Over the past decades, social workers have encountered and helped children who have experienced unimaginable types of abuse. In most cases the abuse is done by someone who the child is already familiar with. Usually, the child will become close to the person and put their faith in them only to receive harm and betrayal of trust. And in what kinds of abusive situations does a child tend to end up more mentally distraught? The answer is during religious abuse. Social workers know about the children that have been done wrong by men and women who claim to be spiritual leaders, yet many of them claim religion as well, as the means to help the religiously abused children. Religion should not be included in social work, period. Social workers should not use religion as their method to help abused or abandoned children because it may cause the children to become bitter and resentful toward them and the religion due to separation from the child’s other siblings during home displacement, it may cause the children to have anxiety and doubt about religion when they become adults, and, while they are under the care of the religious social-working organizations, it may cause them to constantly remember the religious leaders and individuals who have abused them, which can lead to mental illness and/or suicidal thoughts. Religious abuse is abuse given under the façade of religion, typically done by religious leaders. Children have been experiencing physical, mental, and sexual abuse by religious individuals for centuries, although all cases have not been documented. Some social-working organizations have used religion to help abandoned and religiously abused children, which is a common, but critical, error. The abandoned children that receive a... ... middle of paper ... ... the trust of these young children, causing them to be leery of religion as adults. These and other abusers have no idea what kind of suffering they have inflicted on these young children. Social-working organizations are performing the noble role by helping these young children find environments to live safely in, however, some of these organizations are going about doing this the wrong way. Their job is not to teach or help the abused children discover or believe in religion, but it is to help the children get to a better state of physical and mental health. Why make the religiously abused children suffer by triggering memories of their horrifying and belittling experiences? I believe religion should be completely banned from social work to prevent further damage to the intellects of religiously abused children. After all, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
Child abuse does not discriminate against a child because of age, sex, religion, or socioeconomic background. Every child is vulnerable to abuse. Parents today face the possibility that someone they know or a stranger may hurt or take advantage of their children. Research indicates that as many as one out of every four children will be the victims of some kind of abuse (National Child Abuse Statistics). Furthermore, one of the biggest ironies of child abuse is that the family, a child’s primary source of care, love, and security, can also be their most taunting experience. This was the case of 17 month old baby, Peter Connelly. Throughout his short life span, he suffered from neglect and physical abuse that ultimately caused his death. Child abuse is a serious problem that is being taken too lightly.
Since the case of Mary Ellen Wilson in 1874, child abuse has seen it’s share of light in published news. It is disheartening to read countless stories of future generations being harmed to the extent of psychological damage or even death. Child abuse as a whole has been addressed multiple times in various news blogs, however, nothing has been done to work towards abolishing it at a larger level. The future of America is in jeopardy based on the level of abuse that children endure. Childhelp states that approximately 5 children die every day at the hands of child abuse. America struggles to find equality, and by bystanding the stripping of its youth, continual prolonging is inevitable. Raising this nation’s children in means of nurturing and care is the first step to uplifting America as a whole. In 2012 alone, 1593 of America’s children died at the hands of child abuse, 70.3% of which were younger than the age of three (Safe Horizon). In order to prevent further child abuse, the American government should address stricter child protection laws, psychological stability, and an increase the recognition of those that have released their stories.
In the article “Christianity and child abuse – the survivors’ voice leading to change”, Kennedy (2000) argued how children’s Christianity background can cause additional concerns in the issue of child sexual abuse. Kennedy justified her argument by presenting the fact how spiritual concepts like “the evil/sin of being abused” (126,127,129), “God’s will” (127,129), “sources of God’s grace” (128) have been wrongly used to warrant perpetrators’ inhumane acts. Moreover, she pointed out that both the subliminal messages children perceived of these concepts (128) and “silencing factors”, such as “the doctrine of forgiveness” (131) and no pre-marital sex (130) in Christian context, lead to further shame and guilt in children (131,132,133,134). Apart from the spiritual side, Kennedy also criticized Christian churches’ intention of protecting its own reputation rather than solving the issue (133). Christian communities practiced an unjust demand of forgiveness from the victim and a patriarchal culture (135). Also, Christian communities failed in offering objective policy guidance (136) and ensuring active implementation of the policy document (137). Kennedy ends the passage by prompting the idea that state and church should tackle the problem hand in hand (139), and the engagement of more practitioners with sound religious and psychology understanding (139).
Currently, there are many children whom suffer from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in their family. Emotional abuse is the lack of interest or affection parents have towards their children. As a result of emotional abuse, children are left feeling worthless and unloved. Physical abuse refers to attacking children resulting visible bodily injuries from either being burned, pushed, punched, slapped, or whipped. Sometimes physical abuse can be extremely severe that children have broken bones, fractures, or hemorrhaging. Sexual abuse occurs when a person forces, tricks, or threatens children to have sexual contact. These acts of child abuse could prevent children from living a normal adulthood. In order to deal with such a traumatic childhood, adults abused as children should rid themselves of such burdensome, painful memories.
Child abuse is the malicious maltreatment of a child by his or her parent, guardian, or any other adult who is responsible for said child. There are different forms of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect (Barnett 2005). In the book, “A Child Called It”, demonstrates different forms of abuse. It illustrates the life of Dave Pelzer, a young boy who was physically and psychologically abused and neglected by his mother. During the time of his adolescent years, his case was listed as one of the most severe recorded child abuse cases in the entire state of California.
