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17 B. C. Third World L. J. 1 (1997)
A Brief Legal History of Institutionalized Child Abuse

handle is hein.journals/bctw17 and id is 7 raw text is: A BRIEF LEGAL HISTORY OF INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE BRIAN D. GALLAGHER* I. INTRODUCTION Before you beat a child, be sure you yourself are not the cause of the offense. Austin O'Malley' A recent archeological discovery in the Andes mountains offered new evidence that throughout history, societies have not always ex- pressed their love for their children in ways that were beneficial to individual children. The perfectly preserved body of a young Inca girl, less than fourteen years old at the time of her death, was found frozen in a block of ice.2 'Just about the time Columbus was sailing into the Caribbean, [the girl, who the archaeologists calledJuanita] was trudg- ing up the steep slopes of Mount Ampato ... knowing that her life would come to an end at the summit .... [H] er sacrifice [was] con- sidered the greatest honor her people could bestow. .... . Juanita was found with vomit stains on her clothing and a frac- tured skull. This lead scientists to believe that the most probable * B.S. University of Scranton; J.D. Seton Hall University School of Law; LL.M. in ChildLaw, Loyola University Chicago School of Law. The author is a graduate fellow in ChildLaw and an instructor at Loyola, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the ABA's Children's Legal Rights JournaL I wish to acknowledge the research assistance of Daniel P. Gallagher and MaryKay Gallagher. 1 WEBSTER'S BOOK OF QUOTATIONS 46 (3d ed. 1992). 2 David Schrieberg & Sharon Begley, Children of the Ice, NEWSWEEK, Nov. 6, 1995, at 72. Her completely frozen body only weighed about ninety pounds. Id. 3 Christine Gorman, Return of the Ice Maiden; Scientists Find an Inca GirlFrozenfor 500 Years, TIME, Nov. 6, 1995 at 60; see also A Treasure Wrapped in a Blanke4 U.S. NEws & WORLD REP., Nov. 6,1995, at 17; Shanti Menon, To Appease the Mountain: Frozen Body of Inca Human Sacrifice Victim Found on Peruvian Mountain, DISCOVER, Jan. 1996, at 22. Juanita was found at an altitude of approximately 20,700 feet, higher than Mount McKinley. Menon, supra, at 17. A man on the team who found her has climbed Everest twice, and he is still impressed that Juanita and her executioners could get to the site of her grave. Id. The location is usually covered with snow, and is only exposed during extrene conditions such as drought. Id. The mountain path probably taken byJuanita is normally impassable. Id.