abuse; this is a rate of 2 per 100,000 U.S. children. Family situations which place children at risk include moving, unemployment, and having non-family members living in the household. A number of policies and programs have been put in place in the U.S. to try to better understand and to prevent child abuse fatalities, including: safe-haven laws, child fatality review teams, training for investigators, shaken baby syndrome prevention programs, and child abuse death laws which mandate harsher sentencing for taking the life of a child.


title: Child abuse

text: In 1995, a one-off judicial decision found that parents failing to sufficiently speak the national standard language at home to their children was a form of child abuse by a judge in a child custody matter.


title: Child abuse

text: Child trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of children for the purpose of exploitation. Children are trafficked for purposes such as of commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labour, camel jockeying, child domestic labour, drug couriering, child soldiering, illegal adoptions, and begging. It is difficult to obtain reliable estimates concerning the number of children trafficked each year, primarily due to the covert and criminal nature of the practice. The International Labour Organization estimates that 1.2 million children are trafficked each year.


title: Child abuse

text: Child labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. The International Labour Organization considers such labor to be a form of exploitation and abuse of children. Child labor refers to those occupations which infringe the development of children (due to the nature of the job or lack of appropriate regulation) and does not include age appropriate and properly supervised jobs in which minors may participate. According to ILO, globally, around 215 million children work, many full-time. Many of these children do not go to school, do not receive proper nutrition or care, and have little or no time to play. More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, such as child prostitution, drug trafficking, armed conflicts and other hazardous environments. There exist several international instruments protecting children from child labor, including the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 and the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention.


title: Child abuse

text: More girls under 16 work as domestic workers than any other category of child labor, often sent to cities by parents living in rural poverty such as in restaveks in Haiti.


title: Child abuse

text: Removing children of ethnic minorities from their families to be adopted by those of the dominant ethnic group has been used as a method of forced assimilation. The Stolen Generations in Australia involved Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. In Canada, the Canadian Indian residential school system involved First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, who often suffered severe abuse. As part of the Uyghur genocide, in 2017 alone at least half a million children were also forcefully separated from their families, and placed in pre-school camps with prison-style surveillance systems and 10,000 volt electric fences.


title: Child abuse

text: In Switzerland, between the 1850s and the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children mostly from poor or single parents were forcefully removed from their parents by the authorities, and sent to work on farms, living with new families. They were known as "contract children" or "Verdingkinder".


title: Child abuse

text: Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty. It is speculated that, flush with money, for profit orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died and it would be cheaper to aid close relatives who want to take in the orphans. Experts and child advocates maintain that separating children from their families often harm children's development. During the One Child Policy in China, women were only allowed to have one child. Local governments would allow the woman to give birth and then they would take the baby away stating the mother violated the one child policy. Child traffickers, often paid by the government, would sell the children to orphanages that would arrange international adoptions worth tens of thousands of dollars, turning a profit for the government.


title: Child abuse

text: Under natural conditions, mortality rates for girls under five are slightly lower than boys for biological reasons. However, after birth, neglect and diverting resources to male children can lead to some countries having a skewed ratio with more boys than girls, with such practices killing an approximate 230,000 girls under five in India each year. While sex-selective abortion is more common among the higher income population, who can access medical technology, abuse after birth, such as infanticide and abandonment, is more common among the lower income population. Female infanticide in Pakistan was a common practice.


title: Child abuse

text: Methods proposed to deal with the issue are baby hatches to drop off unwanted babies and safe-haven laws, which decriminalize abandoning babies unharmed.


title: Child abuse

text: Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons." It is practiced mainly in 28 countries in Africa, and in parts of Asia and the Middle East. FGM is mostly found in a geographical area ranging across Africa, from east to west – from Somalia to Senegal, and from north to south – from Egypt to Tanzania. FGM is most often carried out on young girls aged between infancy and 15 years. FGM is classified into four types, of which type 3 – infibulation – is the most extreme form. The consequences of FGM include physical, emotional and sexual problems, and include serious risks during childbirth. In Western countries this practice is illegal and considered a form of child abuse. The countries which choose to ratify the Istanbul Convention, the first legally binding instrument in Europe in the field of violence against women and domestic violence, are bound by its provisions to ensure that FGM is criminalized. In Australia, all states and territories have outlawed FGM. In the United States, performing FGM on anyone under the age of 18 became illegal in 1996 with the "Federal Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act".


title: Child abuse

text: A tradition often performed in some regions in Africa involves a man initiating a girl into womanhood by having sex with her, usually after her first period, in a practice known as "sexual cleansing". The rite can last for three days and there is an increased risk of contracting sexually transmitted infections as the ritual requires condoms not be worn.


title: Child abuse

text: The practice of using hot stones or other implements to flatten the breast tissue of pubescent girls is widespread in Cameroon and exists elsewhere in West Africa as well. It is believed to have come with that diaspora to Britain, where the government declared it a form of child abuse and said that it could be prosecuted under existing assault laws.


title: Child abuse

text: In some parts of the world, girls are strongly discouraged from attending school, which some argue is because men favored with elevated and patriarchal status fear losing power to women. They are sometimes attacked by members of the community if they do so. In parts of South Asia, girls schools are set on fire by vigilante groups. Such attacks are common in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Notable examples include the kidnapping of hundreds of female students in Chibok in 2014 and Dapchi in 2018.


title: Child abuse

text: A child marriage is a marriage in which one or both participants are minors, often before the age of puberty. Child marriages are common in many parts of the world, especially in parts of Asia and Africa. The United Nations considers those below the age of 18 years to be incapable of giving valid consent to marriage and therefore regards such marriages as a form of forced marriage; and that marriages under the age of majority have significant potential to constitute a form of child abuse. In many countries, such practices are lawful or — even where laws prohibit child marriage — often unenforced. India has more child brides than any other nation, with 40% of the world total. The countries with the highest rates of child marriage are: Niger (75%), Central African Republic and Chad (68%), and Bangladesh (66%).


title: Child abuse

text: Bride kidnapping, also known as marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, has been practiced around the world and throughout history, and sometimes involves minors. It is still practiced in parts of Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and some African countries. In Ethiopia, marriage by abduction is widespread, and many young girls are kidnapped this way. In most countries, bride kidnapping is considered a criminal offense rather than a valid form of marriage. In many cases, the groom also rapes his kidnapped bride, in order to prevent her from returning to her family due to shame.


title: Child abuse

text: Money marriage refers to a marriage where a girl, usually, is married off to a man to settle debts owed by her parents. The female is referred to as a "money wife"


title: Child abuse

text: Sacred prostitution often involves girls being pledged to priests or those of higher castes, such as fetish slaves in West Africa.