Life in the United States has been difficult for many children. Statistically speaking, there are four children who are killed by abuse each day (Allyn & Bacon, 2011). With numbers increasing over the years change is something that is starting to take place. There are many things that will affect the child welfare system in the future, such as the economic policies, political views, and the current policies set in place (child welfare information). The reason for the child welfare system is to help the children who are getting abused. In the past, there was not a policy set in place; however, this is beginning to change. One of the systems that have been set in place is the Children’s Bureau, an organization that does studies on the mental health of abused children (Thomas, 2012). Although this organization has no authority to develop federal regulations, they are one of the largest agency leaders in child welfare (Thomas, 2012). There are many problems with the economy and government that make it hard to maintain the child welfare system.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 3.3 million referrals for alleged maltreatment were made in 2013. Out of the 3.3 million referrals, 899,000 children were officially documented as being maltreated(Child Abuse & Neglect 2015). Child abuse is the mistreatment of a child. Child abuse is recognized in several forms; physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Children who experience any form of abuse will tend to withdraw themselves from their peers and sometimes from other family members who are not aware of what is taking place. Child abuse occurs not just in the homes of these children, but can also occur in schools, churches and after school programs. Anywhere a child is present there is a chance that abuse can occur. This paper will review the forms of child abuse, the effects of child abuse, reasons child abuse occurs and possible therapies to bring healing in the parties involved.
Social workers are obligated to assess and support the 397,600 children in need and their families due to concerns the children’s health or development could be adversely affected without statutory intervention; either being ‘significantly impaired’ or lacking a ‘reasonable standard’ (Children Act, 1989:c41:p3:s17). Research, like that on brain development, has highlighted the detrimental effects of children living amongst inconsistency, chaos, danger or fear. A prime example is domestic abuse as it is a common occurrence within the lives of many children, despite the fact that witnessing violence is emotional abuse (NSPCC, 2016). As a form of ‘toxic stress’, repeated or prolonged exposure to domestic abuse, especially during critical stages
The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual cases in which children dealt with physical and mental abuse from their families that caused them to end up within the system. Also, some of these children had issues in adapting to foster and adoptive families based on the issues they faced earlier in life. As we have learned earlier in the course, the violence that a child experiences early in life has an overall affect on the person they become as they grow into adulthood. When children deal with adverse childhood experiences, they are at a higher risk for abusing drugs and/or alcohol, increased likelihood of abusing their own child or spouse, higher rates of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior, along with several other issues throughout their lifespan.
According to Tennyson Center for Children, “A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds in the U.S.” (“Child Abuse in America”). One cannot fathom the idea of why anyone would intentionally hurt the innocent children of today’s society. Child abuse happens with children of all ages, gender, and religions. Likewise, the world can be identified as a harsh place, where child abuse occurs around the world, and is even evident in the United States. There are many factors that contribute to this repulsive behavior. Physical, sexual, and psychological cruelty are effects of child abuse.
There are several domains that must be considered when treating a survivor of child abuse: the need for safety and trust, sense of belonging, protection from perceived or actual threats, facing the defendant in court, prevention of revictimization, and empowerment (Sawyer & Judd, 2012). Davis, 2005, states that “children terrorized through sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse, or wartime atrocities may suffer from lasting wounds, nightmares, depression, and troubled adolescence involving substance abuse, binge eating, or aggression.” Victims of child abuse need to regain their sense of control over their lives. Experiencing healthy relationships, being nurtured by adults and helping them to learn resilience are all interventions that have been well-documented (Sawyer & Judd, 2...
Abuse of all sorts is a common and to overly populated problematic. Whether it be domestic or under the guise of religious practice, abuse to women and females of all ages wide spread.
Although all therapists are aware of the childhood emotional abuse issue, it is possible that only few therapists understand the scope of the issue. Emotional maltreatment is harder to detect than other forms of abuse because it is more subtle. When Child Protective Services (CPS) conduct family assessments, it is the hardest form of abuse to prove because parents are very open about the topic and emotional abuse does not leave any physical evidence behind. However, it certainly influences a child's self-esteem, promotes the feeling of guilt, insecurity, and creates the inability to form stable relationships during adulthood. Although some behavioral disorders are related to emotional abuse, it is not possible to predict it correctly because the patterns can deviate significantly as each child displays different outcomes. Emotional abuse is often considered a suitable form of disciplinary measures, but even excessive practice of verbal abuse can create negative outcomes, so the parents apparently take most of the responsibility because of their inability to raise their child without resorting to violence. Besides parental education, other courses of action will be required because the abuse rates for emotional abuse and other types of child abuse are extremely high, so the issue demands urgent action to prevent further impairment on healthy psychological development in children. However, the entire responsibility should not be on mental health care professionals, but it should be distributed equally through society and all social agents that determine public opinions and acceptable forms of behavior. The best approach to preventing childhood emotional abuse is through influencing several social factors for prevention and increasin...
When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the
Child abuse is a global problem that is deeply rooted in cultural, economic and social practices. It is a state of emotional, physical, economic and sexual maltreatment meted out to a person below the age of eighteen and is a globally prevalent phenomenon. The United States has one of the worst records among industrialized nations, losing more than four children on average every day to child abuse and neglect (Goldman, Salus, Wolcott & Kennedy, 2003). Children are suffering from child abuse and neglect each day. Child abuse can occur in every socioeconomic, ethnic and cultural level. It is the upmost importance to have organization in place for prevention, treatment and interventions for child abuse. Childhelp organization is one of the largest organization that are striving to prevent child abuse as well as education individuals on