I am looking for a term describing the neglect of a living being under one’s responsibility, such as a child or animal.
Spontaneously I thought of court procedures, with the sad cases of children being neglected, which I believe is categorised as child abuse. The same applies for pets and livestock.
Abuse may imply things such as physical harm though, which I would like to exclude.
I would like to be able to put it in the phrase
Did you hear, so-and-so were caught with _____!
Are there any terms, legal or otherwise, that may be of use?
I searched Merriam-Webster, but primarily came across words neglecting property/infrastructure or official duties, such as abandonment or misprision.
Oxford Dictionaries also didn’t offer many alternatives, as far as I could tell.
Answer
Neglect is the right term for this, see for example this Wikipedia article.
Neglect is a form of abuse where the perpetrator, who is responsible for caring for someone who is unable to care for themselves, fails to do so.
Physical harm is not mentioned at all.
Further examples:
Animal neglect or abandonment is a common type of animal cruelty where people do not provide adequate care for animals in their charge.
(source: USLegal.com)
Child neglect is a form of child abuse, and is a deficit in meeting a child’s basic needs, including the failure to provide adequate health care, supervision, clothing, nutrition, housing as well as their physical, emotional, social, educational and safety needs.
(source: Wikipedia)
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : A Lambent Eye , Answer Author : Glorfindel