Child Abuse Essay, Research Paper
Historically society has not been troubled by the maltreatment of children. Where
children were not wanted, mortality ran high. In nineteenth-century England, for example,
80% of the illegitimate children who were put out to nurse died; nurses collected their fees
and then promptly did away with the babies. When a profit could be made, adults
sometimes sold children into slavery or used them as a source of cheap labor. This is not
to say that individual parents did not care about their children; but persuasive values
sanctioned many practices that we now call abusive, and even caring parents were under
their influence. Infanticide was not only a threat to the infants of royal families; in some
cultures it had wide acceptance as a means of controlling population size and eliminating
children with birth defects. Mutilation of children is usually presumed to be a remote
custom. Examples such as the foot binding of Chinese daughters and the cranial
deformations of certain Indians groups come readily to mind. Yet mutilation of sexual
organs has been seen as a religious rite since the Stone Age, and in spite of its
questionable value, circumcision is still the most common operation performed in Western
medicine today. (Kempe 3-4)
The ?battered-child syndrome? was first described in 1860 by Ambroise Tardieu, a
professor of legal medicine in Paris. He had of necessity, to rely on autopsy findings. He
described 32 children battered to death by whipping and burning. The same year, Athol
Johnson at the Hospital for Sick Children of London called attention to the frequency of
repeated fractures in children. He attributed these to the condition of the bones, since
rickets at that time was almost universal among London children. We now know that
almost every case he described was, in fact, an abused child. Official London records
reveal that among 3926 children under five years of age who died by accident or violence
in 1870, 202 were listed as manslaughter; 95, neglect; 18, exposure to cold-all obviously
dead of child abuse. However, the rickets theory persisted well into the twentieth century.
(Kempe 5)
Child abuse today is recognized by the general public as a major problem in the
United States. Social service workers and other child care experts investigating such cases
report an alarming increase in incidents involving young children and adolescents who
have been beaten, burned, tied up, starved, sexually assaulted, and in some cases, killed by
other adults. (Ito 11)
The term ?child abuse? can be defined as any behavior directed toward a child by a
parent, guardian, care giver, other family member, or other adult, that endangers or
impairs a child?s physical or emotional health and development. (www.nccafv.com)
Reports by caseworkers investigating suspected incidents of child abuse reveal that
such mistreatment occurs in many ways: a teenage mother unable to cope with the stress
of being a parent becomes enraged and slaps her baby whenever the child begins to cry. A
father repeatedly forces his adolescent daughter to engage in sexual acts with him and
threatens to kill her unless she remains silent about the abuse. Two children are found tied
and gagged in a closet where their parents left them as a punishment for disturbing their
sleep. A boy is repeatedly burned by a hot iron by parents who are under the influence of
alcohol and cocaine. (Ito 11-12)
There are four different categories of child abuse: Physical abuse, Emotional
abuse, Neglect, and Sexual abuse. (www.nccafv.com)
Physical abuse involves children being beaten, burned, poisoned, and many other
methods of inflicting physical pain. (Kempe 6)
Emotional abuse is defined as verbal assaults and the withholding of positive
emotional support. Everyday, children as ?hit? with words which are demeaning, shaming,
threatening, blaming, intimidating, unfairly critical or in sarcastic nature, and damaging to
self-confidence and self-esteem. (www.nccafv.com)
Child neglect is continued failure to provide a child with necessary care and
protection including adequate shelter, food, clothing, medical care, etc. or lack of
appropriate supervision for extended periods of time, especially with younger children.
(www.nccafv.com)
There are three types of sexual abuse: Pedophilia; Violent molestation and rape;
and Incest. Pedophilia is nonviolent sexual contact such as genital fondling or genital
contact, or genital viewing). Violent molestation and rape can be defined as forced sexual
exploitation. Incest is forced sexual relations within the immediate family.(Kempe 45-47)
There are many causes of abuse. Some parents may lack information about normal
child behavior, especially teenage parents. They may punish and abuse a baby for crying,
although crying is natural behavior for a baby. (Ito 28)
Research has shown that many adults who physically, emotionally, or sexually
abuse children were themselves abused as children. The trauma of this mistreatment often
results in severe emotional or psychological problems in adulthood. Adults who were
victims of child abuse may carry intense feelings of repressed anger toward their abusers
which they vent on their own children through cruel or violent behavior. (Ito 29)
Such negative emotions can often lead to problems for victims when they become
adults. According to the November 2, 1992, issue of Children Today, the trauma of child
abuse can often have long-term effects:
The effects of child abuse are sometimes obvious even decades later. The
effects are often persuasive: mental, physical, and social in nature.
