Poverty and Child Abuse - Term Paper Example

The poverty problem is a dilemma which gives rise to child sexual abuse since the families are not concerned about child protection. The way children are maltreated, misuse, and neglect have many times escorted them to the vulnerability of child abuse. However in the United States, child abuse is not a new issue, since children have been the subject of various types of abuse for decades, therefore concern for abused children now demands action from private citizens as well as the government.

Despite the existence and active participation of child welfare programs, child abuse is a common problem confronted by the United States. One reason for the widespread of this quandary is the fact that economic resources and political structure varies according to the social determinants for people who live in urban and rural regions (Kenney et al, 2001, p. xv). Child abuse some decades ago was seen as a problem of physical battering and the deliberate intention to harm the child, mainly by parents.

It was in the 1970s that the meaning of the term child abuse expanded to include not only physical harm of the child, but also sexual or emotional maltreatment by parents or caretakers since abuse does not have to be deliberate infliction, but can also take the form of omission to act resulting in neglect of the child's needs. The main concern pertains to what our communities consider as child abuse, for example in many community cases in the professional consensus in the United States it was a concern as to what constitutes abuse or neglect of a child.

When analyzed on the basis of community research it was found that all agreed to consider a child with fractured bones from repeated beatings as 'abused', while a child who is not given the minimum amount of food, clothing, or attention necessary for survival or a young child left unfed in a room as neglected. There were various class perspectives on maltreatment which exist between the extreme cases of child abuse and neglect, however there is a wide range of situations on which there is often disagreement about what constitutes emotional or physical abuse.

These vary according to class as poor class more moderately defines what is entailed in sexual or physical abuse. Child abuse possesses three main types and has been so deeply embedded in our society that most of us are not even aware of how it disrupts our social determinants of living standards. Traditional child rearing practices and inappropriate child maltreatment with lack of monetary, organizational and informational resources addresses the problem with greater cause. Verbal Child abuse Based on cruelty or unjustified punishment, verbal abuse entails direct enforcement of exposure to punishment or permitting of a child to suffer resulting in an unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering.

Often called as emotional or psychological child abuse is the most common found in almost every class. Families usually neglect such mental or emotional suffering of their children and do not intend to report or view it as a serious issue, verbal abuse is not considered to be reported, but may be reported. Many families consider it