Child Abuse: Solutions from Empirical Research - Essay Example

? Child Abuse: Solutions from Empirical Research of of This paper examines the concept of child abuse in modern societies. It examines the empirical research of four major authorities of this branch of the social sciences. The paper looks at Kobin's analysis of the relationship between child abuse and anthropology. It goes on to identify the various techniques and tools used by parents and the social services to prevent child abuse. The next writer argues that child abuse by parents and guardians are prompted by substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence and child behavior. He therefore recommends that parents should be treated alongside their children through the use of therapeutic techniques that will make them more sensitive to each other's needs. This is followed by a research into the effectiveness of home-visits by social welfare units in checking child abuse. The final paper examined is the writing of Dr. Jim Hooper about statistics into child abuse and why children are not reporting abuses. The paper ends by making recommendations based on these empirical findings of these authorities. Keywords: Child abuse, culture, society, community, violence, sexual abuse Introduction Child abuse is a major problem that affects the growth of children. Oates (1996, p2) defines child abuse as any non-accidental injury; physical, emotional or sexual that a child suffers from acts or omissions on the part of his or her parents or guardians. Child abuse exists in four main forms (Harelin, 2000 p6). There is the physical abuse which involves actions that harms the body of a child like hitting, kicking, slapping and punching. Usually, physical abuse leaves injuries to a child. There is the emotional abuse which includes anything said or done to hurt a child's feelings or self esteem. Examples include frequent blaming, insult and shouting. Harelin states that this is the most destructive form of abuse to children. There is neglect which involves ignoring or choosing not to take care of a child's basic needs like food, shelter and clothing (Harelin, 2006, p7). Finally, there is the issue of sexual abuse which involves the use of actions related to sex to harm a child. Examples include rape, incest and child pornography. These four forms of child abuse are universally accepted as wrong and destructive. Many nations, under the auspices of the United Nations have laws that make these four practices illegal. There are also issues that can be technically defined as child abuse, but its inclusion in statutes is quite controversial (Matthews 2004 p396). This include withholding medical care to children, corporal punishment and child maltreatment in youth sports. Several studies have been conducted into child abuse that aim at diagnosing and providing a cue to how the issue of child abuse can be solved using empirical studies. This paper examines four of such studies Children, Childhoods & Violence by Jill Korbin In this article, Jill Korbin identifies the link between culture, the society and child abuse. Korbin therefore uses her in-depth knowledge in anthropology to identify the intervention points of child abuse and the real society. She tries to diagnose the issue of child abuse and measure how it finds its way into the society and vice versa. In other words, she looks at the sociological push and pull factors that brings about the issue of child abuse in societies around the world. In setting the parameters of her discussion, Korbin states that the dynamics of the violent treatment of children can be categorized into setting, perpetrators, type, severity, age and gender, as well as the cultural context (p431). With these yardsticks, the concept could be examined in a given society either individually or collectively. Korbin states that child abuse could flourish in a given society due to three main factors: cultural promoters, cultural categorization/discrimination and structural violence (p437). Cultural promoters like idiosyncrasies, which include things that makes a given people different from others can have inherent elements of child abuse in it. Thus in the bid for a social group of people to preserve their unique identity, they might be abusing children through that. In this sense, everyone else sees the culture as inherently abusive whilst the members of that society sees the culture as the right thing to do. She cites the example of the cultural rite of circumcising older boys in Guinea, West Africa which is stated in the book of Camara Laye. Although the practice of circumcising boys as old as 13 is gruesome and painful to them, the members of the Guinean society saw it as a way of ushering a boy from childhood to manhood. This was seen by the entire society, including boys who were on the verge of being circumcised as the manly thing to do. However, everyone else would see this practice as barbaric and cruel to the victims. Another side of the cultural prompters is the issue of misuse of cultural traits. In this case, a section of a given society might take advantage of certain cultural activity to abuse children. For instance, in a society where girls go through puberty rites, it might be widely accepted that after undergoing such a rite, a girl becomes of age for marriage. Thus some men might take advantage of the situation to rape young girls even though they might not be of age for sexual relations. Aside the cultural rites and activities in different parts of the world, there is a social categorization