Suicide, violence, delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and other forms
of criminality are frequently child abuse related. (Ito 13)
Alcohol and drug abuse often lead to depression, fits of violent rage, and impaired
judgment, all which can increase the risk of child abuse. (Ito 24)
In their efforts to understand the causes of child abuse, researches have also
explored the relationship between poverty and abuse. Studies have shown a high incidence
of child abuse in poor families. In 1985, 48.3 percent of abused children lived in families
receiving welfare assistance in the program know as Aid to Families with Dependent
Children (AFDC). (Ito 25-26)
Such findings do not mean that abusive behavior occurs in all poor families or only
in poor families. Studies clearly show that child abuse occurs in families from all economic
levels and from every variety of racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, Some researchers
believe, however, that the extreme stresses resulting from a parent?s inability to provide
for his or her family may lead to child abuse. Parents who are unemployed and unable to
find work may become depressed and angry. Their anxiety and frustration over being
unable to earn a living and support their families can lead to outbursts of temper and even
physical violence. (Ito 26-27)
In 1999, there were an estimated 826,000 victims of maltreatment nationwide. 1,100 children died as a result of abuse in 1999. (www.nccanch.com)
Nationally, an estimated 171,000 victims of child abuse and neglect were placed in
foster care to protect them from further maltreatment. This figure is likely underestimated
because of the complexities of recording service provision data. Based on data from 21
reporting States, 5.1 percent of child victims had been reunited with their families after a
stay in foster care within the previous 5 years. (www.nccanch.com)
Victims were from all age groups, but 3/5 (58.4%) that suffered were 0-3 years
old. Female victims slightly outnumbered male victims (especially in sexual abuse).
African-Americans had the highest maltreatment rates, followed by Native
Americans/Alaskan Natives, Hispanics, Whites, and Asian/Pacific Islanders.
(www.nccanch.com)
Most abused children never come to the attention of government authorities. This
is especially true for neglected and sexually abused children, who may have no physical
signs of harm. In the case of sexual abuse, secrecy and intense feelings of shame may
prevent children, and adults aware of the abuse, from seeking help. (www.jimhopper.com)
A Sample of 595 men were administered self-report assessments of childhood
sexual and physical abuse, perpetration history, gender rigidity, and emotional
construction. Including non-contact forms of sexual abuse, 11% of the men reported
sexual abuse alone, 17% reported physical abuse alone, and 17% report sexual and
physical abuse. (www.jimhopper.com)
Child abuse and neglect is a national problem which has increased to epidemic
proportions in the United States. More than 2.5 million reports of child abuse are made in
the United States annually with hundreds of deaths related to child abuse reported each year. Most runaways, adolescent prostitutes and teenage delinquent?s report having been
victims of some form of child abuse, and it is reported that a majority of violent criminals
suffered abuse, either physical and/or sexual as children. Abuse robs children of the
opportunity to develop healthy, trusting relationships with adults, contributes to low self-
esteem, and impairs healthy psycho-social development. Indeed, the effects of childhood
abuse often last a lifetime. (www.nccafv.com)
Abused children have great difficulty in recognizing and verbalizing their own
feelings-especially liking, loneliness, anxiety, and pleasure. Few can allow themselves
pleasure and joy, and simple fun and laughing are rare at first. They take little pleasure in
themselves either; usually they think of themselves as bad, unlovable, and stupid. They
expect much of themselves in one way-in the matter of doing the right thing-but very little
when it comes to pleasing and arousing real interest. (Kempe 36)
The trauma of being physically or sexually abused as a child can affect an
individual for the rest of his or her life. Such abuse can severely damage a victim?s self-
esteem. Because many children are taught at an early age that parents and other grown-
ups know what is best for them, abused young people may come to feel that they deserved
whatever mistreatment they received. In addition, victims often experience feelings of
guilt, repressed anger, fear, and depression as a result of their abuse. (Ito 13)
Child abuse hurts. The aftereffects, which are well documented, are devastating.
Abused children suffer a wide range of emotional, developmental, and physical problems,
both acute and chronic. Some children die. These problems often precipitate such social
ills as teenage runaways, adolescent prostitution, drug and alcohol abuse, academic failure
and school truancy, and juvenile delinquency. (Ito 69-70)
Aggressive sexual abuse often results in fear states and night terrors, clinging
behavior, and some form of development regression. Here the physician?s role is to
provide reassurance. In a stable family setting, it is the parents rather than the child who
may need continued support, particularly if they do not understand the child?s resilience. It
may be, of course, that the event will have to be worked through with the child again from
time to time, but this can often be done in a nursery-school setting with active support
from loving teachers and parents. The child may need further help in adolescence.
