Brain Development of Child Abuse Victims - Research Paper Example

Since every person today is entitled to privacy, the right to privacy when it comes to victims of abuses is something that has been widely discussed and debated upon. The biggest question has been whether such victims of child abuse are worse off or better because their stories and identities are never reported so often in the media. Today we have cases whereby incidences of child abuse have been reported or publicized in the media. Just like a coin, publicizing such kind of information might improve the social awareness and protect the other from similar attacks, but also affect the child’s future life. That being the case, it is always mandatory to get the victim’s consent before his/her private information has been released to the public. Maintaining the private information and confidentiality after abuse is something very vital. The victims will definitely be affected by the manner in which such kind of information is handled. Because many people believe that their privacy might be compromised by the media, they decide to remain quiet as if nothing happened but become traumatized. It would be necessary to strengthen the governing policies towards this right to privacy for the victims of abuse. This is something that needs to be supported by different states. The fact of the matter is that every individual should be entitled this right to privacy. It would definitely be the best thing for the victims of child abuse that the crime is never publicized. When we hear of child abuse what click in our mind? To some it is the mistreatment and neglect ion a child undergoes which may vary depending on who is pointing it out. Some people seem to not know the distinction of child abuse and parenting, since to them as long as a child is dependent on someone then to them they have the rights to do anything on that child. Some end up making the lives of not just other children but the lives of their children difficult too. These in one way or another has caused insanity in the society with cases of minors committing suicide! According to a recent report, more than three million child abuse cases were filed in the United States in the year 2005. The said report was a representation of around 6.2 million children which accounts for around 9% of all minors in the united states alone (New York society for prevention of cruelty to children i.e. NYSPCC). Child abuse is an issue that entails a lot of ill practices that among others include physical abuse, children being submitted to corporal punishment, then we hear of things like sexual abuse of minors, at times the issue of emotional abuse also comes up not forgetting mistreatment and neglect ion experience by children. To many who are not keen enough, most of these issues to them never strike them as child abuse violations. To them only the likes of sexual abuse and child labor are gross enough to mandate a crime. That simple neglect they subject their children to is not worrying. Many use the excuse that they give their children that life lesson of being independent. It does not hit them that independence comes with restriction and responsibilities and that a child does not have the full ability to make some choices even though to adults it’s an issue of yes or no. Physical abuse involves actual striking of any part of a child’s body be it caning, smashing of a child with a device or even hitting a child with an object. This with no simpler way to put it destroys the normal brain development of a child (public Law, 2012). When a child is subjected to being hit on the head or smashed on the wall, the tissues that compose the brain matter are destroyed which at times goes to the extent of shearing the tiny blood vessels that supply essential nutrients to the cells. In extreme scenarios there have been reports of seizures being experienced as a result of such with the worst outcome being loss of life. The effects at times may not be that outright but sure thing we have witnessed victims who tend to have problems with some of their senses as a result of prolonged physical abuses when they were growing up. This is evident when it comes to behavioral characteristics of such people with some even having problems when it comes to learning. This might be as a result of chemical imbalances that result due to vigorous shocks and vibrations that the brain experiences during hitting and striking of the head. Then there is the issue many claim is giving independence to children. Whether we like it or not neglect is a form of child abuse. It is one of those forms whose effect can be noted within a short span of time. Neglecting a child results in him/ her having the liberty to choose for him/ herself. This is not good especially if the choices affect them like malnutrition. When a child is left to fend for himself such things as food become a non-necessity. This is evident especially to infants and small babies that require such choices to be made for. Lack of adequate food during the early stages of life of an infant can lead to a stagnated or slowed pace at the development of the brain due to lack of nutrients that steer and ensure the same. Without adequate nutrition brain cells cannot function efficiently and this leads to slow transmit ions of electric pulses between the various brain cells. A reduced brain transmission power is only but a gateway to instances of slowed judgment and lack of concentration in general (child welfare information gateway, 2009) According to the oxford dictionary, sexual abuse is the use of tricks and persuasions to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity with another person. This varies from prostitution to sexually explicit activities with children. This has a very high likelihood of affecting a child both physically and mentally with the end result being fatal. Most of the time its victims undergo emotional and mental torment with the pressure of feeling guilty to being ashamed of their own act. Research has shown that this sense of guilt and fear affects the amygdala which is the part of the brain that is responsible for fear and anxiety. This has seen most victims being anxious and being fearful of everyone. This results in persistent fear state because the chemical systems of the amygdala are affected meaning that there is high chances of abnormal impulse control. Another part of the brain that is affected is the cortex that is normally associated with rationality in thinking and the hippocampus which is responsible for emotions. These means that the hippocampus is less developed resulting in an individual who becomes out of touch with his/ her emotions. In their old age, some victims become sadists without the sense of sympathy, empathy or even rational thinking to the point of dissociating themselves with other people (child abuse and neglect, 1999). Corporal punishment is another form that causes children to be stressful. This is because every time they fear the consequences of their actions and may end up being fearful and stressful. This is because their brains tend to create memories of past punishments that trigger responses without conscious coordination. This makes such children to overreact and may panic at instances that are not fearful to other minors. They tend to be unable to correctly interpret nonverbal signs with each and every instance being cautions with the safest of acts others find harmless. In as much as they tend to not be concentrating in activates the opposite is correct since their brains tend to develop such that it is constantly alert with inability to maintain calmness for a long duration of time (Child trauma academy). A study on the general effect of abuse has shown that in one way or another is it detrimental and affects the brain by interfering with the wave patterns and pulse transmission. Out of a hundred and twenty victims under study at a London neuroscience clinic, 55% of them had brain abnormalities of which 78% of these figure having a past encounter with both physical and sexual torment in their childhood life. It also showed that the relationship between the victim and his/ her assaulter played a bigger part in the degree of effects on the victim. That is to say that the closer the victim was to his abuser e.g. a family member the greater the effect as opposed to if the abuser was not a family member. Generally the left side of the brain which has the cortex and the hippocampus was found to be under developed as compared to the right side of the brain. This resulted in the victims having no control on their emotions with worst cases seeing victims signaling fear even when the occasion did not call for such (survivor network of those abused by priests). From the report we can conclusively state that without any doubt that indeed any form of child abuse has detrimental effects on the brain. This is because the end results on the victims can be pointed out. Biologically we see that there is under development in the left side of the brain which causes its victims to have very high probability of experiencing depression. The other effect involves irritability in the limbic parts of the brain which manifest through irrational panic attacks and post trauma stress disorder. The other major blow to the brain is underdevelopment of the hippocampus and the victims may develop a sense of dissociation with others. Lastly we see that generally due to the underdevelopment of the left side of the brain the two side s of the brain become slightly disconnected in terms of brain coordination which is way worse that anyone can anticipate (psychology of abuse victims 2013). References Barnett, O., Miller-Perrin, C. L., & Perrin, R. D. (2005). Family violence across the lifespan (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Bernard, L., Maria. Current management in child neurology (2009):4th ed Bridegam, M 2003. The Right to Privacy, Longman, London. Torkel Klingberg., The learning brain: Memory and brain development. Oxford press (2013) Kenneth, J., lau. Mandated reporting of Child Abuse and Neglect: A practical guide for social workers Rumble, L (2009). Assisting Children Born of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Retrieved 23 May, 2010 from http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/FMR27/11.pdf Streib, V. (2007). State of Criminal Justice, John Wiley and Sons, New York. Read More