Child Abuse

Child Abuse

Child abuse is defined as “the physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect of children.” Abuse of children can take place in many different areas and under a variety of circumstances. While a majority of abuse occurs in the “safety” of ones house child abuse can also be linked to the outside world. Children who are often abused in their house are much more likely to bring this violence to the outside world and affect others the way that they were affected. There are many support services in place in order to try to combat the problem of child abuse however, these services are only available after abuse has occurred as it is very difficult to detect and prevent child abuse. Child abuse was not seen as a major social problem until much more recent times. Throughout history, children have been abused but not until recently has child abuse truly been seen as a major social problem.

According to a study done by UNICEF child abuse is most likely to occur within families where there is only one parent is involved in everyday life. After I first read this stat I was taken by surprise but as I thought about it more it seemed to make sense to me. Parents who are working all day to support their child are less likely to be involved in helping to raise them from day to day. Parents who are more involved in their child’s life are more likely to raise a better overall child in their eyes. Another at risk population is those families in which a step parent in visible. Many studies that have been done show that stepfathers are more likely to abuse a child that a child’s own blood father would. Since there is often a certain level of tension between a child and a step parent, abuse is more like to occur between the two and a relationship is never fully developed. Other studies also show that the blood parent is often unaware of the abuse going on to their own child. However, if they are aware very rarely would the parent have the courage to go to the proper authorities and tell them of the problem. It is usually not until the child grows up and can defend themselves that justice is brought to the perpetrator.

Between the years 1992 and 2000 many of the cases of child abuse increased greatly. “This study found that the number of seriously harmed children increased nearly 299%. Other studies done showed that the physical neglect of children rose nearly 102%, the number of sexually abused rose 83%, and the number of physically abused children increased 42%.” To me, these numbers seem absolutely staggering. In a society in which we have prided ourselves so much in the safety and protection of everyone it seems amazing how these numbers have skyrocketed in a period of just 8 years. The most depressing fact about these stats is that a majority of children who were abused at a young age do not come to the authority of the government. Many of these cases are just swept under the rug while others are just kept hush by both the children and the parents. Children often remain quiet about the fact that they are being abused because they live in fear that their parent will only take the abuse to another level if they are reported. For this reason much of the abuse is kept in silence and never brought forward to the national level. These percentages would be much higher if every single case was documented and brought forth. The age range of 0-5 has not received much attention until recently. It has been documented however that abuse occurs to a large percentage of children in this age range yearly. It may not be as prominent an age range but it has been documented that it does occur.

There are many reasons that child abuse occurs. Many child abusers were once abused themselves at one point in their life. Adults who were abused as children are much more likely to abuse their children that parents who grew up having a good childhood. Parents feel that life is not fair and the only way they know how to raise their children is the same way that they were raised. Other factors that cause child abuse may involve mental illness. A large amount of parents who do abuse children have some type of a mental illness. Although many people do not believe it is the fault of the parent who has some type of mental illness, people often do not know where to put the blame.

Child abuse has a variety of consequences and effects that affect the abused, the abusers, and those in charge of the prevention of abuse. Child abuse has deadly consequences both and the young and adult age. Those children who are abused at a young age often grow up at risk of becoming a psychiatric patient. In one study done by Dante Cicchetti, he found that nearly 80% of children who were abused at a young age grew up with symptoms of disorganized attachment. Disorganized attachment basically deals with interpersonal relationships between human beings. Those children who were assaulted in some way at a young age grow up with a great risk of developing disorganized attachment. There are three different types of effects that abuse can develop to a child. The three main types are emotional, physical, and behavioral. Emotional effects include items such as low self esteem, depression and some anxiety. Physical effects include injury, and certain health problems, while behavioral effects comprise of problems at school and work and some anger management problems. In an article done by Carlton D. Craig, approximately 1.6 million people die from acts of violence annually. These acts of violence make it the leading cause of death worldwide each year. He also goes on to state that for each