Most parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but the effect on the child defines abuse, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver. Abuse comes in many forms and the statistics prove how alarming the issue is, “Every year there are 3.3 million reports of child abuse involving nearly 6 million children”.(Source F) It is immensely difficult to imagine what would make adult use violence against a child. Parents have the responsibility to nurture, raise, and discipline an offspring. However, the definition of the term discipline is differently interpreted by parents. Children will misbehave and teaching the difference between right and wrong and not resulting to forms of abuse .Some go to extreme measures to discipline a child, thus creating deep physiological problems. Child abuse needs to be prevented and the government should intrude to insure the safety of the children and of future generations.
Caused by different things, abuse comes in many forms and can be preventable. Verbal and emotion abuse often coincide with physical abuse and neglect. “Child abuse usually starts with a desire for the abuser to have control”. (Source E) In order to gain control with the child the abuser results to violent and abusive tactics. Different people might have different ideas of what a child should experience, do, and become therefore “Unrealistic expectations of a child”. (Source E) often coincides with forms of abuse. Parents and caregivers take out anger on a child and create an unhealthy environment to live in. Instead of bringing up a child with love and happiness “This family member, who most likely is supposed to take the role of protector and provider, is instead hurting his or her children physically and...
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...ren for the real world parents should bring up their children to respect others, take on responsibilities and treat others kindly. No parent should ever hurt their child and to better protect children at the risk of severe harm, the federal government should stricken child protection laws and work for change. Every child deserves a worry-free life.
Children are the future and child abuse prevents kids from growing up in a safe and healthy environment. Discipline is necessary in parenting however a line needs to be drawn where the discipline stops and the abuse begins. Any form of abuse is horrifyingly wrong and needs to cease to a stop. Children need to be protected from the monsters that hurt them. “1,545 children died as a result of abuse and neglect”. (Source F) There is no need for that many deaths. A child is a child, and that child deserves a happy life.
Currently, there are many children whom suffer from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in their family. Emotional abuse is the lack of interest or affection parents have towards their children. As a result of emotional abuse, children are left feeling worthless and unloved. Physical abuse refers to attacking children resulting visible bodily injuries from either being burned, pushed, punched, slapped, or whipped. Sometimes physical abuse can be extremely severe that children have broken bones, fractures, or hemorrhaging. Sexual abuse occurs when a person forces, tricks, or threatens children to have sexual contact. These acts of child abuse could prevent children from living a normal adulthood. In order to deal with such a traumatic childhood, adults abused as children should rid themselves of such burdensome, painful memories.
Child abuse is caused by a parent, for many reasons, and can lead to many kinds of problems for the child. Parents impose child abuse for many reasons such as psychological problems to low self esteem to alcohol or drug abuse.4 Child abuse happens for many different reasons but all the reasons are still child abuse, and are taken seriously. Child abuse can also occur when parents have too high of expectation of their kids which then leads to abuse. "Abusive parents may show disregard for the child's own needs, limited abilities, and feelings."5 Disregarding children's needs can include a neglect ion. Children need parental advice and for parents to fulfill all their needs.
Beating children, chronically belittling them, using them for sexual gratification, or depriving them of the basic necessities of life are acts that cannot be permitted in a civilized society. Tolerating child abuse denies the worth of children as human beings. Each of us has a moral obligation to turn in a child abuser.
Today child neglect is the largest part of child abuse in the United States, and almost two-thirds of all reported cases in child protective services is neglect (Dubowitz). Before the 1970’s child abuse mostly referred to physical abuse; however, now it encompasses physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect (Compton’s). Physical abuse is when a child is hurt by getting hit, punched, kicked, or any other form of beating by an adult (Compton’s). This abuse will only harm the child physically and though it is horrific and can lead to long term effects it will normally only lead to violence. Emotional abuse is when an adult is hateful to the child by calling him names, and another form of emotional abuse is when an adult is punishing a child in a way that will cause him mental trauma (Compton’s). Emotional abuse is terrible for the child’s self-esteem however they can go and learn that they are important to the world by their contributions. Sexual abuse is when a child is touched inappropriately or molested (Compton’s). This is detrimental to a child but in most cases the child will block this out for when they grow older it is like it never happened which will cause no harm to their mental state. Neglect is when an adult will not seek medical help for their child and will not provide them with food, shelter, clothing, or emotional support (Sullivan). This is where the real trauma takes place on a child. The child will not suffer from being hit but they suffer from starving until someone is kind enough to feed them or they die from malnutrition. The child will not suffer from a parent calling them names but they might never know if their parent knows their name or cares to even speak to th...
Child abuse consists of any act or failure to act that endangers a child’s physical or emotional health and development. A person caring for a child is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child (Robins). Child abuse is broken down into four major categories: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Aside from the abuse itself, the cost of the tragic events costs the United States billions of dollars each year. Every day, approximately 4 children in the United States die resulting from child abuse and the majority are under 5-years-old (Fromm). There are many organizations that promote preventative measures in reducing child abuse. If nothing is done, child abuse will continue to rise with many consequences in the future.
This world is an unpredictable, frightening place. Abuse may be a slap in the face, an unpleasant comment, or not knowing if there will be dinner on the table, but the end result will leave the child feeling lonely and unsafe. Children need structure, clear boundaries, and the feeling that their parents care. Child abuse is no longer a family problem, it is a nationwide problem. Child abuse causes serious injuries, including physical and psychological, and even deaths. People need to open their eyes and realize this is a serious problem.
