Olivia Stinson
Professor Kerr
EN101-23
September 13, 2011
CHILD ABUSE
A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds. Almost five children die every day from child abuse, and approximately eighty percent are under the age of four. In the year of 2006, more than 1.25 million children were abused in the United States. More then half of the kids were victims of neglect (when their guardians fail to properly provide for them). Another fourty-four percent were victims to the three main types of abuse, sexual (135,000), emotional (148,500), and physical (325,000). Child abuse cannot only leave children with horrible bruises and broken bones, but can emotionally scar a child for life. Child abuse has many different forms, however sexual, physical, and emotional abuse are the three that effect victims the most.
Sexual abuse is the most damaging abuse to children. Sexual abuse includes sexual intercourse/offenses that involve sexually touching a child, fondling, etc. as well as non-touching offenses and sexual exploitation such as exposing children to pornographic material, deliberately exposing a child to the act of sexual intercourse, etc. Most of the time there are no external signs of physical abuse. Sexual abuse causes victims to have many problems later on in life, not only do they develop social, psychological, and behavioral issues but they also grow apart from family and friends, they have unusual aggressiveness toward things they would have been fine with before becoming a victim, and they also develop delinquency/conduct problems.
Emotional abuse brain washes their victims into thinking that they have no self-worth or importance to the world around them. Emotional abuse is when the perpetrator subjugates another human being through the use of fear, humiliation, guilt, manipulation, intimidation, the list could go on and on. It also includes anything from verbal abuse and constant criticism to more subtle tactics such as repeated disapproval or the refusal to ever be pleased with anything the child does. Emotional abuse creates scars that last a lot longer than physical ones. The scars the perpetrators leave from this abuse cannot be fixed with medicine, or band aids. These victims number one fear is being left alone. What usually happens is these victims become so convinced that they’re worthless and no one would want them that they stay with their abuser willingly because they believe no one else wants, and they have nowhere else to go.
Physical abuse is the most visible form of child maltreatment. Physical child abuse is commonly labeled as non-accidental physical injury caused by punching, kicking, etc. or otherwise harming a child. Children who are physically abused usually have problems communicating with other children or adults, has a low frustration level, becomes upset easily, or is too tolerant of certain situations, and doesn’t show emotion when hurt in normal circumstances. The age at which the abuse takes place influences the impact of the damage as
well. For example, infants who are physically abused are more likely to experience long term physical effects and neurological alterations such as lethargy, tremors, vomiting, etc. It can also be a little bit tricky determining if a child has signs of physical abuse or just hurt them selves while enjoying a day at the playground. However, some ways you can tell is if the explanation on how they got the injury does not fit the actual injury or if it repeatedly happens for a long period of time.
People need to become more aware of how badly child abuse can affect its victims. This paper explains very little about only three types of child abuse. There are so much more we don’t know about victim’s situations and how serious a problem it is. There are so many types of abuse, and only a small part actually deals with children. For example, Domestic Violence, which is defined as a behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power/control over an intimate partner. As well as Cyber Bullying, which involves the use, information, and communication technologies to support deliberate, repeated, and hostile behavior by an individual or group that is intended to harm others. Overall, more citizens should get involved with organizations that prevent child abuse and help victims recover, especially those who have gone thorough physical, emotional, and sexual torment.
Works Cited:
Domestic Violence
http://www.thehotline.org/get-educated/what-is-domestic-violence/
Physical Abuse
- Emotional Abuse
Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse; American Academy Of Child And Adolescent Psychiatry
Statistics
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