Child Abuse: Punishment and Treatment - Essay Example

There are primarily two ways to deal with parents who abuse their children—punishment and treatment. The most frequently used intervention is treatment. The primary goal Child Preventive Services is to intervene into the family, providing support and services (parenting education and anger management) to prevent the removal of the child from the home. The second, less frequently used method is to prosecute the parents in criminal court. This assignment will test your skills at doing research in the on-line library. Child maltreatment or child abuse by parents has been a long-standing public health problem. The definition has expanded through the years as it came to cover physical injury to physical assault, neglect, emotional abuse, and coercive sexual activity. Statistics speaks about this grim situation: in 2002, 896,000 cases of child abuse and neglect were substantiated across 50 states and that according to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, about 81% of these cases were perpetuated by parents. (Runyon et al. 2006, p. 23) These kinds of reports, however, do not necessarily reflect the actual incidence of child abuse because the figures may still be higher as many cases of abuse are still estimated to be unreported. The gravity of the situation is highlighted by the fact that child abuse is one of the five leading causes of childhood death in the United States today. (Mankiller 1999, p. 87) The answer is quite complicated to the question why parents abuse their children. There are several dimensions to the issue. For example, mothers are more prone to maltreat their children than fathers or that substance abuse contribute to the emergence of child abuse, among others. These variables, however underscore the need for effective intervention approaches to address the numerous issues in the subject. This paper will explore why treatment is important, how it is being carried out and how this strategy is more effective than punishment in addressing child abuse. Risk Factors In the treatment of parents involved in child abuse, it is important to consider the ecological issues that lead to the abuse. For example, is there unemployment in parents or a maltreatment in the childhood history of the parents? Also, the number of children in the family, the physical or developmental disabilities that are difficult to manage as well as other care giving responsibilities must be considered. It is important that in addressing the problem of child abuse, all parts of the family system issue must be treated. Particularly, physical abuse of children is a family issue and, therefore, all parts of that system must be treated in order to establish a healthy balance. One consistent finding since the 1980s has been that substance abuse by parents is highly correlated with the entrance of children into the foster care system. Indeed, as many as 80% of parents who abuse their children have substance abuse problems and that domestic and community violence occur more frequently among abusing parents than in the population at large. (Webb and Terr, p. 95) Recent federal data derived from states’ CPS reports to the Administration for Children and Families in 2004 indicate that in substantiated cases, about 18 percent are victims of fathers as sole perpetrators of maltreatment while 38.8 percent were perpetrated by mothers, and the rest done by both. (cited in Webb and Terr, p. 94-95) This fact seem to support the widespread speculation that the fact that mothers bear the primary burden of taking care of the children is behind the reason why they are more likely to abuse children than the fathers. Judith Worell explained that since mothers in most two-parent, heterosexual families spend more time than fathers with the children, and since the vast majority of single-parent families are headed by women, a look at the data can indeed leave one with the impression that mothers are the more abusive parents. (p. 790) Of course, there are underlying and interrelated factors that contribute to this dimension in child abuse. There is, for instance, the standard of living, access to financial resources, age of the mother, and lack of other human support, increases the risk of abuse. There are some experts who believe that the challenges in parent-child relations occur during the early years of children., when early attachments between parent and child are formed. (Erickson and Egeland 1996; Malinowsky-Rummel & Hanson 1993) For example, when a child is born with a particular characteristic, such as an infirmity, disability or difficult temperament, there emerges an excessive challenge for a parent and that it interferes with the development of a secure relationship between parent and child. As days pass, a pattern of difficult child behavior and parental frustration may lead to a breach in a parent’s tolerance or capability threshold. Indeed, evidences were already presented by several studies demonstrating the fact that maltreating parents more frequently have insecure attachments to their children than nonmaltreating ones. (e.g., Crittenden, Partiridge and Claussen 1991) Children whose ages range from infancy to 3 are at high risk because they are solely dependent on the care of an adult to survive. In fact, severity of children’s injuries, is associated with being a toddler. In fact, most child deaths as a result of child abuse, according to a study by Scannapieco and Connell-Carick, occur to children under the age of 3. (p. 76) The combination of extreme poverty and early pregnancy was also found to be a risk factor in terms of child abuse. Goerge and Lee (1999), for instance, found that children born to mothers who age 17 years or younger living in poverty areas were 17 times more likely to have a substantiated case of child maltreatment than those kids born to mothers who were 22 years or older in low poverty. (p. 755-780) Goldstein and Brooks (2005) reported that among the substantiated cases of child abuse, 40 percent involve substance abuse from the parent-perpetrators. (p. 157) The further argued that: Parents