title: Child abuse

text: Customary beliefs in witchcraft are common in many parts of the world, even among the educated. Anthropologists have argued that those with disabilities are often viewed as bad omens as raising a child with a disability in such communities are an insurmountable hurdle. A 2010 UNICEF report notes that accusations against children are a recent phenomenon with women and the elderly usually being accused 10–20 years ago. Greater urbanization and the growing economic burden of raising children is attributed as a factor. This practice is found in Africa and in communities in the Amazon. Children who are specifically at risk include orphans, street-children, albinos, disabled children, children who are unusually gifted, children who were born prematurely or in unusual positions, twins, children of single mothers and children who express gender identity issues and can involve children as young as eight. Consequently, those accused of being a witch are ostracized and subjected to punishment, torture and even murdered, often by being buried alive or left to starve. For example, in southern Ethiopia, children with physical abnormalities are considered to be ritually impure or mingi, the latter are believed to exert an evil influence upon others, so disabled infants have traditionally been disposed of without a proper burial. Reports by UNICEF, UNHCR, Save The Children and Human Rights Watch have highlighted the violence and abuse towards children accused of witchcraft in Africa.


title: Child abuse

text: One of the most challenging ethical dilemmas arising from child abuse relates to the parental rights of abusive parents or caretakers with regard to their children, particularly in medical settings. In the United States, the 2008 New Hampshire case of Andrew Bedner drew attention to this legal and moral conundrum. Bedner, accused of severely injuring his infant daughter, sued for the right to determine whether or not she remain on life support; keeping her alive, which would have prevented a murder charge, created a motive for Bedner to act that conflicted with the apparent interests of his child. Bioethicists Jacob M. Appel and Thaddeus Mason Pope recently argued, in separate articles, that such cases justify the replacement of the accused parent with an alternative decision-maker.


title: Child abuse

text: Child abuse also poses ethical concerns related to confidentiality, as victims may be physically or psychologically unable to report abuse to authorities. Accordingly, many jurisdictions and professional bodies have made exceptions to standard requirements for confidentiality and legal privileges in instances of child abuse. Medical professionals, including doctors, therapists, and other mental health workers typically owe a duty of confidentiality to their patients and clients, either by law or the standards of professional ethics, and cannot disclose personal information without the consent of the individual concerned. This duty conflicts with an ethical obligation to protect children from preventable harm. Accordingly, confidentiality is often waived when these professionals have a good faith suspicion that child abuse or neglect has occurred or is likely to occur and make a report to local child protection authorities. This exception allows professionals to breach confidentiality and make a report even when children or their parents or guardians have specifically instructed to the contrary. Child abuse is also a common exception to physician–patient privilege: a medical professional may be called upon to testify in court as to otherwise privileged evidence about suspected child abuse despite the wishes of children or their families. Some child abuse policies in Western countries have been criticized both by some conservatives, who claim such policies unduly interfere in the privacy of the family, and by some feminists of the left wing, who claim such policies disproportionally target and punish disadvantaged women who are often themselves in vulnerable positions. There has also been concern that ethnic minority families are disproportionally targeted.


title: Child abuse

text: Laws and legislation against child abuse are enacted on the provincial and Federal Territories level. Investigations into child abuse are handled by Provincial and Territorial Authorities through government social service departments and enforcement is through local police and courts.


title: Child abuse

text: In Germany, the abuse of vulnerable persons (including children) is punishable according to the German Criminal code § 225 with a from 6 months to 10 years, in aggravated cases at least 1 year (to 15 years pursuant to § 38). If the case is only attempt, the penalty can be lower (§ 23). However, crimes against children must be prosecuted within 10 years (in aggravated cases 20 years) of the victims reaching 30 years of age (§ 78b and § 78).


title: Child abuse

text: As of 2020, Germany and the Netherlands are 2 out of all 27 EU countries that do not have any reporting obligations for civilians or professionals. There is no mandatory reporting law, which would grant reporters of child abuse anonymity and immunity.


title: Child abuse

text: In the 1960s, mandatory reporting in the United States was introduced and had been adopted in some form by all 50 states by 1970.


title: Child abuse

text: In 1974, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) was introduced and began an upswing in reported child sexual abuse cases which lasted until the 1990's. The Child Abuse Victims Rights Act of 1986 gave victims of child abuse the ability to file lawsuits against abuse perpetrators and their employers after the statue of limitations had expired. The Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 further gave victims of abuse capacity to press charges by permitting the court to assign lawyers to advise, act in the best interest of, and elevate the voices of child victims of abuse. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) followed, shifting emphasis away from court-sanctioned reunification of families to giving parents or guardians time-bound opportunities for rehabilitation prior to making long term plans for children. Child Abuse Reform and Enforcement Act was enacted in 2000 to further reduce the incidence of child abuse and neglect.


title: Child abuse

text: Shifting legislative focus more heavily towards sexual abuse and exploitation of children, Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was passed in 2006 to increase penalties and registration for child sexual abuse, exploitation, and transportation crimes. top Exploitation Through Trafficking Act passed in 2013 aimed at preventing the prosecution of sexually exploited youth being sex trafficked, redirecting abused and exploited youth from the criminal justice system to the child welfare system. This and other laws redirecting victims of child sex trafficking to the child welfare system are known as "Safe Harbor" laws.


title: Child abuse

text: , 18 states had legislation requiring that mandated reporters report based on suspicion of child abuse of neglect.


title: Child abuse

text: There are organizations at national, state, and county levels in the United States that provide community leadership in preventing child abuse and neglect.


title: Child abuse

text: Mary Ellen Wilson, also called Mary Ellen McCormack, was an American whose case of child abuse, the first documented case of child abuse in the United States, led to the creation of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which was incorporated in 1875. It was the world's first child protective agency.


title: Child abuse

text: Prevent Child Abuse America, founded in 1976, operates in 46 states to provide child abuse and neglect protection.


title: Child abuse

text: Founded in 1985, the National Children's Advocacy Center, along with National Children's Alliance, coordinates efforts and sets standards and policy for child advocacy centers across the US and abroad.


title: Child abuse

text: The Children's Trust Fund Alliance, established in 1989, provides funding support to state level child abuse organisations.


title: Child abuse

text: Many investigations into child abuse in the US are handled on the local level by 924 child advocacy centers, some of which are distributed among 34 other countries.


title: Child abuse

text: Other organizations focus on specific prevention strategies. The National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome focuses its efforts on the specific issue of preventing child abuse that is manifested as shaken baby syndrome.


title: Child abuse

text: NICHD, also known as the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development is an organization that helps victims of child abuse through one of its branches. Through the Child Development and Behavior (CDB) Branch, NICHD raises awareness efforts by supporting research projects to better understand the short- and long-term impacts of child abuse and neglect. They provide programs and observe National Child Abuse Prevention Month every April since 1984. The United States Children's Bureau, a federal agency tasked to improve child abuse protection leads activities for the Month, including the release of updated statistics about child abuse and neglect, candlelight vigils, and fundraisers to support prevention activities and treatment for victims. The Bureau also sponsors a "Blue Ribbon Campaign," in which people wear blue ribbons in memory of children who have died from abuse, or in honor of individuals and organizations that have taken important steps to prevent child abuse and neglect.


title: Child abuse

text: Charitable organizations exist in each province to assist children and families with abuse. Organizations such as the Canadian Red Cross, Kids Help Phone, and Guardians of the Children Canada, are able to direct people to locally available resources.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Sam Witwer (born October 20, 1977) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Crashdown in "Battlestar Galactica", Davis Bloome in "Smallville", Aidan Waite in "Being Human", Mr. Hyde in "Once Upon a Time", Ben Lockwood in "Supergirl", and Rupert Chipping in "Riverdale".


