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Negative effects of child abuse
Essay on child abuse and risk factors
Negative Effect Of Child Abuse
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It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games that left him nearly dead. Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing and no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive. To this day Dave Pelzer still suffers from lingering pychological effects. The willful infliction of pain and suffering upon children is known as child abuse and is treated by society as a serious crime. Children are so extremely vulnerable and defenseless, it is thought, that no excuse is possible for mistreating them. Even so, abuse is believed to be widespread. Despite strict laws against it, it sometimes goes unreported and unpunished. Perpetrators of child abuse are most often the child’s own parents. A study done in 2005 showed 79.4 percent of perpetrators were parents, and 6.8 percent were other relatives. Almost 1 out of every 100 children in the United States are abused as a child and an average of 5 children die everyday from child abuse (USDHHS). Some cases may be more extreme then others, but child abuse still has a dramatic effect on a person’s life as it continues to effect the victim through their adoloscence and into their adult hood. Not only does child abuse affect a person’s relationship life, but structuring them on who they become in life by altering specific triggers in their brain. What effects does child abuse have on a child’s life from their adolescence and into their adulthood? When chi... ... middle of paper ... ...her harm. Children are the future of our society and if they are getting abused what kind of fate will their children’s future hold? Protecting them from the harm of child abuse will insure a positve future for them and our society. Works Cited Larsen, Carly D., Sandberg, Jonathan G., Harper, James M., Bean, Roy. "The Effects of Childhood Abuse on Relationship Quality: Gender Differences and Clinical Implications." Family Relations 4(2011):435. eLibrary. Web. 09 Mar. 2014 Kirby, Carrie. "Talking it out." Parenting. Aug. 2008: 42. web. Web. 8 Mar. 2014. Nauert, R. Psych Central. University of Miami, 2013.web. 9 March 2014 United States Department of Health and Human Services. Blending Perspectives and building Common Ground: A report to congress on substance abuse and child protection. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. (1999) Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Dave Pelzer’s book “A Child Called ‘It’” told his story of growing up in an abusive household. Pelzer’s family at first was just like any other, his parents loved each other and their children and they would do many fun activities together. As time progressed a change happened and his mother began to always punish Pelzer rather than any of the other children. The small punishments soon began to grow and become more and more serious. Soon, Dave’s father and siblings could not help him out of fear that their mother and wife would turn on them. Dave was banished to the garage where he would have to sit at the bottom of the stairs waiting until his mother called him to do his chores. Usually Pelzer would be starved for very long periods of time
McCoy, M. L., & Keen, S. M., (2009). Child abuse and neglect. New York: Psychology Press.
Dave Pelzer name is actually David James Pelzer born on December 29, 1960 at San Francisco, California. David’s father Stephen Joseph Pelzer was a fireman of San Francisco and in 1980 he past away. Mother is Catherine Roerva the person that was responsible for mistreating David for so many years. David had to live in a foster home until the age of eighteen years old. Before Dave became an author he joined the U.s. Air Force. He is currently living in South Carolina. He has children of his own with his wife. He has younger brothers and some of them were also abused when he left from the house to go live with a foster family. Dave’s brother also wrote a book about how he was also in a child abuse home after Dave left. He has written seven books so far in his life which are about him. David has sold more than six million copies from the total of all his books.
In the story, A Child Called It, by Dave Pelzer narrates his traumatic childhood abuse through the lenses of a mere ten year old child.The book accounts of terrifying, disturbing tortures inflicted on a young boy who is starved, stabbed, smashed face first into mirrors, forced to eat crap from his brother’s diaper, forced to drink ammonia/chlorine, and burned over a stove by an alcoholic, insane mother. Dave is the oldest of his brothers and the only one to receive abuse from his mother.The abuse started as Dave was four years old with minimum punishment and quickly escalated to life threatening punishments as the years passed. The punishments grew to physical and emotional abuse and neglect from his mother. The neglect escalates to rarely
Dave lost his identity while he was being abused. It was as if he was a robot going through the chores his mother gave him. He tried to persist in pleasing her to keep her from getting angry, but nothing that Dave did could please her or make her happy. He tried hard everyday to keep his hope that he would be rescued, alive, yet no one could help him, and no one was there to help him. His own family, his own blood, wouldn’t help him. He tried to get help, but every time, he was caught and severely punished. The fear he felt around her was palpable and overpowering, and it is this fear that kept him from trying to run again.
