Child Abuse - Research Paper Example

Child abuse Child abuse Children are a blessing from God and deserve love just like anyone else. However, in the recent past many researches have indicated that several children are being abused. This should come as a bad news especially in this 21st Century where the youth form a large percentage of the population. According to some researchers like Besharov et al (2001), there are many cases which go unreported, uninterrupted or misreported. According to stop it now (www.stopitnow.org) a world organization that prevents child abuse, reports that a third of girls and nearly 1 in seven boys experiences sexual abuse while statistics suggest from research suggest that only 12% to 30% of the cases are reported. Families mostly deny child abuse within their homes. In one of the cases reported in stop it now, one woman had been sexually abused by his brother but she kept quiet for fear of being killed, after sensing that her niece will fall in the same trap she finally reported the matter to their family but the family did not believe her and so nobody took action on that case. Most powerful people go unreported if they are found abusing children because people find it hard to talk bad things about them. Since nearly all states passed the mandatory laws requiring any suspected child abuse to be reported, child abuse cases has been on the rise. This result in many cases being reported which are baseless (Besharov et al., 2001). Melissa (2009), says that child abuse can be considered to be any act that causes physical body injury, psychological or emotional torture. These acts causes suffering to the child and sometimes may be harmful enough and eventually may lead to death or permanent damage of victims. Child abuse are grouped into four categories i.e. physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. Physical abuse are non-accidental acts that causes body injury to the child under the age of 18 by the guardian or parent. Physical abuse maybe inflicted by beating, punching, kicking, human bites, shaking of young children under 1 year, burn by scolding water, strangulation or any act that causes physical injury to the body (Melissa , 2009). Sexual abuse of the child is the misuse of the child to sexually satisfy another person’s sexual needs. These can occur through rape, sodomy or exploitation of the child for commercial interest e.g. in prostitution or using the child to produce pornographic materials. Emotional abuse is the failure by the parent or caregiver to provide a conducive developing environment for the child. It includes unnecessarily restricting the child’s movement, being too hostile to the child, threats, intimidation or even ridiculing the child or other forms of non-physical hostile treatment to the child. Child abuse can also in the form of neglect where the parent or guardian is in a position to provide for the basic needs for the child but fails to do. While family and school are the base of child development, more child abuse cases are reported to occur in homes than in school (Melissa, 2009). This report indicates that children are most likely to be abuse by their family members than outsiders. One of the risks factors for child abuse is their family structure. In relation to the composition of the family and the age of the family members, children may be vulnerable to different level of risks of abuse. Family may be at a higher risk of child maltreatment if the parents are still young, have little education and have many children born within a shorter period of time. Children from a family of a single parent, mostly fathers, are at much higher risk of being abused. While families taken care of by both parents are least likely to be abused (Melissa, 2009). This may be because the single parent are overburdened by the responsibility of single handedly raising the children. While among single parents, single fathers are most likely to abuse children than single mothers. Mothers are assumed to have the nurturing techniques of young children than fathers. This may be a contributing factor to the difference between the single parent categories. Several factors contributes to child abuse; these may include stress, personal problems, drugs, lack of nurturing skills, personal history of being abuse among other factors. Most importantly, the setup of the family may contribute a lot to the child abuse. Substance abuse and alcohol addicts are one of the major root causes of child abuse. Parental substance and drug abuse have negative impact to the growth of the children and the unborn. Research has it that child maltreatment cases in one way or another involves substance use to some degree (Melissa, 2009). Hence the number of child abuse are in direct correlation with the number of children staying with parent with substance abuse. Some children are also exposed to drugs at attender age by living or visiting home-based drug laboratories. These children are more prone to neglect or sexual harassment. Unemployment and poverty may also lead to child abuse as violence in single parent families are low income related. Environment and family background may also contribute to abuse as violence in one family may also lead to violence in another family. Violence are sometimes family related as parents who were abused at their tender age may also find themselves abusing their offspring. In families with both parents, mothers are more likely to abuse the children as they spend more time with them. This increases the “time at risk “as they spend more time with the children than the fathers. However, there are some researchers who believe that the causes of child abuse have been wrongly reported. Rhodes (2002) argues that several reports have been made claiming that media contributes to the crime rate among juveniles. While many of such reports have been claimed to be baseless as confirmed by (Rhodes, 2002) there is such correlation between the entertainment in the media and the physical violence committed by the juveniles though it might not be directly linked. Too much of television can negatively influence the behavior of the children. Children sees violence daily in their cartoon watch and in movies in which people star. If they admire the characters in the movies and cartoon they will take up their behavior and think themselves as star. Other people also believe that step children do not face child abuse. According to Bartholet (2008) biological parents are less likely to abuse children than step parents. Human beings prefer mostly their genetic offspring. As some studies suggest, more factors influence the shaping of parental desire other than genetics a lone (Bartholet, 2008). But no doubt genetics also play major roles as most of the cases of sexual abuse in most cases are not their biological parents. In conclusion, child abuse is generally a global concern which takes part in every corner of the world. The history of child abuse dates back to the ancient times but not much attention was paid to it until 1962 when Kempe and his group published the battered child syndrome. (Kempe et al, 1985). While child abuse has received much attention in the current world These non-genuine cases causes distraction from the real cases which needs much attention. The misreported cases also milk away resource and time that could have been used more meaningfully to investigate and solve the genuine abuse. This calls for the amendments of the legislations to focus on not only more reports but accurate reports. Civilians and organizations should be encouraged to prevent, intervene and treat child abuse, but investigation should be left for the trained investigators. As long as there young children are still being abuse, the world cannot be at peace since young children are the generation of tomorrow. Thus, we have to find a clear way of protecting the rights of children. The laws that are conflicting with the children rights should be well resolved to prevent child suffering. We should establish family friendly court so that the family rights are also well protected while thorough investigation of child abuse are being carried out. Juvenile courts should also be monitored. References Besharov, Douglas J., & Lisa A. L. (2001) "Child Abuse Is Underreported or Misreported." Family Violence. Ed. J.D. Lloyd. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Current Controversies. Rpt. from "Child Abuse Reporting." Society (1996). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Bartholet, Elizabeth. (2008).Stepchildren Do Not Face Extra Risk of Abuse. Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 27 (2004). Kempe C. H. (1985). The battered child syndrome. Child Abuse and Neglect, vol.9 page 143- 154. Melissa J, (2009).Causes and Effects of Child Abuse. Detroit: Gale Violence Information Plus Reference Series. Rhodes, R.(2002) Violence in the Media Does Not Contribute to Juvenile Crime. Juvenile Crime. Read More