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer has worked on numerous projects in the "Star Wars" franchise, having first provided his voice and likeness for Starkiller in the "" video game series. He later notably voiced Darth Maul in the television series "" and "Star Wars Rebels", as well as the film "". He has also voiced the Son and Emperor Palpatine in "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels", respectively. Witwer portrayed protagonist Deacon St. John through motion capture for the video game "Days Gone" by Bend Studio.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer was born on October 20, 1977, and grew up in Glenview, Illinois, a small suburb outside of Chicago. He attended Glenbrook South High School, during which time he was involved in drama and theater classes, as well as being the lead singer of a high school band called "Love Plumber". He attended the Juilliard School for a time before moving to Los Angeles.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer's first on-screen credit was that of a Chicago Bulls commercial. He soon found himself in speaking roles on hit television series, such as "ER".


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer's first major recurring role came in the form of portraying raptor pilot 'Crashdown' (his call sign) on "Battlestar Galactica", although he has credited much of his current success to his role as Neil Perry on the Showtime series "Dexter". Witwer also appeared as Private Wayne Jessup in the film "The Mist".


title: Sam Witwer

text: From 2008 to 2009, Witwer was cast in season 8 of "Smallville" as Davis Bloome, a charming paramedic who struggles with a darkness within as he is the human camouflage of Doomsday. Witwer played Davis while Doomsday was played by stuntman Dario Delacio. Witwer's performance in "Smallville" was incredibly well-received, and he has stated that his experience on the show had opened more opportunities for him in the future of acting. Witwer’s contract gave him the option to return in season 9 as Zod, though he ultimately declined. Though he considered his time on the show enjoyable and was flattered by the offer to stay on, he passed on the role as he felt it would be difficult for both the characters and audience to accept.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer made a cameo appearance in "The Walking Dead" as a dead zombie soldier in a tank in the season 1 episode "Days Gone Bye" which reunited him with director Frank Darabont from "The Mist". Coincidentally, in 2019 he went on to portray the main protagonist (both voice and motion capture) of a video game called "Days Gone", which also tackles the topic of zombie apocalypse.


title: Sam Witwer

text: From 2011 to 2014, Witwer starred in the North American remake of "Being Human". He played the lead role of vampire Aidan Waite. The show, as well as his performance, was well received and lasted 4 seasons.


title: Sam Witwer

text: He voiced Ocean Master in the animated film "" for the "DC Universe Animated Original Movies" series, replacing fellow "Star Wars" actor Steve Blum from "".


title: Sam Witwer

text: In 2016 Witwer played Edward Hyde on "Once Upon a Time", recurring for part of its sixth season after debuting at the end of the fifth season.


title: Sam Witwer

text: In 2018, Witwer joined the main cast of The CW drama series "Supergirl", portraying the fourth season's main antagonist Ben Lockwood / Agent Liberty.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Sam is an avid player of both pen-and-paper and video role-playing games. This is a hobby that he has engaged in for years. He has been a frequent guest on the Podcast "Order 66" and has expressed a love for all iterations of "Star Wars" role-playing games "" (by West End Games) to "Star Wars Roleplaying Game" (by Wizards of the Coast) and to the series of cross-compatible "Star Wars" roleplaying games by Fantasy Flight Games.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Sam appeared in episode 19 of Geek and Sundry's "Tabletop" playing the "Dragon Age" role-playing game, and episodes 29 and 55 of Dice Camera Action as Mordenkainen.


title: Sam Witwer

text: In January 2017, he appeared as a guest on a play-through of ScratchPad Publishing's Dusk City Outlaws, alongside Elisa Teague, Tom Lommel, Spencer Crittenden, and game designer Rodney Thompson.


title: Sam Witwer

text: A lifelong "Star Wars" fan, Witwer provided both his voice and likeness for lead character Galen Marek / Starkiller (Darth Vader's secret apprentice) in the 2008 video game "" and 2010 sequel "". He also voiced Darth Sidious (Emperor Palpatine) in the first game, and reprised it for the games "Disney Infinity 3.0" and "Battlefront" and for the original season 2 premiere of "Star Wars Rebels"; however, in 2019, the role was re-dubbed by Ian McDiarmid who portrayed Palpatine in the films and in "Rebels" season 4.


title: Sam Witwer

text: For "", Witwer had also vocally performed the Son in a three episode story arc (known as the Mortis trilogy) in season 3 as well as the iconic former Sith Maul in the season 4 finale episodes, four episodes of season 5, and the "Siege of Mandalore" arc in season 7. He also lent his voice for Maul in other projects such as the "Star Wars: Episode I Brisk" commercial as well as the Cartoon Network special "", and again for "Star Wars Rebels". On September 27, 2012, a feature-length "director's cut" of Witwer's season 4 finale episodes of "The Clone Wars" were released as a direct-to-video film, "", initially made available exclusively at Target.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer attended "The Clone Wars" season 5 Red Carpet Premiere in Orlando, Florida on August 24, 2012 during Celebration VI along with some of his co-stars Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane, Daniel Logan, Stephen Stanton and Ashley Eckstein, as well as Supervising Director Dave Filoni. During Celebration VI, he also had his own panel called: Sam Witwer "The Maul Within" on August 26, 2012. In 2013, he attended for the first time the annual event, Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida for a three-day weekend and fans praised him for his roles in "The Force Unleashed" games and on "The Clone Wars". During the live show "Behind the Force", Sam showed his acting skills by saying one or two lines of the characters that he's played in the "Star Wars" universe.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer has also voiced an alien as well as a First Order stormtrooper during the siege of Maz Kanata's palace in "".


title: Sam Witwer

text: In 2018, Witwer reprised his portrayal as Maul and performed the voice acting role for the character in "", marking the sixth project for which Witwer voices Maul, and the first live-action performance.


title: Sam Witwer

text: In 2020, Witwer was cast as an unidentified dark side character in the StarWarsKids.com and YouTube game show "", which premiered on June 3, 2020.


title: Sam Witwer

text: Witwer serves as the front-man for the band The Crashtones, whose first studio album "Colorful of the Stereo" was released February 15, 2006. Witwer released a new album May 7, 2019 entitled "Revenge of the Crashtones".


title: Limitless (film)

text: Limitless is a 2011 American science-fiction thriller film directed by Neil Burger and written by Leslie Dixon. Based on the 2001 novel "The Dark Fields" by Alan Glynn, the film stars Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro, Andrew Howard, and Anna Friel. The film follows Edward Morra, a struggling writer who is introduced to a nootropic drug called NZT-48, which gives him the ability to use his brain fully and to improve his lifestyle vastly.