Child abuse is a serious issue in today's society. Many people have been victims of child abuse. There are three forms of child abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual. Many researchers believe that sexual abuse is the most detremental of the three. A middle-aged adult who is feeling depressed will probably not relate it back to his childhood, but maybe he should. The short-term effects of childhood sexual abuse have been proven valid, but now the question is, do the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse affect middle-aged adults? Many contradicting views arise from the subject of childhood sexual abuse. Researchers and psychologists argue on this issue. Childhood sexual abuse has the potential to damage a child physically, emotionally, and behaviorally for the rest of his or her childhood, and the effects have been connected to lasting into middle-aged adulthood.
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.
Dave Pelzer grew up in one of the most inhumane conditions imaginable. Dave's father, a firefighter, avoided their house as much as possible, leaving Dave to deal with the wrath of his mother's punishments. Most of the time Dave received these punishments for doing nothing more than being alive. His mother abused hi...
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.
Psychological maltreatment, like many other forms of abuse can also be passed down through intergenerational transmission. It is not unlikely for parents to psychologically mistreat their children due to their own past or childhood experiences with psychologically abuse. For example, it is not uncommon during the course of an investigation of physiological maltreatment that it is discovered that the perpetrator had their own form of abuse history in the past. Often time’s people look at psychological maltreatment as a consequence resulting from some other form of abuse, mainly physical and sexual, but tend to overlook the fact that it may also occur as an individual form. Psychological maltreatment can take more than one form. During the course of researching for this paper I learned that there are three typical forms of behavior in which people follow when displaying this type of abuse against children. The three types are acting in an aggressive, rejecting, and lessening
Sadler, B. The societal consequences of child abuse. In Grapes, B. J. (2001) Contemporary Issues Companion: Child Abuse. San Diego: Greenhaven Press.
There are many different types of victims we have discussed over the course of this class, but we’re only going to talk about two types in the following paper. These two types of victims are common just as any another victim across America. These include sex assault victims and child abuse victims, which are both primary victims in cases. The two share a tie together, both are a victim of abuse and can cause lifelong consequences, but they also pose many differences as well. Many questions arise when talking about victims, for example why is a child or adult being abused and what are the life altering affects to these actions. Throughout this paper we discuss both sexual assault victims and child abuse victims and compare and contrast between the two.
A persons emotions influence every aspect of ones lives. Especially when you’re a child, your emotions are vulnerable to every interaction they receive. When these emotions are beaten down and destroyed continuously, a common name for this is abuse. For example, Dee, a young married women, was emotionally abused everyday by her husband. He treated her as more of a servant than a wife and she eventually hated her life. She became depressed and eventually contemplated suicide. It wasn’t until then that she considered getting help (YWCA Mohawk Valley, 2014). Approximately one third of Canadians have experienced child abuse (CBC Radio, 2014) and approximately 8% of Canadians experience depression (Mood Disorders Society of Canada, 2009)? This is normally an uncommon conversation topic in today’s society because most people do not like to talk about it. The statistics above are connected; many people who experience abuse are prone to mental illness. When a child has been physically abused, there are noticeable bruises, or other effects on the person. On the other hand, most people do not recognize or even know the effects of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse can deeply wound a child, and as the child grows, the scars will remain; the scars that people do not see that can cause a lifetime of suffering. These invisible scars can affect a person’s development as they struggle to accept themselves from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Emotional abuse negatively impacts an individual’s self-esteem, which can in turn, cause depression and substance abuse later in adulthood.
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
The effects of child abuse are multiple. The pain and trauma the abused child goes through is just a small part of how this cauldron of hidden depravity in our society affects all of us. Wrecked lives can be seen in persons of all ages and in all walks of life. Society as a whole is also effected by child abuse both in negative and positive ways. In this essay I will present some of the factor and results of this violent behavior on individuals as well as our culture.