amongst people that marks out certain children for abuse (p437). In a society where certain children are not desirable, such children might be marked out for neglect and abuse. For example, in a society where boys are preferred to girls, a daughter would be more prone to abuse than a son. Also, in a setting where there is widespread violence and war, children are more prone to suffer more abuses than adults. Children are recruited as child soldiers and they are prone to injury, death and torture. Korbin (p439) cites the case of Argentina's 'dirty war' where families and their children were tortured as a single unit although the children might be innocent. Korbin also notes that most scholars turn a blind eye on children-to-children abuse, which is a serious form of violence in society (p441). Korbin identifies that it is common knowledge that chidren who grow up in aggressive social settings become aggressive. She attributes this to the fact that children face so many violent events like bullying and fights which is a form of child abuse. She also identifies that some children get involved in violence by watching violent movies and/or playing violent war games. In extreme cases, this leads to shooting incidents perpetrated by young children like the numerous shooting incidents in schools around America. Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect with Parent Training: Evidence & Opportunities by Richard Barth Barth looks at the push factors that causes parents or guardians to abuse their children. He identifies that there are four related parental risk factors that promote child abuse and they include substance abuse, mental illnesses, domestic violence and child behavior (p95). Barth identifies through research that parents or guardians who have a problem with the abuse of substances like alcohol and drugs have a 19 – 79% probability of abusing their children. This means that after abusing the substances they are addicted to, a parent is likely to vent out by physically or emotionally abusing his or her own child. Barth also studied that a parent involved in substance addiction is 4.2 times more likely to neglect his or her children. This therefore means that substance abuse is a major risk factor that can lead to child abuse in homes. Barth's investigation of mothers with mental illnesses shows that such mothers have a 7 times higher rate of neglecting their children. This is because most of these parents are often declared incapable of taking good care of their own children and they get up losing their children to the social services. Another finding was that 44.8% of men who abuse their wives also abuse their children. This therefore shows a strong correlation between the child abuse and domestic violence. Barth also identified in his research that many children with behavioral problems end up being abused by their parents. Barth's study of children living with state welfare service providers show that the majority of such children have questionable characters which causes their parents to abuse them in different ways. Barth goes further to identify that most parental programs for abusive parents and guardians are punitive and they seek to target parents reported for being abusive. This clearly presents a situation where the efforts of the state are destructive to the parents, children and the state itself. Barth recommends that an ideal social improvement program for abusive parents should be one that will develop benchmarks for quality care (p106). It should simplify therapy and focus on the key techniques. These techniques should be customized in each case to reflect the individual parent's needs so that therapy and other correctional treatments can be delivered to such parents. The customization of such treatments should involve parents and children and also focus on the issues with adaptations being made for racial, ethnic and cultural differences of parents. The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect by Kimberly Howard & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn These researchers examined nine home visiting programs around the world in nations like USA, Australia and New Zealand. For each case, the writers identified the outcomes of the home-visiting program in relation to parenting and child well-being with a focus on abuse and neglect. The research was meant to test whether these programs, whereby social welfare authorities go to homes to check whether children were being well catered for was really meeting its objectives. They identified that there is little evidence to show that the visits were directly preventing child abuse. This is because it is quite difficult to determine child abuse if you do not live in a given home. Thus such visits were less effective in identifying and preventing child abuses. However, they identified that there is strong evidence that such visits impact positively on families and children where they were practiced. This was in the form of improving maternal and parenting practices. It also sought to find ways of improving the quality of children's home environments in the places they visited. It is therefore conclusive that the home-visiting program is positive as it helps in the development of children. This in a way can be a tool for the prevention of child abuse albeit through indirect means. Child Abuse Statistics, Research & Resources by Jim Hooper On this web page, Dr. Jim Hooper identifies the controversial side of child abuse. He states that there are many abused children who never get to