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Limitless" was released on March 18, 2011, and became a box-office success, grossing over $161 million on a budget of $27 million. A television series of the same name, covering events that take place after the film, debuted on September 22, 2015, but was cancelled after one season.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Eddie Morra is a struggling author in New York City. His girlfriend Lindy, frustrated with his lack of progress (as well as his seeming lack of ambition, motivation, and focus), breaks up with him. Eddie encounters Vernon, the brother of his ex-wife Melissa, who gives him a sample of a new nootropic called NZT-48, which Vernon implies will help Eddie with his "creative problems". On the drug, Eddie discovers that he has acquired perfect recall, and is able to analyze minute details and information at incredible speed. As the pill takes effect, he is being yelled at by his landlord's wife. With his new power, he calms her down, helps her with her law school homework, and sleeps with her. His abilities compel him to tidy up his apartment and give him immense inspiration for his book.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Soon afterwards, Vernon is murdered by someone searching for the drug. Eddie locates Vernon's supply and takes increasing doses. As his life improves, he decides to begin investing in the stock market. He is hired at a brokerage firm and resumes his relationship with Lindy. His success leads to a meeting with finance tycoon Carl Van Loon, who tests him by seeking advice on a merger with Hank Atwood's company. After the meeting, Eddie experiences an 18-hour loss of memory, which he refers to as a "time skip". The next day in a meeting with Van Loon, Eddie sees a news telecast that a woman has been murdered in her hotel room. Eddie recognizes her as the woman he slept with during his time skip and abruptly leaves the meeting.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Eddie realizes that everyone taking NZT-48 is either hospitalized or dead. A man in a trench coat is revealed to have been following him. Lindy tells Eddie she cannot be with him while he is on the drug. Eddie experiments with NZT-48 and learns to control his dosage, sleep schedule, and food intake to prevent side effects. He hires a laboratory in an attempt to reverse-engineer the drug, an attorney to keep the police from investigating the death of Vernon or the woman, and two bodyguards to protect him from Gennady, a loan shark, who is threatening him to obtain more NZT-48.


title: Limitless (film)

text: On the day of the merger, Atwood falls into a coma. Eddie recognizes Atwood's driver as the man in the trench coat and realizes Atwood is on NZT-48. While Eddie participates in a police lineup, his attorney steals Eddie's supply of pills from his jacket pocket. Eddie enters into withdrawal, and while Van Loon questions him about Atwood's coma, Eddie receives a parcel that is found to contain the severed hands of his bodyguards. He hurries home and locks himself in, before Gennady breaks into Eddie's apartment, demanding more NZT-48. Gennady flaunts his abilities while injecting himself with NZT-48, explaining that by injecting it directly into the bloodstream, the effects last longer and the withdrawal symptoms are lessened. As Gennady threatens to eviscerate him, Eddie grabs his own knife and kills Gennady. Eddie then consumes Gennady's blood to ingest the NZT-48 in the blood. This gives Eddie the mental abilities of the drug once again, and he is able to kill the remaining henchmen. He then meets with the man in the trench coat, surmising that Atwood employed the man to locate more NZT-48. Once Atwood dies, the two recover Eddie's stash from his attorney's apartment.


title: Limitless (film)

text: A year later, Eddie has retained his wealth, published a book, and is running for the United States Senate. Van Loon visits him and reveals that he has absorbed the company that produced NZT-48 and shut down Eddie's laboratory and both acknowledge that Eddie will likely become President of the United States one day, so Van Loon offers Eddie a continued supply of the drug in exchange for Eddie assisting his ambitions. Eddie tells Van Loon that he has already perfected the drug and weaned himself off of it, retaining his abilities without side effects.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Eddie goes to lunch with Lindy. After speaking Chinese to the waiter, Lindy looks at Eddie, wondering if he's really off NZT. He looks at Lindy and says "What?"


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Limitless" is based on the novel "The Dark Fields" by Alan Glynn. The film is directed by Neil Burger, and is based on a screenplay by Leslie Dixon, who had acquired rights to the source material. Dixon wrote the adapted screenplay for less than her regular price in exchange for being made one of the film's producers. Fellow producer Scott Kroopf and she approached Burger to direct the film, at the time titled "The Dark Fields". For Burger, who had written and directed his previous three films, the collaboration was his first foray solely as director. With Universal Pictures developing the project, Shia LaBeouf was announced in April 2008 to be cast as the film's star.


title: Limitless (film)

text: The project eventually moved to development under Relativity Media and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Produced with Universal distributing through Relativity's Rogue Pictures. By November 2009, Bradley Cooper replaced LaBeouf in the starring role. Robert De Niro was cast opposite Cooper by March 2010, and "The Dark Fields" began filming in Philadelphia the following May. Filming also took place in New York City. For a scene filmed in Puerto Vallarta, filmmakers sought a luxury car. Italian carmaker Maserati provided two Maserati GranTurismo coupes free in "a guerrilla-style approach" to product placement. By December 2010, "The Dark Fields" was re-titled "Limitless".


title: Limitless (film)

text: The film notably incorporates fractal zooming, jump-cutting, and out-of-body scenes to convey the effect of the wonder drug on the protagonist. Green screens and motion-control photography were used to produce the visual effect of characters performing an action, and then turning around to see themselves doing that action again. The opening scene was created with still photographs stitched together using a variety of special-effects techniques.


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Limitless" had its world premiere in New York City on , 2011. It was released in in the United States and Canada on , 2011.


title: Limitless (film)

text: The film grossed $18.9 million on its opening weekend to rank first at the box office, beating other openers "The Lincoln Lawyer" and "Paul", as well as carryovers "Rango" and "". "Limitless" was released in the United Kingdom on , 2011.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Before the film's release, Box Office Mojo called "Limitless" a "wild card", highlighting its "clearly articulated" premise and the pairing of Cooper and De Niro, but questioned a successful opening. The film opened at number one in its first week in the U.S. The film did well at the box office, earning some $79 million in the U.S. and Canada, as well as some $157 million worldwide against its $27 million budget.


title: Limitless (film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "Limitless" has an approval rating of 69% based on 199 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Although its script is uneven, Neil Burger directs "Limitless" with plenty of visual panache, and Bradley Cooper makes for a charismatic star." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Limitless (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and said it was "not terrifically good, but the premise is intriguing" and also stated that director Neil Burger uses "inventive visual effects." Lastly, adapting a line from the movie, he said, ""Limitless" only uses 15, maybe 20 percent of its brain. Still, that's more than a lot of movies do."


title: Limitless (film)

text: Kirk Honeycutt of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, ""Limitless" should be so much smarter than it is," believing that it took conventional plot turns and stuck closely to genre elements like Russian gangsters and Wall Street crooks. Honeycutt reserved praise for Cooper, Abbie Cornish, and Anna Friel. He also commended cinematographer Jo Willems' camerawork and Patrizia von Brandenstein's production design in the film's array of locales.


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Variety"s Robert Koehler called "Limitless" a "propulsive, unexpectedly funny thriller". Koehler wrote, "What makes the film so entertaining is its willingness to go far out, with transgressive touches and mind-bending images that take zoom and fish-eye shots to a new technical level, as the pill enables Eddie to experience astonishing new degrees of clarity, perception, and energy." He said of Cooper's performance, "Going from grungy to ultrasuave with a corresponding shift in attitude, Cooper shows off his range in a film he dominates from start to finish. The result is classic Hollywood star magnetism, engaging auds [audiences] physically and vocally, as his narration proves to be a crucial element of the pic's humor." The critic also positively compared Willems' cinematography to the style in "Déjà Vu" (2006) and commended the tempo set by the film's editors Naomi Geraghty and Tracy Adams and by composer Paul Leonard-Morgan.