with documented substance abuse histories were more likely than other maltreating parents to be repeat offenders with regard to child maltreatment and to have longer histories with child protective services. Parents with substance abuse histories were rated by court investigators as being at higher risk of continuing to maltreat their children, were more likely to reject court-ordered services. (p. 154) Theories Several research underscore the interaction of multiple factors in child abuse and that the interaction of these factors has been described and analyzed in numerous theoretical models developed over the past decade. The current theories include the 1) ecological models of Belsky and Garbarino (Belsky 1980; Garbarino 1977); 2) the transitional model, which regards child abuse and maladaptive parenting as extreme ends of a continuum of interactions among social and cultural forces, parenting roles and individual behavior (Wolfe 1994); and 3) the transactional model of Cicchetti , which focuses on interactions among risk and protective factors in social environment of the family. (Cicchetti and Carlson 1989) The abovementioned three theoretical models share the underlying assumptions that there are several factors that affect parent-child relationship and that maltreatment and abuse are not primarily committed out of sheer cruelty or meanness on the side of the parents. In addition, individual characteristics of both the parents and the child are insufficient to explain the nature and emergence of child abuse but that each group employs a different set of assumptions in order to examine the interactive processes, perceptions, stresses and social supports in the family environment. Although research findings were able to help debunk the myths such as the “crazy-parent” theory, much of the focus on child abuse still suffers from methodological problems that limit its usefulness. For instance, studies show that professionals are more likely to report child abuse if the family is of color, poor, or headed by a single woman. (Mankiller, p. 87) As an offshoot, researchers wrongly conclude child abuse as a problem prevalent in people of color, the poor or women. Treatment Although an emphasis in addressing child abuse is on the child victim, interventions often target the parent because it is believed that behavior change in parent-perpetrators will best yield the solution to protect the child. The parental treatment often include parent support groups, parent education, home visiting, mental health, and other concrete social support and therapeutic services. According to Maria Scannapieco and Kelly Connell-Carrick, there are two main areas for parental treatment: self-management and self-control skills; and, child behavior management, including parent education of developmentally appropriate expectations and alternative solutions to using physical discipline. They also outlined specific treatments that have been used to treat parents. For example, there is the group work treatment, a strategy that is thought to be useful in improving the parent’s interpersonal skills, which supposedly diminishes the stigma of being labeled as inadequate, reduces social isolation, teaches parents to change their own behavior towards in such a way that fosters prosocial skills in children, helps parents develop positive interaction styles and helps them replace antisocial behaviors such as aggression and noncompliance with prosocial behaviors including self-control. (Scannapieco and Connell-Carrick, p. 186) Treatment entails a significant amount of reinforced practice for the parent(s). Some of this is in role-play with the therapist. Here, the clinician and the parent act the roles of the child and parent in diverse scenarios. In some instances, the child is brought in to participate in the role play and an additional practice is enacted that depict what happens at home or the participants practice some new skills for both the parent and the child. Treatment to parents usually focuses on changing how parents teach, discipline, and attends to their children. This is often done by training parents in basic child-rearing skills accompanied by cognitive-behavioral methods to target specific anger patterns or distorted beliefs. Assessment of this treatment approach has been generally favorable and widely supported for several valid reasons. For example, we have David Wolfe’s (1999) finding that demonstrates maltreating parents who also require very basic education and assistance in managing everyday demands, such as financial planning and home cleanliness benefit from multicomponent interventions that address the various needs of neglectful and multiproblem families. These interventions can be consisted of marital counseling, financial planning, cleanliness, and similar concerns. (Wolfe 1999, p. 107) A challenge, wrote Alan Kazdin (2005), for treatment is developing new parent – child interaction patterns and doing so in ways that are in keeping with parents’ views, their dignity, and their freedom to choose how to rear their children. (p. 190) As an example of this problem, he cited one father who said, “I am going to keep beating my child until he learns not to get into fights. My father beat me and it worked with me; it will work for him [my child] too.” (p. 190) The community context and its support systems, including the services and assistance provided by the state, also influence parent-child relationships and the incidence of child abuse. Stanley Sturt (2006) argued that a community with a rich array of services, such as parenting group, high quality and affordable child care, and a good transportation system, enhances the ability of families to nurture and protect their children. (p. 156) Sturt also cited several studies that show how families in high-risk environment are less able to give and share and might be mistrustful of neighborly exchange and that, in this way, a family’s problem seem to be compounded rather than ameliorated by the neighborhood context. (p. 156) The Need for Punishment Out of all the arguments cited by this paper, it is easy to understand how