Adolescent Maltreatment - Essay Example

This paper lists down five articles that have been written on the issue of Child Abuse from time to time. We have touched upon the so as to study the details regarding it as well as find out the different ways and means that have been devised by scholars and learned men and women of yesteryears as well as the current times. July 21, 2004, No Panic Over School Child Abuse, Wendy McElroy. McElroy’s ‘No Panic over school child abuse’ article critically analyses Carol Shakeshaft’s ‘Educator Sexual Misconduct’ defining the report as ‘seriously flawed, both in its methodology and in the way researchers defined sexual abuse and misconduct’. McElroy further elaborates that the media not critically evaluated the report and has led to an unnecessary panic with the reports alarming figures. McElroy highlights that Shakeshaft defines sexual abuse in a broad manner that includes ‘physical, verbal or visual behaviour’. McElroy even points to one study in the report that ‘included sexual comments, gestures or looks in its definition of sexual abuse and asked students if other students had committed such acts toward themselves or each other.’ This one study does not fall into the brackets of sexual abuse and hence should not be presented so. Preface to the report, Eugene Hickock, deputy secretary of education highlights that the following terms ‘sexual abuse’ and ‘sexual misconduct’ are used interchangeably. This can pose a serious risk to an institute and cause unnecessary worries amongst parents of the children. McElroy turns to the fact that even though Shakeshaft’s report’s subtitle is ‘a synthesis of existing literature’ the report isn’t meta-analysis, which consists of combining data of multiple sources whilst being careful to acknowledge and adjust for differences in ‘how those sources have been collected or defined the data’. McElroy states that because Shakeshaft claims there are few empirical studies in child abuse, met analysis is not merited. McElroy also points to the fact that the use of sources in the report is highly confusing and so is the reports definitions. The report makes a reference to nearly 900 news reports from Australia, Britain, Canada and the U.S. The dates are from 1989 to 2003. In reference to this McElroy claims that ‘Several hundred stories stretched over 15 years and three continents do not point to 4.5 million American children being abused today.’ McElroy also claims that the studies make disparate claims claiming Shakeshaft’s source Association of American University Women (AAUW) has been accused of being bias so as to further a feminist agenda. McElroy ends the report with claiming that before the media involves itself in ‘panic mongering’ it should actually read the report ‘yet this is a rare thing’. The History of Child Abuse, Lloyd deMause. Lloyd deMause’s ‘The history of child abuse’ is based on an extensive study since the past three decades of diaries, autobiographies and other documents that give deMause relevant details on what being a chid in either the East or the West at any given point in history may have been like. DeMause reveals that infanticide; erotic beating and incest were often practiced by most historical families in a number of different cultures. DeMause reveals that in history states ‘sacrificed and mutilated’ their children to relieve a certain guilt feeling they would face as adults. The children were considered ‘pure’ and therefore were the perfect ‘poison containers’ an object used to transfer one’s negative feelings of anger, anxiety etc to, hence riding the adult of any such feelings. DeMause boldly states that even today we ‘continue to arrange the daily killing, maiming, molestation and starvation of children through our social, military and economic activities’ and even states that defeating child abuse is the biggest task we face today. DeMause also reveals that incest traces its roots back to ‘homo sapeans’. DeMause report states that in pre-literate cultures Mothers have slept naked with their children till they were 6 years old and had orgasms whilst nursing them and regularly masturbated them. DeMause then provides examples of boys who have been masturbated by their Mothers so fiercely that the boys were often in pain and feared they bled. DeMause then gives examples of how little girls in India often had intercourse with little boys and therefore few had any hymens and even in Japan. He also claims such practices as pedophile and child marriage etc took place in Zoroastrian temples whilst in Arab cultures wife were aware of their husbands preference to have sex with children therefore they cut off little girls clitoris and labia to eliminate any sexual pleasure. Next DeMause compares the contemporary situation to the historical one. He reveals that in America alone 30% men and 40% women remember having been molested (genital contact), half of which were incestuous directly within the family and half with neighbors. 80% in the cases of caretakers. 81% of these seductions were on children who hadn’t yet attained puberty and 42% took place on children less than 7 years of age. DeMause concludes that in America the sexual molestation rate is 60% girls and 45% boys, half of these are directly incestuous molestations. May 05, 2005, Child Abuse and neglect unallayed by Home based Intervention, Peggy Peck Peggy Peck’s ‘Child abuse and neglect unalloyed by home based intervention’ is a report that suggests that a public health intervention didn’t prevent recurrent child abuses in families, which had a history of abuse. Infact sometimes the instances of abuse increased. Dr.Harriet McMillan suggested that the best way to prevent child abuse is ‘primary prevention’. In this study many families were observed and the hospital staff regularly paid them a visit to notice any improvement. Dr.McMillan preferred the children be removed from abusive environments. This carried on for three years and the results were: Physical abuse was reported in 33% of the 88 families randomised to nurse home visits and 43% of the 72 control families, while neglect was reported in 47% of the families in the intervention arm and 51% of the families in the control group. The rate of abuse or neglect was 57% in the intervention arm and 67% of families in the control arm had at least one report of abuse or neglect. Child Abuse: The new Islamic Cult of Martyrdom, Justus Reid Weiner Weiner’s report suggests a new cult of Islamic martyrdom emerging that exploits children for its criminal purposes. The report gives a number of examples in different locales from Israel to Jammu and Kashmir where boys, some kidnapped by terrorist organizations aged between 11 and 17 are used to blow up areas locales the group is working against. Weiner’s study provides five different examples of children being used for such purposes in different cities at different times by different parties yet for the same purpose. This is a new emerging form of child abuse where children are being used for martyrdom. Explanations for the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases, David Finkelhor and Lisa M.Jones Finkelhor and Jones’s study based on research and statistics blatantly states that there has been a drop of 40% in child abuse between 1992 and 2000. The cases were 150,000 and fell to 89,500. Yet professional opinion is divided as to why this is so. This may be the result of prevention, treatment and aggressive criminal justice activity. The study compares abuse statistics over the years and analyses this drop in abuse rates. The statistics of CPS and NCANDS are examined. Reasons for the decline in child abuse are speculated most being attributed to CPS and policies. Bibliography: July 21, 2004, No Panic Over School Child Abuse, Wendy McElroy. Website: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1331 The History of Child Abuse, Lloyd deMause. Website: http://www.nospank.net/demause1.htm May 05, 2005, Child Abuse and neglect unallayed by Home based Intervention, Peggy Peck Website: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/HealthPolicy/tb1/992 Child Abuse: The new Islamic Cult of Martyrdom, Justus Reid Weiner Website: http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume16/Article3.htm Explanations for the Decline in Child Sexual Abuse Cases, David Finkelhor and Lisa M.Jones Website: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/199298.pdf Word Count: 1,257 Read More