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Limitless" received the award for Best Thriller at the 2011 Scream Awards and was nominated for Best Science Fiction Film at the 2012 Saturn Awards, but lost to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes".


title: Limitless (film)

text: Bradley Cooper announced in October 2013 that Leslie Dixon, Scott Kroopf, and he would be executive producers of a television series based on "Limitless". On November 3, 2014, CBS announced it would be financing a pilot episode for the "Limitless" TV series. The pilot continued where the film left off. The main character would be called Brian Finch.


title: Limitless (film)

text: The "Limitless" pilot was directed by Marc Webb, replacing Burger, who had to pull out because of a scheduling conflict with the Showtime drama pilot "Billions". Burger is still an executive producer, along with Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Heather Kadin. It is based on a script by "Elementary" executive producer Craig Sweeny. The "Limitless" pilot was screen-tested on June 1, 2015, with Jake McDorman, Jennifer Carpenter, Hill Harper, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio starring.


title: Limitless (film)

text: "Limitless" officially got a series order in May 2015. The show was announced as a spin-off of the film, before confirming that Bradley Cooper would make regular appearances, reprising his role as Edward Morra.


title: Egg as food

text: Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especially chickens. Eggs of other birds, including ostriches and other ratites, are eaten regularly but much less commonly than those of chickens. People may also eat the eggs of reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Fish eggs consumed as food are known as roe or caviar.


title: Egg as food

text: Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen (egg white), and vitellus (egg yolk), contained within various thin membranes. Egg yolks and whole eggs store significant amounts of protein and choline, and are widely used in cookery. Due to their protein content, the United States Department of Agriculture formerly categorized eggs as "Meats" within the Food Guide Pyramid (now MyPlate). Despite the nutritional value of eggs, there are some potential health issues arising from cholesterol content, salmonella contamination, and allergy to egg proteins.


title: Egg as food

text: Chickens and other egg-laying creatures are kept widely throughout the world and mass production of chicken eggs is a global industry. In 2009, an estimated 62.1 million metric tons of eggs were produced worldwide from a total laying flock of approximately 6.4 billion hens. There are issues of regional variation in demand and expectation, as well as current debates concerning methods of mass production. In 2012, the European Union banned battery husbandry of chickens.


title: Egg as food

text: Bird eggs have been valuable foodstuffs since prehistory, in both hunting societies and more recent cultures where birds were domesticated. The chicken probably was domesticated for its eggs (from jungle fowl native to tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia and Indian subcontinent) before 7500 BCE. Chickens were brought to Sumer and Egypt by 1500 BCE, and arrived in Greece around 800 BCE, where the quail had been the primary source of eggs. In Thebes, Egypt, the tomb of Haremhab, dating to approximately 1420 BCE, shows a depiction of a man carrying bowls of ostrich eggs and other large eggs, presumably those of the pelican, as offerings. In ancient Rome, eggs were preserved using a number of methods and meals often started with an egg course. The Romans crushed the shells in their plates to prevent evil spirits from hiding there.


title: Egg as food

text: In the Middle Ages, eggs were forbidden during Lent because of their richness, although the motivation for forgoing eggs during Lent was not entirely religious. An annual pause in egg consumption allowed farmers to rest their flocks, and also to limit their hens' consumption of feed during a time of year when food stocks were usually scarce.


title: Egg as food

text: Egg scrambled with acidic fruit juices were popular in France in the seventeenth century; this may have been the origin of lemon curd.


title: Egg as food

text: The dried egg industry developed in the nineteenth century, before the rise of the frozen egg industry. In 1878, a company in St. Louis, Missouri started to transform egg yolk and egg white into a light-brown, meal-like substance by using a drying process. The production of dried eggs significantly expanded during World War II, for use by the United States Armed Forces and its allies.


title: Egg as food

text: In 1911, the egg carton was invented by Joseph Coyle in Smithers, British Columbia, to solve a dispute about broken eggs between a farmer in Bulkley Valley and the owner of the Aldermere Hotel. Early egg cartons were made of paper. Polystyrene egg cartons became popular in the latter half of the twentieth century as they were perceived to offer better protection especially against heat and breakage, however by the twenty-first century environmental considerations have led to the more biodegradable paper cartons (often made of recycled material) once again becoming more widely used.


title: Egg as food

text: Whereas the wild Asian fowl from which domesticated chickens are descended typically lay about a dozen eggs each year during the breeding season, several millenia of selective breeding have produced domesticated hens capable of laying more than three hundred eggs each annually, and to lay eggs year round.


title: Egg as food

text: Bird eggs are a common food and one of the most versatile ingredients used in cooking. They are important in many branches of the modern food industry.


title: Egg as food

text: The most commonly used bird eggs are those from the chicken, duck, and goose. Smaller eggs, such as quail eggs, are used occasionally as a gourmet ingredient in Western countries. Eggs are a common everyday food in many parts of Asia, such as China and Thailand, with Asian production providing 59 percent of the world total in 2013.


title: Egg as food

text: The largest bird eggs, from ostriches, tend to be used only as special luxury food. Gull eggs are considered a delicacy in England, as well as in some Scandinavian countries, particularly in Norway. In some African countries, guineafowl eggs often are seen in marketplaces, especially in the spring of each year. Pheasant eggs and emu eggs are edible, but less widely available; sometimes they are obtainable from farmers, poulterers, or luxury grocery stores. In many countries, wild bird eggs are protected by laws which prohibit the collecting or selling of them, or permit collection only during specific periods of the year.


title: Egg as food

text: In 2017, world production of chicken eggs was 80.1 million tonnes. The largest producers were China with 31.3 million of this total, the United States with 6.3 million, India at 4.8 million, Mexico at 2.8 million, Japan at 2.6 million, and Brazil and Russia with 2.5 million each. A typical large egg factory ships a million dozen eggs per week.


title: Egg as food

text: For the month of January 2019, the United States produced 9.41 billion eggs, with 8.2 billion for table consumption and 1.2 billion for raising chicks. Americans are projected to each consume 279 eggs in 2019, the highest since 1973, but less than the 405 eggs eaten per person in 1945.


title: Egg as food

text: During production, eggs usually are candled to check their quality. The size of its air cell is determined, and the examination also reveals whether the egg was fertilized and thereby contains an embryo. Depending on local regulations, eggs may be washed before being placed in egg boxes, although washing may shorten their length of freshness.


title: Egg as food

text: The shape of an egg resembles a prolate spheroid with one end larger than the other and has cylindrical symmetry along the long axis.


title: Egg as food

text: An egg is surrounded by a thin, hard shell. Thin membranes exist inside the shell. The egg yolk is suspended in the egg white by one or two spiral bands of tissue called the chalazae (from the Greek word χάλαζα, meaning 'hailstone' or 'hard lump').


title: Egg as food

text: The larger end of the egg contains an air cell that forms when the contents of the egg cool down and contract after it is laid. Chicken eggs are graded according to the size of this air cell, measured during candling. A very fresh egg has a small air cell and receives a grade of AA. As the size of the air cell increases and the quality of the egg decreases, the grade moves from AA to A to B. This provides a way of testing the age of an egg: as the air cell increases in size due to air being drawn through pores in the shell as water is lost, the egg becomes less dense and the larger end of the egg will rise to increasingly shallower depths when the egg is placed in a bowl of water. A very old egg will float in the water and should not be eaten, especially if a foul odor can be detected if the egg is cracked open.


