Social Welfare Policy Analysis: Child Abuse - Coursework Example

Social Welfare Policy Analysis: Child Abuse (Add (Add (Add Governmental policies and regulations are notalways sufficient to control all social problems. Under such circumstances, social welfare policies can play a pivotal role in mitigating the impacts of such certain issues. Generally, social welfare policies aimed at the abolition of specific social issues are triggered by social workers who would be in close contact with the affected region or people. Hence, they can effectively identify what actually people needs and what policies would resolve those social issues. Social workers and other social interest groups would develop policies and programs when governmental approaches fail to curb the effects of a social issue. Before developing a social welfare policy, it is necessary to identify how various sectors of the society perceive the particular issue. Moreover, it is vital to examine whether factors like gender, ethnicity, race, class, or sexual orientation have any influence on the issue. This paper will consider the issue of child sexual exploitation and evaluate various social policies framed to curb the impacts of the social problem. The Problem Sexual exploitation of children is a social welfare issue prevailing in the modern society. Child sexual molestation, child prostitution, production and distribution of child pornographic pictures and videos, online enticement of child sexual abuse, and child sex tourism constitute child sexual exploitation. It is simply stated as “child sexual exploitation is when someone grooms and controls a child for a sexual purpose” (NSPCC, 2011). The issue of child sexual exploitation has far reaching impacts, as it tends to rot social and cultural values. Admittedly, child sexual abuse would cause a country to lose its dignity. Clinical practitioners opine that children who experience severe sexual abuse are likely to exhibit behavior abnormalities including posttraumatic stress disorder. In addition, studies reflect that victims of child sexual abuse are highly vulnerable to other types of stressors and life difficulties. Various international bodies, the Federal administration, social interest groups, and general public consider it as a potential social issue. However, some illegal business tycoons secretly encourage child prostitution and child sex tourism, as these sectors have the potential to generate huge amounts of money. Although governments and society view child sexual abuse as a serious crime, sex workers maintain that activities like child prostitution and pornography go with children’s rights. Ultimately, poverty and poor financial background are the underlying causes of this social issue. Lack of parental care is another potential reason for the increased rate of child sexual abuse in the United States. In modern society, parents have little time to look after their children and, therefore, they leave their children at daycare facilities or relatives. Evidences indicate that cases of child abuse by children’s close relatives or caregivers are alarmingly high. Hence, parents’ negligence greatly contributes to this social issue. Reports indicate that children aged between 1and18, among which female children constitute the most vulnerable group, are highly exploited. It is also observed that sexually abused children mainly belong to struggling classes of the society. Power Imbalance or Struggle Undoubtedly, children constitute the major group that is affected by this social issue, because sexual exploitation can cause physical as well as psychological impacts on them. This issue would cause a nation to spend more on treatment and rehabilitation of sexually abused children. For instance, the Federal Government is forced to spend huge amount of money on framing and enforcing intervention and prevention strategies. Evidently, sex rackets and underworld are the major groups that take unfair advantages of this social issue. In addition, some lecherous and randy people also gain from this social issue, as they use children to satisfy their sexual desires. Majority of child sex rackets have international networks and they generate millions of dollars each day from their illegal business. Such rackets unfairly influence legal authorities and other law enforcement agencies to maintain rather mild approach to the issues like child abuse. At the same time, international child right agencies like UNICEF and other regional social interest groups take reasonable steps to address this issue. General public strongly oppose child abuse and a number of social movements have helped turning governmental attention to this social welfare issue. Personal attributes including gender, ethnicity, and class play a significant role in this issue. As mentioned earlier, female children and financially poor children are more prone to abuse, because they are found to be effortlessly recruited by the mafia. In addition, children belonging to minority ethnic groups are also vulnerable to sexual exploitation, as majority of those children lack adequate education. In other words, cases of sexual abuse of wealthy children have been less reported. Public Reaction People, except those who have some sexual interests in children, oppose the acts of child sexual abuse. Most of the people