social scientists fear that punishment or prosecution of child abusers inhibit future treatments and really serves no constructive function. However, this does not mean that punishment is an entirely failed approach altogether. The gravity of the offense, of course, must constitute the initial considerations whether to prosecute or, alternatively, utilize social service agency treatment process. Today, the state prosecutor seeking to punish parent-offender in child abuse cases is serving a symbolic function. The concept he represents is, in itself, deterrent. In addition, prosecution by bringing the problem of child abuse to the public’s attention, especially in most extreme cases, may help reshape the national attitude towards child abuse and the use of corporeal force in raising children. The prosecutor, the person who sets the retributive justice in motion, is also not entirely after punishment as he or she is a policymaker as well, deciding cases thrown at his desk. The prosecutor is required to consider the following factors: facilities available for treatment of abusive parents; financial resources available for such treatment character of the beating or other abuse; attitudes of the parents; character of the beaten or other abuse; any previous treatments to parents; care and protection of the child during treatment of the parents; care and protection of the child once the pare is incarcerated; and the possibility of court supervision. At present, the state prosecutor is empowered to pursue treatment re-institute criminal proceedings. Conclusion No single theory or causal agent is enough or sufficient to explain child maltreatment and abuse. But as this paper have outlined, there is an abundance of literature, supported by substantial evidence, that cited factors that contribute to the risk of child abuse including unemployment in parents, being the child of a parent who grew up in an abusive home, being child to a substance abuser; or those experiencing poverty, family conflict, social isolation, among others. There is obvious pattern that a child abuse case is not a result of just one factor. Instead, it occurs when a number of risk factors converge. This finding, therefore, posits an intervention strategy in solving the issue that is holistic, addressing several problematic areas of family life comprehensively. This is the reason why treatment is the most preferable approach available. In the current body of literature, there is a pattern that points to a movement that encourages at-risk or abused children to kept within their homes and to strengthen their family. This particular situation makes so much sense because if one thinks about the long-term effect, particularly in the child’s life, being uprooted from his or her home can be traumatic and produce consequences that could affect his future. It has been reported that the impact of child maltreatment is far greater than its immediate and visible effects. Sturt argued that abuse and neglect are associated with short- and long-term consequences that may include brain damage, developmental delays, learning disorders, problems forming relationships, aggressive behavior and depression. (p. 156) The major theories in regard to the maltreatment of children by their parents focus primarily on why parents commit the act. From here, three major tenets emerge. First, there is a need to study the context of maltreatment in order to come up with a unique and appropriate treatment intervention. Secondly, these models explaining child abuse emphasize the social-interactional process that happens between a parent and a child. One finds that this is a transactional process that demonstrates the dynamic interplay among individual, family and social factors in relation to past events and present conditions. Finally, the third tenet is constituted by the learning-based explanations for aggressive behavior that are implicit in the two previous variables. References Belsky, J. (1980). Child Maltreatment: An ecological integration. American Psychologist 35:320-335. Cicchetti, D., and Carlson, V., (eds). (1981).Current Research and Theoretical Advances in Child Maltreatment. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Crittenden, P.M., Patridge, M.F., and Claussen, A.H. (1991) Family patterns of relationships in normative and dysfunctional families. Development and Psychopathology: 6:145-164. Erickson, M.F. and Egeland, B. Child Neglect. In J. Briere, I. Berliner, J.A. Buckley, C. Jenny, & T.A. Reid (eds.). (1996). The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment (2nd ed. p. 3-20) Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Garbarion, J. (1977). The human ecology of child maltreatment: A conceptual model for research. Journal of Marriage and the Family 39:721-735. Goerge, R.M. and Lee, B.G. (1999) Poverty, early childbearing, and child maltreatment: A multinomial analysis. Children and Youth Services Review. 21: 755-780. Goldstein, S. and Brooks, R. (2005). Handbook of resilience in children. Birkhauser. Kazdin, A. (2005). Parent management training: treatment for oppositional, aggressive, and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents. Oxford University Press. Mankiller. (1999). The Readers Companion to U. S. Womens History. G. Mink, M. Navarro, G. Steinem and B. Smith (eds.) Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Runyon, Melissa, Kenny, Maureen, Berry, Eloise, Deblinger, Esther, and Brown, Elissa. Etiology and surveillance in child maltreatment.In John Lutzkers (ed.) (2006). Preventing violence: Research and Evidence-based intervention strategies. American Psychological Association. xiii, 331. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from Sturt, S. (2006). Child abuse: new research. Nova Publishers. Webb, N. and Terr, L. (2007). Play therapy with children in crisis: individual, group, and family treatment. Guilford Press. Wolfe, D. (1999). Child abuse: implications for child development and psychopathology. SAGE. Worell, J. (2001). Encyclopedia of women and gender: sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender. Elsevier. Read More