Domestic Violence, Abuse and Neglect

Domestic violence is the act of being angry and taking the wrong actions about the anger. “Violence and neglect are a part of many families’ everyday lives” which should not be considered a normal thing. Physical neglect is just one portion of domestic violence. “Failure to provide food, medical care, or shelter” is described as physical neglect. “Abuse can be a whole range of physical behavior—slapping, hitting, beating, or using weapons to hurt someone. Abuse includes verbal and emotional abuse, where someone is constantly insulted [and beaten down] to feel sad and worthless.” This can also cause one to have mental issues, like depression. Is it worth it to hurt an innocent child of yours, or even someone else’s child? Domestic abuse “can also include rape and sexual abuse.” The mistreatment of children “takes many forms… that at times lead to death.” Many parents do not know how to correctly discipline their child and may accidentally abuse their child. “The purpose of discipline is to correct [the child’s] behavior” without harming them. An example would be, if one day two brothers were wrestling on the floor and one hits his head. He begins to cry, as he is the younger brother. The father runs into the room and sees what happened. The father lets his older son know it was wrong of him to be wrestling with his little brother and accidently hurt him, so he gave him a small spanking on the bottom to let him know not to do it again. It makes him cry as well, but he soon forgets about what happened. This is not child abuse, but simply discipline. If the father were to slap the child across the face, give him a bump, bruise or draw blood, that would be considered child abuse. “At the heart of the problem lies the question of...

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