We have had several children like this at the Primary School where I work. One girl was quite like the one in this article, although she was 7. She would throw fits in the classroom, attack other students and the teacher, and her parents said her behavior was very similar at their home.
One night, about 2:00 am a police officer (who happened to be the brother of this girl's teacher) saw her wandering the streets alone. He called DSS (Department of Social Services- as is required when young children are involoved in situations like this) he followed the girl in his patrol car, and eventually got her in his car.
When he took her back to her house, her parents were still in bed- they had no idea she had gotten out of the house. A person with DSS met the officer at the girl's house.
This woman got there in time to hear the furious father tell the girl he was going to spank her for what she did. This woman looks at the father and told the officer that if he touched his daughter he was to be arrested. She then told the child that if he or her mother spanked her she was to call her so her parents could be arrested.
The officer told the DSS worker she didn't know what she was doing, that his sister worked with this child and that DSS was only making the sitaution worse. He went on to tell the woman that he would not arrest the father for disciplining his child. The child ended up being commited for a psychiatric evaluation and medicated.
Did you know that DSS workers only have Sociology degrees? I met one at a ball game who was still working on hers at a community college, yet she was already employed by DSS. (Just my opinon: The college students majoring in Sociology that I knew personally were not too bright. Apologies for my boadbrushing and to any who might be intelligent and diligent in their jobs at DSS.)