title: Egg as food

text: Eggshell color is caused by pigment deposition during egg formation in the oviduct and may vary according to species and breed, from the more common white or brown to pink or speckled blue-green. Generally, chicken breeds with white ear lobes lay white eggs, whereas chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs. Although there is no significant link between shell color and nutritional value, often there is a cultural preference for one color over another (see below). As candeling is less effective with brown eggs, they have a significantly higher incidence of blood spots.


title: Egg as food

text: The eggshell membrane is a clear film lining the eggshell, visible when one peels a boiled egg. Primarily, it composed of fibrous proteins such as collagen type I. These membranes may be used commercially as a dietary supplement.


title: Egg as food

text: "White" is the common name for the clear liquid (also called the albumen or the glair/glaire) contained within an egg. Colorless and transparent initially, upon cooking it turns white and opaque. In chickens, it is formed from the layers of secretions of the anterior section of the hen oviduct during the passage of the egg. It forms around both fertilized and unfertilized yolks. The primary natural purpose of egg white is to protect the yolk and provide additional nutrition during the growth of the embryo.


title: Egg as food

text: Egg white consists primarily of approximately 90 percent water into which is dissolved 10 percent proteins (including albumins, mucoproteins, and globulins). Unlike the yolk, which is high in lipids (fats), egg white contains almost no fat and the carbohydrate content is less than one percent. Egg white has many uses in food and many other applications, including the preparation of vaccines, such as those for influenza.


title: Egg as food

text: The yolk in a newly laid egg is round and firm. As the yolk ages, it absorbs water from the albumen, which increases its size and causes it to stretch and weaken the vitelline membrane (the clear casing enclosing the yolk). The resulting effect is a flattened and enlarged yolk shape.


title: Egg as food

text: Yolk color is dependent on the diet of the hen. If the diet contains yellow or orange plant pigments known as xanthophylls, then they are deposited in the yolk, coloring it. Lutein is the most abundant pigment in egg yolk. A diet without such colorful foods may result in an almost colorless yolk. Yolk color is, for example, enhanced if the diet includes foods such as yellow corn and marigold petals. In the US, the use of artificial color additives is forbidden.


title: Egg as food

text: Chicken eggs are widely used in many types of dishes, both sweet and savory, including many baked goods. Some of the most common preparation methods include scrambled, fried, poached, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, omelettes, and pickled. They also may be eaten raw, although this is not recommended for people who may be especially susceptible to salmonellosis, such as the elderly, the infirm, or pregnant women. In addition, the protein in raw eggs is only 51 percent bioavailable, whereas that of a cooked egg is nearer 91 percent bioavailable, meaning the protein of cooked eggs is nearly twice as absorbable as the protein from raw eggs.


title: Egg as food

text: As a cooking ingredient, egg yolks are an important emulsifier in the kitchen, and are also used as a thickener, as in custards.


title: Egg as food

text: The albumen (egg white) contains protein, but little or no fat, and may be used in cooking separately from the yolk. The proteins in egg white allow it to form foams and aerated dishes. Egg whites may be aerated or whipped to a light, fluffy consistency, and often are used in desserts such as meringues and mousse.


title: Egg as food

text: Ground eggshells sometimes are used as a food additive to deliver calcium. Every part of an egg is edible, although the eggshell is generally discarded. Some recipes call for immature or unlaid eggs, which are harvested after the hen is slaughtered or cooked, while still inside the chicken.


title: Egg as food

text: Eggs contain multiple proteins that gel at different temperatures within the yolk and the white, and the temperature determines the gelling time. Egg yolk becomes a gel, or solidifies, between . Egg white gels at different temperatures: . The white contains exterior albumen which sets at the highest temperature. In practice, in many cooking processes the white gels first because it is exposed to higher temperatures for longer.


title: Egg as food

text: Salmonella is killed instantly at , but also is killed from , if held at that temperature for sufficiently long time periods. To avoid the issue of salmonella, eggs may be pasteurized in-shell at for an hour and 15 minutes. Although the white then is slightly milkier, the eggs may be used in normal ways. Whipping for meringue takes significantly longer, but the final volume is virtually the same.


title: Egg as food

text: If a boiled egg is overcooked, a greenish ring sometimes appears around egg yolk due to changes to the iron and sulfur compounds in the egg. It also may occur with an abundance of iron in the cooking water. Overcooking harms the quality of the protein. Chilling an overcooked egg for a few minutes in cold water until it is completely cooled may prevent the greenish ring from forming on the surface of the yolk.


title: Egg as food

text: Peeling a cooked egg is easiest when the egg was put into boiling water as opposed to slowly heating the egg from a start in cold water.


title: Egg as food

text: Although the age of the egg and the conditions of its storage have a greater influence, the bird's diet affects the flavor of the egg. For example, when a brown-egg chicken breed eats rapeseed (canola) or soy meals, its intestinal microbes metabolize them into fishy-smelling triethylamine, which ends up in the egg. The unpredictable diet of free-range hens will produce likewise, unpredictable egg flavors. Duck eggs tend to have a flavor distinct from, but still resembling, chicken eggs.


title: Egg as food

text: Eggs may be soaked in mixtures to absorb flavor. Tea eggs, a common snack sold from street-side carts in China, are steeped in a brew from a mixture of various spices, soy sauce, and black tea leaves to give flavor.


title: Egg as food

text: Careful storage of edible eggs is extremely important, as an improperly handled egg may contain elevated levels of "Salmonella" bacteria that may cause severe food poisoning. In the US, eggs are washed. This cleans the shell, but erodes its cuticle. The USDA thus recommends refrigerating eggs to prevent the growth of "Salmonella".


title: Egg as food

text: Refrigeration also preserves the taste and texture, however, intact eggs (unwashed and unbroken) may be left unrefrigerated for several months without spoiling. In Europe, eggs are not usually washed, and the shells are dirtier, however the cuticle is undamaged, and they do not require refrigeration. In the UK in particular, hens are immunized against salmonella and generally, their eggs are safe for 21 days.


title: Egg as food

text: The simplest method to preserve an egg is to treat it with salt. Salt draws water out of bacteria and molds, which prevents their growth. The Chinese salted duck egg is made by immersing duck eggs in brine, or coating them individually with a paste of salt and mud or clay. The eggs stop absorbing salt after approximately a month, having reached osmotic equilibrium. Their yolks take on an orange-red color and solidify, but the white remains somewhat liquid. These often are boiled before consumption and are served with rice congee.


title: Egg as food

text: Another method is to make pickled eggs, by boiling them first and immersing them in a mixture of vinegar, salt, and spices, such as ginger or allspice. Frequently, beetroot juice is added to impart a red color to the eggs. If the eggs are immersed in it for a few hours, the distinct red, white, and yellow colors may be seen when the eggs are sliced. If marinated for several days or more, the red color will reach the yolk. If the eggs are marinated in the mixture for several weeks or more, the vinegar will dissolve much of the shell's calcium carbonate and penetrate the egg, making it acidic enough to inhibit the growth of bacteria and molds. Pickled eggs made this way generally keep for a year or more without refrigeration.