When a child is born people normally think of that as a positive and wonderful thing happening in a person’s life. It should be a paternal instinct to love and cherish, and protect this little person’s life. Unfortunately sometimes this is not always the case, and those parents mistreat or allow someone else to mistreat their children. There also those parents that it happens to their child that gets neglected or abused without their knowledge. The issue of child abuse and neglect is something that happens every day to children and ruins their childhood and makes a big impact on them for rest of their life.
Child abuse affects millions of children every year. Child abuse is defined as “the hurting or causing harm to a child” (Stewart, 2003, p. 6). Most people do not understand why a parent would want to hurt their children. “The general belief is that parents who maltreat their children are pathological and certainly not like us” (Polonko, 2005). It is not just parents that abuse the children it is also teachers, babysitters, and daycare workers (Stewart, 2003). Lingern (2008) reported the following:
There are parents who are not patient enough to try and discipline their children in other ways, and when their children act up the only way that the parent knows how to react is by physically abusing them. This is definitely the wrong choice in disciplining their children. This can be the cause of emotional or behavioral problems, according to the studies from developmental psychologist Elizabeth Gershoff. If a parent decides to take this action of discipline to their children studies have shown that children experience increased anxiety, fear, it hinders the development of compassion for others, aggression towards others, unintended harm to themselves, and decreases self-esteem. Not only is physical abuse hurtful to children, but they can suffer emotionally and they grow up thinking that it is acceptable to be a physical towards others. These types of emotions are something that teenagers should not experience. This type of discipline can also come with severe consequences for the parents. If a teacher or someone suspects that a child is being physically abused, they have the right to contact the police department. The police department then can contact CPS (child protective services) who is able to conduct and start an investigation. If the parent is found guilty, they can be placed under arrest and CPS is able to take their children away and the child will be placed into foster care. This can turn out to be a very serious situation. Some studies that Professor George Bear researched show that foster care cannot be as safe as the government believes it can be. Some children from foster care do not like the home they are placed in and they run away from that home. When they run away they can do bad things such as drugs, drink, or even face the danger of getting kidnapped. Parents do not think of the harm that they
Child abuse is an issue in every state, every country, worldwide. There is no place that is immune to child abuse. This being stated they need better policies in place regarding the education on child abuse. Many people have many different opinions on how to lessen the amount of child abuse that goes on in this country, however many of them focus on stricter punishment for the abuser’s (Hmurovich, 2009). However, they know that stricter punishment will not lessen the amount of child abuse; it would truly have little to no impact on...
Child abuse has been defined as, any intentional act that results in physical or emotional harm to a child. This could cover any behavior from assault, to neglect, to molestation. (Encarta 1) In 1995, a study was done by the National Center on Child Abuse & Neglect. They concluded that in the United States alone, approximately 3 million children are victims of some sort of maltreatment each year. This means that an unimaginable amount of our county’s adolescents are being seriously mistreated, and the numbers are rising steadily. While the specific definition of child abuse may differ from state to state, the effects unfortunately do not. Physical maltreatment, neglect and sexual abuse create immediate problems for children, as well as long term damage. Some common effects on sufferers of abuse include, a lowered sense of self worth, an inability to relate to others, short attention span and often they develop learning disorders. More detrimental cases can develop severe depression or anxiety, schizophrenia, violent behavior and an increased risk of suicide. (Encarta 3) In some cases, abused children learn how to cope with their experiences and grow to healthy adults, but most are not that lucky. Most victims of abuse are forced to deal with the results for their entire lives.
Raising a child is a challenging life task that is given over to individuals all over the world without an instruction manual. People must learn by experience how to nurture, care for, and provide for miniature versions of themselves for almost two decades in most cultures! Discipline plays a major role in raising a child because most parents truly want what is best for their children and want them to grow up to be responsible, respectable, and successful adults; however, in some unfortunate cases, parents misinterpret the term discipline and in turn end up abusing their children. The question becomes, is there truly a difference between discipline and abuse? And if so, what is it? With education, individuals can learn how to properly distinguish between discipline and abuse and realize that there is a clear black and white difference between the two. The origin of the word discipline stems from the Latin word disciplina, which means “instruction [or] knowledge” (“Definition of discipline”, n.d.). As stated in the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of the word discipline is “the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, [or] using punishment to correct disobedience” (“Definition of discipline”, n.d.). According to WebMD, a website that is visited and seen by millions of people in the United States every day, discipline is “the process of teaching your child what type of behavior is acceptable and what type is not acceptable. In other words, discipline teaches a child to follow rules” (“Child Discipline Methods”, n.d.). It even goes on to state that “it sounds so straightforward, yet every parent becomes frustrated at one time or another with issues surrounding children and discipline” (“Child Discipline Metho...
We’ll start with child abuse victims and the affects and reasons of this abuse. There are four types of child abuse and I will list them in order from least to greatest, neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Neglect takes first with the NCVS having 54% reports of child neglect in 2007. Neglect is a very serious form of abuse it is the failure for a parent or guardian to provide for a child’s basic needs, including physical and educational needs. We grow and development drastically in the first twelve years of our life so when parental guidance and love is absent it affects a child’s developmental skills along with learning right from wrong. Many forms of neglect occur in larger households and with households with domestic violence. Many parents with multiple kids become too busy focusing on the older children they tend to forget the youngest one. So it’s common for a three year old to walk out of the front door and on to the street when no one is there to tell him or...
When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.