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How you can prevent child abuse essay
How you can prevent child abuse essay
Topic on prevention of child sexual abuse
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Sexual Trauma: The Early Ages For many, the term “child sexual abuse” entails physical contact bestowed upon a child in a sexually predatory manner. While this assumption is not incorrect, many do not realise how broad the term actually is. Sexual abuse encompasses: sexual acts between two people when one is much more powerful, forcing or persuading one to engage in any sexual activity, and non physical acts such as voyeurism, exhibitionism, and verbal communication.(Townsend, C., & Rheingold, A.A., 2013)
Some common misconceptions about child sexaul assaults are as follow. The image that many Americans have when imagining child sexual abuse is a child being preyed upon and violated by a stranger, when in actuality, children that are sexually
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Children that live with both of their biological parents have the lowest risk for sexual abuse when compared to children that live with a stepparent or in a foster care home. Children enrolled in the foster care system have an increased risk of up to ten times when compared to a child in a household with married parents. (Sedlak, et al 2010). Children that live with a parent and a stepparent or common law partner, have the highest increased risk of being abused up to twenty times when compared to children with both biological parental units. (Sedlak, et al 2010).Female children are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted than male children, with the median age of abuse being nine years old. (Finkelhor, D. 1994). Another risk factor in determining children most at risk for sexual abuse is race. Children of African American descent are twice as likely to be abused than when compared to white children, and Hispanic children have a slightly greater risk than white children.(Sedlak,et al 2010).
Signs of a child that has become a victim of sexual abuse are often overlooked or misinterpreted. Physical signs and symptoms are usually rare in identifying sexual trauma but may include bruising, scabbing, redness, and bleeding around the genital area, rectum, or oral cavity. (Prevent Child Abuse America 2003). Even more rare are sexually
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(Simpson, T.L. & Miller, W.R. 2002). Men that have once been victims are more likely to violently attack and abuse others, seek help with suicidal tendencies, and are twice as likely to contract the HIV Virus.(Wilson, H. & Widom, C.S. 2009). The people that abuse children in a sexual manner are typically those that are closest to the child or the family of the child. The younger the child is, the more likely it is that a child will be abused by a member of their family. (Snyder, H. N. 2000). Juvenile abusers make up forty percent of the population of child predators, but typically do not go on to offend in adulthood.(Finkelhor, D. 2012). The peak age of juvenile sex offenders is age twelve and diminishes significantly at age fourteen.(Finkelhor, D., Ormrod,R., Chaffin, M.
According to RAINN, (2009) approximately 10 per cent of all victims of sexual assault and abuse are adult and juvenile males. In terms of the nature of assault, real figures include a compendium of reported incidents ranging from unwanted sexual touching to forced penetration. To qualify this statement, it must be understood that the percentage does not reflect a vast number of crimes that go unreported due to issues that will be discussed in the present paper.
When one hears the label “sex offender” it is associated with a negative stigma. Society has reinforced the label while encouraging individuals to associate a profile to the offender. Typical words that are connected to a sex offender may include monster, horrific, heinous, and sickening. When conceptualizing the victim, some associations made could include words such as rape, molestation, women, or even juvenile. Typically, when society hears the word juvenile being associated to a sex offense, it is assumed that the juvenile is the victim. Though this is true in some cases, there is an increasing number of sex offenses being committed by juvenile offenders. According to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), “juvenile sex offenders comprise more than one-quarter (25.8%) of all sex offenders and more than one-third (35.6%) of sex offenders against juvenile victims” (Finkelhor, D., Ormrod, R., & Chaffin, M., 2009, p. 1). The following report will examine sex offenses committed by male juveniles. The report will include characteristics of the type of crime, crime factors, an application of the biosocial theory, and the strengths and limits presented by the theory.
Sex offenders come across every race, age, gender, socio-economic status, and mental health status (CSG, n.d.). According to CSOM (n.d.) many scholars do not take into consideration the age, gender and socio-economic status as far as the criminal behavior itself, however many scholars look at factors that may have caused these sexual deviant behaviors. These theories or factors are attachment, sociocultural, intimacy, behavioral, and biological (CSOM, n.d.). It is also worthy to note, that the difference between juveniles and adult are there recidivism rate. According to CSOM (n.d.), juveniles are more likely to reoffend than adult sex
Ryan, G., Leversee, T. and Lane, S. 2014. Juvenile Sexual Offending: Causes, Consequences, and Correction. [online] Available at: http://books.google.ca/books?isbn=0470646942 [Accessed: 14 Mar 2014].