believe that child sexual abuse is a severe crime, and hence abusers must be given severe punishments. Some recently published survey reports show that some under-aged children support activities like child prostitution and child sex tourism, as they consider such activities a potential way of generating pocket money. Media normally give extensive coverage of child sexual exploitation and portray it as an issue that is to be specifically focused. Many a time the US media have reported/broadcasted child sex abuse stories so as to invite public attention to the issue. Religious beliefs and conventional social norms also strongly oppose sexual exploitation of children. Admittedly, children are legally minors, and hence they have the right to be protected from abuse. Since children belong to society’s weaker segment, they should be considered as an unsecured group. Evidently, parental concerns about child sex abuse are most important as regards addressing this issue. Policies, Public Laws, or Administrative Rules According to the 1973 Congressional hearings on child exploitation, the US Federal Government treats this issue as a type of child maltreatment. Under Federal law, child sexual abuse is illegal, and penalties for this crime may include fines, sex offender registration, and imprisonment (NACC, n.d). Federal polices such as ABA Center on Children and the Law, Chapter 419B – Juvenile Code: Dependency – Reporting Child Abuse, Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Megan’s Law, and Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act specifically relate to child sexual abuse (“Child Abuse Law”, n.d.). Both Republican Party and Democratic Party have spoken out in favor of such regulative policies. In addition, many politicians, social reformers, laureates, and other professionals have publicly expressed their views against sexual exploitation of children. Although child sexual abuse is illegal throughout the US, specifics of the offence may vary from state to state. Currently, states like Colorado are planning to enforce death penalty for repeated child sex offenders. By creating such strict law provisions, the Federal Government is trying to reduce high rate of child sexual abuse in the United States. Obviously, there are no hidden agendas in these regulative statutes. Majority of the US people strongly support those strict policies, whereas some social workers argue that giving death penalty for child abuse would persuade the abuser to harm the victim. Any personal attribute such as race, ethnicity, gender, or economic class does not affect these policies. However, it is observed that upper class offenders of child sexual abuse often escape from legal punishment on the strength of their financial suture. Implementation of Social Welfare Programs In order to resolve issues with government level policies concerning child sexual abuse, a number of social welfare programs have been implemented in the United States. Child Abuse Services Team (CAST) is a multi-disciplinary program designed for conducting investigations about child sexual abuse. The CAST social workers strive to protect children from abusive and neglectful situations in accordance with terms and provisions of federal laws. The CAST social welfare program closely works with governmental agencies (CAST summary, n.d). This program seems effective as CAST interview specialists have the ability to obtain objective information from abused children without hurting their emotional or developmental needs. Another merit of this program is that it avoids multiple interviews for the abused child. In addition, many hospitals and healthcare settings offer social programs for child sexual exploitation. To illustrate, the Children’s National Medical Center offers programs like ‘The Gender and Sexuality Development Program and The Gender and Sexuality Advocacy and Educational Program’ (Children’s National Medical Center, 2012) that help sexually abused children to quickly recover from the mental shock and thereby return to normal course of social life. Similarly, ‘Darkness to Light’ is another social program running with the aim of ending child sexual abuse. This social program includes community initiatives, media campaigns, and childhood stories documentary. It specifically tries to make people aware of situations where children are more vulnerable to sexual exploitation (Darkness to Light, 2010). American Humane Association has also framed a number of social welfare programs for preventing child sexual abuse. In total, these types of social programs greatly benefit the United States to reduce its child abuse rate to some extent. Unlike government level programs, social welfare programs can better identify the actual needs of people. The most potential strength of the social programs is that it persuades parents or guardians to place more emphasis on children safety. The common weakness of these social programs lies with the situation where a notable percent of children are sexually abused by their close relatives or sometimes even by parents. In addition, many of such programs often fail to reach minority communities and tribal sectors, where this issue is more prevalent. Like other government level initiatives, social programs also particularly serve children who are more likely to be sexually exploited by