title: Egg as food

text: A century egg or hundred-year-old egg is preserved by coating an egg in a mixture of clay, wood ash, salt, lime, and rice straw for several weeks to several months, depending on the method of processing. After the process is completed, the yolk becomes a dark green, cream-like substance with a strong odor of sulfur and ammonia, while the white becomes a dark brown, transparent jelly with a comparatively mild, distinct flavor. The transforming agent in a century egg is its alkaline material, which gradually raises the pH of the egg from approximately 9 to 12 or more. This chemical process breaks down some of the complex, flavorless proteins and fats of the yolk into simpler, flavorful ones, which in some way may be thought of as an "inorganic" version of fermentation.


title: Egg as food

text: A medium/large chicken egg provides approximately 70 kilocalories (290 kJ) of food energy and 6 grams of protein.


title: Egg as food

text: Eggs (boiled) supply several vitamins and minerals as significant amounts of the Daily Value (DV), including (per 100g) vitamin A (19 percent DV), riboflavin (42 percent DV), pantothenic acid (28 percent DV), vitamin B (46 percent DV), choline (60 percent DV), phosphorus (25 percent DV), zinc (11 percent DV) and vitamin D (15 percent DV).


title: Egg as food

text: The diet of laying hens also may affect the nutritional quality of eggs. For instance, chicken eggs that are especially high in omega-3 fatty acids are produced by feeding hens a diet containing polyunsaturated fats from sources such as fish oil, chia seeds, or flaxseeds. Pasture-raised free-range hens, which forage for their own food, also produce eggs that are relatively enriched in omega-3 fatty acids when compared to those of cage-raised chickens.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2010 USDA study determined there were no significant differences of macronutrients in various chicken eggs.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of egg consumption found that greater dietary cholesterol and egg consumption were associated with increased risk of overall and CVD-related mortality. The authors conclude that consumption of dietary cholesterol should be restricted. Another systematic review and meta-analysis from the same year of Dietary Cholesterol and Egg Consumption found that egg consumption was associated with an increased all-cause mortality and CVD mortality.


title: Egg as food

text: Contrary results may be due to somewhat different methods of study selection and the use primarily of observational studies, where confounding factors are not controlled.


title: Egg as food

text: More than half the calories found in eggs come from the fat in the yolk; 50 grams of chicken egg (the contents of an egg just large enough to be classified as "large" in the US, but "medium" in Europe) contains approximately five grams of fat. Saturated fat (palmitic, stearic, and myristic acids) makes up 27 percent of the fat in egg. The egg white consists primarily of water (around 90 percent) and protein (around 10 percent) and contains no cholesterol and little, if any, fat.


title: Egg as food

text: There is debate over whether egg yolk presents a health risk. Some research suggests dietary cholesterol increases the ratio of total to HDL cholesterol and, therefore, adversely affects the body's cholesterol profile; whereas other studies show that moderate consumption of eggs, up to one a day, does not appear to increase heart disease risk in healthy individuals. Harold McGee argues that the cholesterol in the egg yolk is not what causes a problem, because fat (particularly saturated fat) is much more likely to raise cholesterol levels than the consumption of cholesterol.


title: Egg as food

text: Studies have shown conflicting results about a possible connection between egg consumption and type 2 diabetes.


title: Egg as food

text: A meta-analysis from 2013 found that eating four eggs per week was associated with a 29 percent increase in the relative risk of developing diabetes. Another meta-analysis from 2013 also supported the idea that egg consumption may lead to an increased incidence of type two diabetes. A 2016 meta-analysis suggested that association of egg consumption with increased risk of incident type 2 diabetes may be restricted to cohort studies from the United States.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2020 meta-analysis found that there was no overall association between moderate egg consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes and that the risk found in US studies was not found in European or Asian studies.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2015 meta-analysis found an association between higher egg consumption (5 a week) with increased risk of breast cancer compared to no egg consumption. Another meta-analysis found that egg consumption may increase ovarian cancer risk.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2019 meta-analysis found an association between high egg consumption and risk of upper aero-digestive tract cancers in hospital-based case-control studies.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2021 review did not find a significant association between egg consumption and breast cancer. A 2021 umbrella review found that egg consumption significantly increases the risk of ovarian cancer.


title: Egg as food

text: Eggs are one of the largest sources of phosphatidylcholine (lecithin) in the human diet. A study published in the scientific journal, "Nature", showed that dietary phosphatidylcholine is digested by bacteria in the gut and eventually converted into the compound TMAO, a compound linked with increased heart disease. Another study found that type 2 diabetes mellitus and kidney disease also increase TMAO levels and that evidence for a link between TMAO and cardiovascular diseases may be due to confounding or reverse causality.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2013 meta-analysis found no association between egg consumption and heart disease or stroke. A 2013 systematic review and meta-analysis found no association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular disease mortality, but did find egg consumption of more than once daily increased cardiovascular disease risk 1.69-fold in those with type 2 diabetes mellitus when compared to type 2 diabetics who ate less than one egg per week. Another 2013 meta-analysis found that eating four eggs per week increased the risk of cardiovascular disease by six percent.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2018 meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials found that consumption of eggs increases total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C and HDL-C compared to no egg-consumption but not to low-egg control diets. In 2020, two meta-analyses found that moderate egg consumption (up to one egg a day) is not associated with an increased cardiovascular disease risk. A 2020 umbrella review concluded that increased egg consumption is not associated with cardiovascular disease risk in the general population. Another umbrella review found no association between egg consumption and cardiovascular disorders.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2021 review suggested that higher consumption of eggs (more than 1 a day) is not associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease but is associated with a significant reduction in coronary artery disease risk.


title: Egg as food

text: Egg consumption does not increase hypertension risk. A 2016 meta-analysis found that consumption of up to one egg a day may contribute to a decreased risk of total stroke. Two recent meta-analyses found no association between egg intake and risk of stroke.


title: Egg as food

text: A 2019 meta-analysis revealed that egg consumption has no significant effect on serum biomarkers of inflammation. A 2021 review of clinical trials found that egg consumption has beneficial effects on macular pigment optical density and serum lutein.


title: Egg as food

text: A health issue associated with eggs is contamination by pathogenic bacteria, such as "Salmonella enteritidis". Contamination of eggs with other members of the genus "Salmonella" while exiting a female bird via the cloaca may occur, so care must be taken to prevent the egg shell from becoming contaminated with fecal matter. In commercial practice in the US, eggs are quickly washed with a sanitizing solution within minutes of being laid. The risk of infection from raw or undercooked eggs is dependent in part upon the sanitary conditions under which the hens are kept.


title: Egg as food

text: Health experts advise people to refrigerate washed eggs, use them within two weeks, cook them thoroughly, and never consume raw eggs. As with meat, containers and surfaces that have been used to process raw eggs should not come in contact with ready-to-eat food.


title: Egg as food

text: A study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2002 (Risk Analysis April 2002 22(2):203-18) suggests the problem is not so prevalent in the U.S. as once thought. It showed that of the 69 billion eggs produced annually, only 2.3 million are contaminated with "Salmonella"—equivalent to just one in every 30,000 eggs—thus showing "Salmonella" infection is quite rarely induced by eggs. This has not been the case in other countries, however, where "Salmonella enteritidis" and "Salmonella typhimurium" infections due to egg consumption are major concerns.


