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Causes and effects of child abuse
Causes of child abuse
Causes of child abuse
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Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving more than 6 million children. There can be no single factor identified as the cause of child abuse. However it appears to be influenced by the parents' histories, psychological resources, and economic status. Parenting is not instinctive, it must be learned. While this is often done through experience, education courses for individuals prior to their becoming parents, and close evaluation of questionable homes could enhance parents' knowledge and the childrens' well being. A high percentage of abusive parents have histories of physical and emotional abuse inflicted upon them during their childhood. Thus, they were deprived of parents who taught them how to be good parents. Child abuse scenarios that seem tragic to others are ordinary to parents from abusive backgrounds, and often overlooked. The absence of good parents is detrimental to a child's learning how to fulfill parental roles. The children from abusive households think that an abusive environment is normal, correct, and acceptable. They grow up believing that and emulate that lifestyle. Sometimes abuse does not stem from a lack of knowledge, but rather from a psychological disorder. Many abusive parents have some type of emotional or mental disorder. An dictatorial personality is a common characteristic of abusive parents. Drug and alcohol abuse is also another common trait among abusive parents. Neurosis, mental deficiency, and/or emotional immaturity can also contribute to abuse. Surprisingly, mothers make up the larger percentage of child abusers, about 48 percent, while fathers only represent around 39 percent of cases. The rest of the cases come from friends or other family members. Most abusers range from 20 to 40 years of age, but parents between 16 and 20 years old inflict the majority of fatalities. There are four factors that can be used to identify child abusers. They are Rigidity, problems with self-image, lack of social skills, and lack of self-control. Economic status also plays a role in contributing to child abuse. According to a report put out by Child Protective Services all of the families in their system are considered financially unstable, and less than half hold jobs. There is still no excuse for child abuse , regardless of a person’s history or current condition in life, nothing makes abusing a child right. Child abuse is a cycle and once it has begun it is extremely hard to break.
Again, we can only imagine what the home life was for the father-turned-abuser pre-divorce but marital problems do further incline a person to abuse. In trying to understand the psychology of abuse and crime we must consider as many options that seem plausible, those which hold some amount of validity in the actual abusers life as certain details will vary case to
Child Abuse is something that children all around the world have to deal with every day. Child abuse can cause physical and mental effects on a child. It occurs very frequently and can happen for many different reasons. There is a law now stating that reporting child abuse is mandatory and you should report it immediately. There are thousands of child abuse victims every year.
Many abusive parents were themselves abused children, so they have no history of benevolent experiences, and lack appropriate healthy role models after which to pattern their behavior as parents.
Child abuse goes way back in history starting from the time when a little 10 year old girl got removed from her parents home in 1874. The case is connected to the founding of the New York Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which gave rise to the founding of similar societies (National Association of Counsel for Children). Most children under the age of 3 tended to have a higher rate of victimization and girls had a higher risk than boys. Sexual abuse was frequently associated with family problems such as parental alcholism, parental rejection, and parental marital conflict (Bright Futures 4 Kids). Throughtout history, child abuse seems to be less crucial and likely than it was before because back then there was a lower rate of child care. Man...
Child abuse is the intentional omission of care by a parent or guardian that can cause a
The risk factors for child sexual abuse can be classified into three broad categories: the Perpetrator’s, family and community risk factors. Perpetrator risk factors are those factors associated with adult who may commit such an abuse. They include drug and alcohol abuse, acceptance of violence, prior sexual abuse, suicidal tendencies, exposure to explicit sexual content and poor social skills among others (Finkelhor et al, 2014).
Furthermore, abusive behavior comes in more forms than physical abuse, such as, psychological, emotional, and financial deprivation. In some circumstances, the abusive behaviors are even rewarded by the victim out of fear of continued abuse, being killed, or losing custody of a child. The latter is likely because of low social, economic, and educational factors. That is, the victim may feel that he or she lacks social support or lacks the education to obtain a job that can support him or her and the children.
Emotional Abuse, (also known as: Verbal abuse, mental abuse, and psychological cruelty) includes acts or the failures to act by parents or caretakers that have caused or could cause serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional or mental disorders. This can include parents and/or caretakers using extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as the child being confined in a closet or dark room, being tied to a chair for long periods of time, or threatening or terrorizing a young mind. Less severe acts, but no less damaging is overly negative criticism or rejecting treatment, using degrading terms to describe the child, constant victimizing or blaming the child for situations.
into history, even back to biblical times. During recent years child maltreatment has had an increase in the public's eye. There are many factors to child maltreatment. There are four general categories of child maltreatment now recognized. They are physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and emotional maltreatment. Each category, in turn, covers a range of behavior. The maltreatment of children not only affects the
... In some cases, recurrent maltreatment occurs when the child is reunified with the biological parents or original caregivers. Children who are abused can display behavioral problems, which can impact many areas of their life. They tend to act out at school and have low academic performance (Webb, 2007). They may also internalize their behavior by becoming depressed and showing symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
When a child who is abused is not taught that abuse is wrong and there are repercussions, they are far more likely to become abusers
Witnessing abuse first hand can lead to one causing harm to a partner or letting them cause harm to you. If a child lives in home where the father or mother’s boyfriend treats her badly whether it is verbally or physically then the child will believe that type of behavior is normal. It has been shown that boys who see their father abuse their mother at home are more likely to grow up and abuse their partner because they see it as a normal behavior.(Domestic Violence Roundtable par.10) On the other hand girls who witness their mothers being abused by their fathers are shown to allow their boyfriends and husbands mistreat them when they are older.(Domestic Violence Roundtable par.10) These tendencies in boys and girls are terrible considering they will be repeating the pattern so their children will inherit the same type of behavior keeping the trend going.
This is no facts that support the case for child abuse, but there are so many facts that support the case against child abuse. Child abuse is mostly discouraged because most of its effects are negative which includes; Juvenile delinquency which is closely associated with child abuse. Research shows that many of the people who engage in crimes suffered child abuse when they were children. Not all street children are orphans most of them have parents, but they chose to run away from their homes and live in the streets due to child abuse and harassment in their homes and families. Most of those youths who spend their lives in juvenile and prisons are those who suffered child abuse in their homes and as a result of frustration, they engage in criminal
In 2012, an estimated 1640 children died because of child abuse or neglect. However, it tends to be underreport, it is considered that there are almost double number of children who died. In almost all county, African American children has the highest rate of child abuses (Substantiated Cases of Child Abuse and Neglect, by Race/Ethnicity, 2014).
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.