adults. Those programs also focus on rehabilitation of sexually abused children. Since social workers are aware of the different aspects of the issue, they can effectively oversee changes that must be made in current programs. It is observed that most of the social programs for child sexual abuse give less emphasis on male children as the society holds the misconception that male children are less likely to be sexually abused. Actual Impact While analyzing this issue from a cost-benefit perspective, it is obvious that cost of social welfare programs is covered by its benefits. As discussed earlier, such social programs inform people that child sexual abuse can be considered as a dangerous social issue. In addition, children are sexually educated because of those programs and therefore they themselves can better identify and prevent sexual exploitation. Hence, it can be undoubtedly stated that social welfare programs have notably addressed the issue of child sexual abuse. Admittedly, such social programs have brought some unintended results, too. As a result of those programs, some children became too cautious as regards their safety, and hence they intentionally keep distance even from their loved ones. In addition, once parents begin to impose too much restriction on their children, the situation tends to affect children’s developmental process. Legislative-intended Impact The Federal Government expected a complete eradication of this social issue, for it realized that child sexual abuse may become a dreadful social issue if the current rate prevails. Hence, the government took strict actions against child sexual abusers. Although it was believed that this issue would affect children only, evidences indicate that this issue raise potential challenges to the nation as a whole. Legal authorities also believed that strict punishments would persuade people to abstain from abusing children sexually. In addition, the government expected that increased public awareness would change the way people perceive child sexual exploitation. Public Expectations While analyzing the issue thoroughly, it seems that social welfare programs developed to address child sexual abuse could meet public expectations to a great extent. According to Chaffin & Jones (2011), rate of child sex abuse has declined by about 50% or more in the United States. This trend indicates that social welfare programs could improve the status of child sexual abuse in the country. However, it cannot be claimed that things are better now, because current statistical data indicate that “one in three girls and one in five boys will be sexually assaulted by the age of 16” (Support, Advocacy and Resource Center, 2012). Governmental authorities and general public are satisfied with this decreasing rate, as they believe that this issue can be completely eliminated over time. However, social workers are not fully satisfied with this outcome, since they strive to reach the absolute elimination of this social issue. Affected Populations Undoubtedly, the whole society has gained advantages from governmental policies and social welfare programs. Particularly, policies and programs have assisted the country’s children population and families, as they are the major victims of child sexual abuse. Those policies and programs have a range of positive effects including increased public awareness of the issue. They have also helped putting a moral check on sexual abusers and improving all rehabilitation initiatives. Such programs also encouraged other social interests groups and people to fight child sexual abuse. At the same time, those efforts tend to create a fear in the minds of children and parents, making them anxious about the conditions. As discussed earlier, those programs have indirectly affected the mental development needs of children to some extent. Statistical data indicate that child sex abuse is more prevalent in third world countries mainly because of poverty and lack of education. References Child abuse law. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.hg.org/child-abuse.html#1 CAST summary. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.ocgov.com/ocgov/Child%20Abuse%20Services%20Team%20(CAST) Children’s National Medical Center. (2012). Gender and sexuality psychosocial programs. Departments & Programs. Retrieved from http://www.childrensnational.org/departmentsandprograms/default.aspx?Id=6178&Type=Program&Name=Gender%20and%20Sexuality%20Psychosocial%20Programs Chaffin, W. M., & Jones, L. (2011). Declining rates of child sexual abuse and what this really means. Retrieved from http://www.nationalcac.org/online-training/webinar-chaffin-jones-01-2011.html Darkness to Light. (2010). Darkness to light in the news. Retrieved from http://www.d2l.org/site/c.4dICIJOkGcISE/b.6353313/k.3F62/Darkness_to_Light_in_the_News.htm NSPCC. (2011). A definition of child sexual exploitation. Retrieved from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/resourcesforprofessionals/sexualabuse/sexual_exploitation_definition_wda85123.html NACC: National Association of Counsel for Children. (n.d). Child maltreatment. Retrieved from http://www.naccchildlaw.org/?page=childmaltreatment Support, Advocacy and Resource Center. (2012). Sexual assault. Retrieved from http://www.sexualassaultresponsecenter.org/FactsAboutAbuse.asp Read More