title: Egg as food

text: Egg shells act as hermetic seals that guard against bacteria entering, but this seal can be broken through improper handling or if laid by unhealthy chickens. Most forms of contamination enter through such weaknesses in the shell. In the UK, the British Egg Industry Council awards the lions stamp to eggs that, among other things, come from hens that have been vaccinated against "Salmonella".


title: Egg as food

text: In 2017, authorities blocked millions of eggs from sale in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany because of contamination with the insecticide fipronil.


title: Egg as food

text: One of the most common food allergies in infants is eggs. Infants usually have the opportunity to grow out of this allergy during childhood, if exposure is minimized. Allergic reactions against egg white are more common than reactions against egg yolks. In addition to true allergic reactions, some people experience a food intolerance to egg whites. Food labeling practices in most developed countries now include eggs, egg products, and the processing of foods on equipment that also process foods containing eggs in a special allergen alert section of the ingredients on the labels.


title: Egg as food

text: Most commercially farmed chicken eggs intended for human consumption are unfertilized, since the laying hens are kept without roosters. Fertile eggs may be eaten, with little nutritional difference when compared to the unfertilized. Fertile eggs will not contain a developed embryo, as refrigeration temperatures inhibit cellular growth for an extended period of time. Sometimes an embryo is allowed to develop, but eaten before hatching as with balut.


title: Egg as food

text: The U.S. Department of Agriculture grades eggs by the interior quality of the egg (see Haugh unit) and the appearance and condition of the egg shell. Eggs of any quality grade may differ in weight (size).


title: Egg as food

text: In Australia and the European Union, eggs are graded by the hen raising method, free range, battery caged, etc.


title: Egg as food

text: Chicken eggs are graded by size for the purpose of sales. Some maxi eggs may have double-yolks and some farms separate out double-yolk eggs for special sale.


title: Egg as food

text: Although eggshell color is a largely cosmetic issue, with no effect on egg quality or taste, it is a major issue in production due to regional and national preferences for specific colors, and the results of such preferences on demand. For example, in most regions of the United States, chicken eggs generally are white. However, brown eggs are more common in some parts of the Northeastern United States, particularly New England, where a television jingle for years proclaimed "brown eggs are local eggs, and local eggs are fresh!". Local chicken breeds, including the Rhode Island Red, lay brown eggs. Brown eggs are preferred in China, Costa Rica, Ireland, France, and the United Kingdom. In Brazil and Poland, white chicken eggs are generally regarded as industrial, and brown or reddish ones are preferred. Small farms and smallholdings, particularly in economically advanced nations, may sell eggs of widely varying colors and sizes, with combinations of white, brown, speckled (red), green, and blue (as laid by certain breeds, including araucanas, heritage skyline, and cream leg bar) eggs in the same box or carton, while the supermarkets at the same time sell mostly eggs from the larger producers, of the color preferred in that nation or region.


title: Egg as food

text: These cultural trends have been observed for many years. "The New York Times" reported during the Second World War that housewives in Boston preferred brown eggs and those in New York preferred white eggs. In February 1976, the "New Scientist" magazine, in discussing issues of chicken egg color, stated "Housewives are particularly fussy about the colour of their eggs, preferring even to pay more for brown eggs although white eggs are just as good". As a result of these trends, brown eggs are usually more expensive to purchase in regions where white eggs are considered "normal", due to lower production. In France and the United Kingdom, it is very difficult to buy white eggs, with most supermarkets supplying only the more popular brown eggs. By direct contrast, in Egypt it is very hard to source brown eggs, as demand is almost entirely for white ones, with the country's largest supplier describing white eggs as "table eggs" and packaging brown eggs for export.


title: Egg as food

text: Research conducted by a French institute in the 1970s demonstrated blue chicken eggs from the Chilean araucana fowl may be stronger and more resilient to breakage.


title: Egg as food

text: Research at Nihon University, Japan in 1990 revealed a number of different issues were important to Japanese housewives when deciding which eggs to buy and that color was a distinct factor, with most Japanese housewives preferring the white color.


title: Egg as food

text: Egg producers carefully consider cultural issues, as well as commercial ones, when selecting the breed or breeds of chickens used for production, as egg color varies between breeds. Among producers and breeders, brown eggs often are referred to as "tinted", while the speckled eggs preferred by some consumers often are referred to as being "red" in color.


title: Egg as food

text: Commercial factory farming operations often involve raising the hens in small, crowded cages, preventing the chickens from engaging in natural behaviors, such as wing-flapping, dust-bathing, scratching, pecking, perching, and nest-building. Such restrictions may lead to pacing and escape behavior.


title: Egg as food

text: Many hens confined to battery cages, and some raised in cage-free conditions, are debeaked to prevent them from harming each other and engaging in cannibalism. According to critics of the practice, this can cause hens severe pain to the point where some may refuse to eat and starve to death. Some hens may be forced to molt to increase egg quality and production level after the molting. Molting can be induced by extended food withdrawal, water withdrawal, or controlled lighting programs.


title: Egg as food

text: Laying hens often are slaughtered when reaching 100 to 130 weeks of age, when their egg productivity starts to decline. Due to modern selective breeding, laying hen strains differ from meat production strains. As male birds of the laying strain do not lay eggs and are not suitable for meat production, they generally are killed soon after they hatch.


title: Egg as food

text: Free-range eggs are considered by some advocates to be an acceptable substitute to factory-farmed eggs. Free-range laying hens are given outdoor access instead of being contained in crowded cages. Questions regarding the living conditions of free-range hens have been raised in the United States of America, as there is no legal definition or regulations for eggs labeled as free-range in that country.


title: Egg as food

text: In the United States, increased public concern for animal welfare has pushed various egg producers to promote eggs under a variety of standards. The most widespread standard in use is determined by United Egg Producers through their voluntary program of certification. The United Egg Producers program includes guidelines regarding housing, food, water, air, living space, beak trimming, molting, handling, and transportation, however, opponents such as The Humane Society have alleged UEP certification is misleading and allows a significant amount of unchecked animal cruelty. Other standards include "Cage Free", "Natural", "Certified Humane", and "Certified Organic". Of these standards, "Certified Humane", which carries requirements for stocking density and cage-free keeping and so on, and "Certified Organic", which requires hens to have outdoor access and to be fed only organic vegetarian feed and so on, are the most stringent.


title: Egg as food

text: Effective 1 January 2012, the European Union banned conventional battery cages for egg-laying hens, as outlined in EU Directive 1999/74/EC. The EU permits the use of "enriched" furnished cages that must meet certain space and amenity requirements. Egg producers in many member states have objected to the new quality standards while in some countries, even furnished cages and family cages are subject to be banned as well. The production standard of the eggs is visible on a mandatory egg marking categorization where the EU egg code begins with 3 for caged chicken to 1 for free-range eggs and 0 for organic egg production.


title: Egg as food

text: In battery cage and free-range egg production, unwanted male chicks are killed at birth during the process of securing a further generation of egg-laying hens. In Germany in June 2019, a court decided that culling chicks "violates the country's laws against killing animals without a justifiable reason". However, the court permitted an exemption for hatcheries until a viable alternative is possible.