It is clear from the aforementioned that child mental abuse is a widespread and recurring offense that is detrimental not only to the children, but to the community in which they live. The identification and diagnosis of deviance depend on certain characteristics of the deviant person and the consequences of his or her behaviour. These variables are sometimes not related to the deviant behaviour itself, but are associated with the person's motivations, attitudes, and social class. There are some acts that are such an evident threat to the public welfare that the variables surrounding the act become the primary focus, in which the personal characteristics of the offender are dismissed. Parents view the child as inherently bad, are unable to separate the child's identity from their own, and feel unable to meet the child's needs.
Parents are law abiding citizens and generally conform to community standards of adult conduct.
Parents exhibit an incidence of criminal activity, or extreme social isolation, or destructive behaviour such as alcoholism or drug abuse. Alter's study illustrates what factors child protection workers actually use in making the initial decision to substantiate. She explains that this line of research is useful for beginning to assess the accuracy of the charges levelled against the child protective system and to understand how the diagnostic system functions. The study findings seem to confirm the use of abstract factors in decision making when there is the absence of evidence that the child has been seriously harmed. It is necessary for the child protection workers to make their judgements using the concepts of 'will' and 'relationship'.