The Tragedy of Child Abuse and Neglect

Estimates of child abuse range wildly depending

on the source of ones information. From one to two million children per year

are victims of child abuse. (Dolan p.3) All sources agree on the simple truth

that not nearly all cases of child abuse are reported or even estimated. Man

cases go unreported, less than 50% by current estimates. (Dolan p.3) The

amount of child abuse is staggering to think about, let alone deal with. By the

age of eighteen one in three girls will have been sexually molested and one in

six boys will have been molested in that same time frame. (WWW site). Although,

throughout this paper we shall discuss not only the effects of sexual abuse but

abuse in all its forms. These include Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Mental

Abuse and Neglect. We will also Touch upon the basic question of this report,

and that is, "How has child abuse changed over the last 100 years and what

effects has this had on the family?" This brings us to our first research area,

change.

It is clear that families are undergoing a number of important

structural changes: families are smaller than in the past, with fewer children

and sometimes with only one parent; parents have children at a later age; more

couples live together without the bonds of matrimony which was accepted as a

sacred bond so few years in human history. The source of this degradation of

such a basic unit of society is unknown throughout all areas of research which I

canvassed in my quest. It is a question that one person needs to answer for

himself and solve for himself. Something a young child is not capable of doing.

Physical abuse has many forms. It may involve the hitting or kicking of

a child with the fists or the feet, or with another object; such as belts,

shovels, changes, ropes, electric cords, leather straps, canes, baseball bats,

sticks, broom handles, or assorted large objects. Other forms of abuse include

the pouring of scalding water or coffee on a child's body, holding a child's

head under the water of a toilet bowl, stuffed into running washing machines,

throwing a child against a wall, shaking a child with extreme force or placing

parts of a child's anatomy on hot or burning objects to cause pain. (Author's

note: Sometimes in extreme cases the shaking of a child with such extreme force

as an aggressive abuser possesses can cause severe brain damage as the brain is

crushed from repeated impact against the skull. This type of injury is

especially damaging in babies and small children.