(Kempe 51-52)
In school-age children, subtle clinical manifestations may include sudden onset of
anxiety, fear, depression, insomnia, hysteria, sudden massive weight loss or weight gain,
sudden school failure, truancy, or running away. (Kempe 52)
In adolescents serious rebellion, particularly against the mother, is often the major
symptom. The physician, who is aware of a specific estrangement between a mother and a
daughter should consider this diagnosis: girls involved in incest often will forgive their
fathers, but rarely will they forgive the mothers who failed to protect them. Or if the
physician, teacher, or nurse notices that the daughter has suddenly been assigned virtually
all the functions ordinarily performed by a mother, such as looking after the house and
siblings, he should suspect this diagnosis: parents have reassigned the mother?s function to
the daughter, in both kitchen and bed. These youngsters must be given an opportunity to
share their secret with a sympathetic person. (Kempe 52)
In pedophilia the child tends to be between age two and early adolescence,
whereas incestuous relationships may begin at the toddler age and continue into adult life.
The median age for incestuous behavior in recent years has been between nine and ten
years of age, well within the age group routinely seen by pediatricians, including those
pediatricians who do not attend adolescent patients. (Kempe 51)
Violent acts of sexual exploitation or rape are usually perpetrated by males under
the age of thirty, while father-daughter incest tends to involve middle aged men between
thirty and fifty. Other incestuous relationships, as between siblings, can vary from mutual
genital play in early childhood and school aged children to attempted, sometimes
successful, intercourse in adolescence. (Kempe 51)
Pedophilia may never be cured, but it is often possible to bring all illegal acts under
control. There is no certain cure for the aggressive sociopath who engages in violent
molestation and rape. Until we know how to treat such people, we must be certain that
they cannot menace a defenseless child. In many cases, imprisonment is the only
alternative after conviction, or psychiatric commitment if the molester is judged legally
insane and unable to stand trial. (Kempe 53)
The treatment of incest, on the other hand, is more likely to be successful and to
result in the three desired goals: stopping the practice; providing individual and, later,
group treatment for the victim and parents; and helping to heal the victim?s wounds,
permitting growth as a whole person, including the ability to enjoy normal sexuality. In
our experience, it has not been possible to reunite families after incest has been stopped,
either through placing the child or removing the offender, unless two conditions have been
met: the mother must show that she is willing and able to protect her children; and both
parents must admit the problem, share a desire to remedy it, and at the same time improve
their marriage or seek a divorce. Ultimately, treatment can be judged successful only many years later when the child is grown up and is not emotionally impaired. (Kempe 53-54)
These are methods of treatment for the abused child: Crisis treatment; Individual
play therapy; Therapeutic play school; Foster care; Hospitalization and institutional care;
and group treatment. (Kempe 86-102)
Halting abuse is an ultimate goal of society, and prevention and intervention
programs have made significant progress in achieving that goal. Despite such efforts,
however, child abuse still occurs. Abuse victims have special needs that require special
attention and care. Free Arts for Abused Children in Los Angeles is one such program.
FAAC introduces creative arts activities to victims of child abuse as outlets through which
they can increase their self-esteem, express their emotions, and gain self-confidence.
(Ito 76)
Behavior of the adult-angry, indifferent, seductive-can vary tremendously.
Attaching blame to these parents may be difficult to resist. But it is more useful to view
the behavior as an extreme response to stress, and often these parents themselves are
suffering individuals who endured abused childhoods. One of the major misconceptions
about abusive parents is that they are invariably disadvantaged. Poor parents may well be
under more external stress from worries about homelessness, overcrowding, or debt than
those who are better off, but the crucial internal stresses are remarkably similar for rich
and poor parents alike. Another misconception is that abusive parents and fundamentally
and incurably abnormal, psychotic, criminal, or retarded. Like the first, this misconception
is probably popular because it tends to put a distance between us and them. (Kempe 7)
Slightly more than 60 percent of perpetrators were female and they were typically
younger than male perpetrators. Neglect and medical neglect were most often attributed to female perpetrators, while male perpetrators were more likely to be physically and sexually
abusive. (www.nccanch.com)
Treatments for the abusive parent include crisis treatment, casework by social
workers, social service homemakers, lay therapist (parent aid), psychotherapy, parent-
child therapy, group therapy, and residential therapy. (Kempe 68-85)