report to the government. This therefore creates a situation where numerous people abuse children and get away with it. This way, children end up having unbalanced lives and little is done to stop it. Also, the fact that some forms of abuse go unnoticed, like sexual abuse and emotional abuse which do not come with any physical signs that can lead to detection, many people go through a lot of abuse without reporting it. Due to this, the official statistics of child abuse are questionable and it represents far less than what actually goes on in the real world. It is therefore necessary for newer measures and policies to be put in place to ensure that more outlets are created for children to come out and present their cases of abuse so that the state can do something about their problems. Recommendations It will therefore be recommended that the international community should find ways of lobbying and putting pressure on countries that have cultures that are inherently abusive to children. There is the need for non-governmental organizations to put pressure on governments of such countries to abolish harsh cultural rites like female circumcision and other gruesome punishments that put the lives of children at risk. Parents and guardians should desist from favoring some of their children ahead of others. They should not follow traits of the larger society which favor certain children ahead of others. Rather, they should try their best to love and cherish each of their children as they are with their strengths and weaknesses. It is important for the UN Convention that protects children from armed conflicts to be implemented in all conflict situations around the world. This convention gives children preference in evacuation and protection during armed combats and it forbids armed groups from enlisting persons under 18 years in armed conflicts around the world. Parents and Teachers have to come together to find ways of identifying and dealing with child-to-child aggression in the larger society and in schools. This can be done by putting in place policies that prevent bullying and fights between children of school going age. Also, parents should endeavor to consider the safety of the area they choose as residence, since the external surrounding will determine the kind of aggression their child(ren) will grow up to face. Programs by social services meant to correct and improve abusive parents should aim at identifying the risk factors that causes parents or guardians to become abusive rather than being punitive in nature. Programs by social services to correct abusive parents should be tailored to identify the sources of the risk of child abuse amongst parents. It should aim at creating some reconciliation between parents and their children. It should focus on the issues relating to the parent-child relationship and it should be varied according to the social status of the family viz race and cultural features. Social welfare groups should continue to promote their efforts of visiting individual homes to check the conditions under which children live and make recommendations as and where necessary. This will enable children to get better opportunities in life and reduce the threat of child abuse. It is also commendable for the government to find more systems and outlets to enable children that are abused to report their cases to the appropriate authorities. This can be done by the enactment of more laws on disclosure of child abuse and the education of children on reporting procedures. Also, there is the need for the proper equipment of the welfare services to assist children to speak out against abuses they suffer in each instance. Conclusion Child abuse is a serious problem that has dire consequences on children for the rest of their lives. It is common in societies due to cultural traits, wars and social discrimination. Most parents are involved in child abuse due to some inherent factors like substance abuse, domestic violence, mental illnesses and negative behaviors by their children. Efforts by the state to prevent child abuse like home-visiting is not really effective in stopping child abuse totally. Finally, there are many factors that prevent children from reporting abuses they go through. It is recommended that parents, teachers, social services and the state come together to solve the issues of child abuse. Works Cited Barth, Richard (2009) “Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect with Parent Training: Evidence & Opportunities” The Future of Children Vol 19 No 2 Preventing Child Maltreatment (Fall 2009) pp95 – 118 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27795049 Harelin, Kate (2000) Child Abuse: Why do my Parents Hit me? Mankato MN: Capstone Press Hooper, Jim (2010) Child Abuse: Statistics, Research & Resources Available online at: http://www.jimhopper.com/abstats/ Accessed, June 28, 2011 Howard, Kimberly, S. & Brooks-Gunn, Jeane (2009) “The Role of Home-Visiting Programs in Preventing Child Abuse & Neglect” Future of Children Vol 19 No 2., Preventing Child Maltreatment (Fall 2009) p119 – 146 Princeton University. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27795050 Korbin, Jill (2003) “Children, Childhoods & Violence” Annual Review of Anthropology Vol 32 (2003) p431 – 446 Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25064837 Matthews, Dawn, D. (2004) Child Abuse Sourcebook. Omnigraphics Press: Michigan Oates, Kim (1996) The Spectrum of Child Abuse: Assessment, Treatment & Prevention Psychology Press, Taylor & Francis Group Read More