Finkelhor D. Hammer H. & Sedlak A. J. NISMART Bulletin: Runaway/Thrownaway Children. Sexually Assaulted Children: National Estimates and Characteristics. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/214383.pdf
Zieve, David, Juhn, Greg, and Eltz, David R. "Child Abuse-Sexual." New York Times. N.p., 13 Oct. 2008. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
Juvenile offenders are responsible for somewhere between 20% and 30% of rapes, and 30% to 60% of all child molestations (Christiansen & Vincent, 2013; Collie, Ward, & Vess, 2008). Other data, such as that from Finkelhor, Ormrod & Chaffin (2009) and the U.S. Department of Justice, suggest that juveniles’ account for at least 26% of all known sexual offenders, and juveniles commit approximately 35.6% of all sexual offenses committed against minors. Juveniles whom commit sexual offenses are more likely to target younger children, specifically those living with them (Finkelhor et al., 2009). Additionally, juveniles are more likely to offend against same-age peers or schoolmates in comparison to adults (Finkelhor et al., 2009). There is also a subset of juvenile offenders, who despite having had some sort of formal consequence to sexual offending behavior, continue to sexually offend and reoffend (Righthand et al.,
The United States Department of Justice reports that women are more likely to be victims of nonfatal intimate partner violence. (Catalano, 2006) It is estimated that two million women a year are victims of physical abuse each year, and that number does not include any other form of intimate partner violence. (Connelly, et al. 2006) Intimate partner violence results in fatalities in thirty percent of all female homicides. (Catalano, 2006) For males, the percentage goes down to five percent. Men and woman ages twenty to thirty-four are at the highest risk for intimate partner violence. Again, both men and women who are married but separated are at higher risk for intimate partner violence. Black and white females are more likely to be victims of nonfatal intimate partner violence. However, white females are more likely to be victims of fatal intimate partner violence. Individuals with a lower income and socioeconomic status are at a greater risk, but females are at a greater risk regardless of income.
Sexuality is defined in many ways, for the sake of this papers clarity sexuality will be defined as, sexual feelings and interactions that are defining features of romantic intimacy. (Fering 2009) Child sexual abuse (CSA) is defined in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences as "any [sexual] action that is inflicted upon or must be tolerated by a child against their own will or any [sexual] action about which the child cannot make a decision due to their physical, emotional, mental, and verbal inferiority." Statistics for the prevalence of CSA range from anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of women to 5 to 10 percent of men according to Deegener. (2002)
A pedophile is a person who is significantly older and has conscious sexual interests in prepubescent children. There are two kinds of pedophiles, the violent offenders and the non-violent offenders. The violent offenders are the minority of offenders. These are the one that pose the greatest risk to the victim and the public. Violent offenders are also known as child rapists. They use threat, intimidation, and physical force to overpower their victims. In most cases the child relinquishes sex for survival.(Bridges, 2012) The non-violent offenders are the most prevalent of all molesters. These are the people who use deception and enticement to lure their victims into submission. In a way, these offenders are using a form of sexual extortion. Sex is often rewarded or exchanged for acceptance, recognition, attention, or material gain. Often times the victim will resist, and since these are non-violent predators, they will increase the efforts to get the victim to accept their advances. If the child is persistent, the offender will most likely move to a more vulnerable target. If the offender does start sexually abusing the victim, the sexual...
Children that have been exposed to maltreatment may be negatively affected with their mental well-being and academic achievement. A study conducted by Romano, Babchishin, Marquis, and Frechette (2014) analyzed the relationship between educational outcomes and childhood maltreatment, with a focus on academic achievement and mental health. The literature review examined 16 empirical articles and 4 research syntheses that were published in relevant journals. The peer reviewed articles that were chosen to be analyzed included empirical studies of educational and mental health outcomes for children with histories of maltreatment. The articles examined in this study used a variety of data collection methods in order to collect results, which included
According to research by O'Toole & Jeglic (2014) childhood family environment factors may be related to sexual assaults perpetrated by sex offenders. Offenders raised by nonbiological or single parents seemed to be convicted of violent sexual offenses more often than those raised in a traditional two-parent household. Sex offenders who were raised by nonbiological parents, or were removed from their childhood homes due to abuse and neglect, or were not raised in two-parent households all appeared to pose significantly higher risk for recidivism than their counterparts.
Child-on-child sexual abuse is another important aspect of sexual assault among children. This involves one or many other children or adolescent youths engaging in sexual behaviors with another child without the involvement of an adult (Terry 519). The group of other children uses physical force, threats or emotional manipulation to compel their fellow into sexual acts. Siblings have also been reported to victimize their brothers or sisters in sexual acts at tender ages.
More importantly, “60 percent of children who are sexually abused do not disclose and most are acquaintances but as many as 47 percent are family or extended family” (The Scope of, 2016). The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities (Child Sexual Abuse, 2012). Startling statistics represent the depth of the issue. Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood (The Scope of, 2016). “The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau report child maltreatment 2010 found that 9.2% of victimized children were sexually assaulted” (Child Sexual Abuse,
Lastly, threatening signs of sexual abuse can include difficulty walking or sitting, premature understanding of sex, and pain in the genital area. Wetting or soiling accidents that are unrelated to toilet training can also be a warning sign.