Glossary – K

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Kangaroo Court – Slang for a court that operates unjustly or with unfair bias

Kashin-Beck Disease – A disorder of the bones and joints of the hands and fingers, elbows, knees, and ankles of children and adolescents who slowly develop stiff deformed joints, shortened limb length and short stature due to necrosis (death) of the growth plates of bones and of joint cartilage.

Kidnapping – taking a person away by means of fear, force, or fraud.

Kindred – An individual’s extended bilateral network or relatives traced through both parents and their kin of either sex.

Kinship – A relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent.

Kinship Care – The full time care, nurturing, and protection of children by relatives, godparents, stepparents, or any adult who has a kinship bond with a child.

Kleine-Levin Syndrome – A rare condition characterized by excessive need for sleep, food, and sexual disinhibition. Most people with Kleine-Levin syndrome are adolescent males.

Klinefelter’s Syndrome – A disorder in which male infants are born with an extra X chromosome (XXY). Children may have learning disabilities, long arms and legs, small testes, and infertility.

Kleptomania – A rare impulse-control disorder in which individuals feel a persistent urge to steal and a sense of tension that is relieved only by theft. Contrary to popular belief, kleptomaniacs do not steal for personal or financial gain but rather for the tension release or rush of the act.

Know-How – A particular kind of technical knowledge that may not be confidential but that is needed to accomplish a task

Kyphosis – An abnormal curving of the spine that causes a humpback. Some amount of Kyphosis is common and begins in adolescence, affecting boys more often than girls. The causer is unknown but it sometimes runs in families.