Child Abuse Essay

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Recommended: Child abuse and its effects

A four year old girl lays on the floor unconscious after her mother beat her because she put a dish away in the wrong spot. She wakes up and feels the burns of the cigarettes on her and the feeling of a broken rib in her body. This abuse has been going on since she was a baby, but this was one of the first times that she would actually be able to have memory of. If she does one thing wrong, something very bad happens everytime. Sometimes it’s a beating and sometimes she is put in a closet with a wire fence bound around her and it is locked in place with chains. She will never be able to forget these terrible memories. The United States should enforce child abuse laws even if they violate the privacy and right of the abuser to protect more helpless children. In order to understand child abuse, we need to learn what it is and what types of child abuse there are. We also need to know why people abuse children, what it does to the victims of it, and what is being done to stop it. Finally, we need to understand some statistics about child abuse. Child abuse is one of our nation’s most serious health problems. It occurs in all levels of education, religions, ethnic groups, and cultures. The basic definition of child abuse is a non-accidental act of commission that endangers or impairs a child’s physical or emotional health and development. Child abuse usually results in an injury or a series of injuries. Child abuse is broken up into four main categories: physical abuse, sexual abuse/misconduct, emotional abuse, and neglect (Capeless 1). Many people think of the physical and sexual sides of child abuse and they often forget about the emotional and neglect side of this terrible problem. Neglect is responsible for 62.8% of child abu... ... middle of paper ... ... who have done things like this in the past are given the right skills and resources, they are very capable of learning to care for a child in a correct manner (“Why Does Child Abuse Happen” 2) As I said before, many people don’t realize what the consequences of child abuse can do to a child. When a child is abused the may develop a range of maladaptive, anti-social, and self-destructive behaviors and thoughts by trying to cope with the abuse that is in their life. They may blame themselves for what is happening in their homes. Children who are abused also don’t have the ability to “spread their wings” and experience new things. Parents who abuse their children usually have a very tight restraint on them and don’t allow them to be able to experience new things. Children then lose their curiosity and wonder and quit trying new things and exercising their mind.

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