Essay On Child Abandonment

Abandonment, the action or fact of abandoning or being abandoned, is an issue not only shown in Jennifer Clément’s “Prayer of the Stolen” but that is also prevalent in today’s society. Although abandonment comes in many forms, abandonment of the family, and daughters specifically will be the main focus in this research paper. Child Abandonment in specific is also known today as a form of neglect and is classified as a parent leaving a child for a lengthy period of time, without providing any type of financial support or clear intentions to return to the child’s life. This neglect has a number of negative short term as well as long-term effects on families, and children specifically.

“The list of problems that stem from neglect reads like the index of the DSM: poor impulse control, social withdrawal, problems with coping and regulating emotions, low self-esteem, pathological behaviors such as tics, tantrums, stealing and self-punishment, poor intellectual functioning and low academic achievement….Across the board, these are kids who have severe problems throughout their lifetime.” ( Wolfe) This list of negative effects is relatively small compared

to the complete list of issues that come along with abandonment yet, it gives a sense of how detrimental abandonment can be to a child.
Poverty, the state of being extremely poor, or being insufficient in amount, is also another major issue addressed in the novel that occurs in today’s society. In “Prayers of the Stolen” the main character’s entire village was living in poverty not just her immediate family living in her household. With that being said one must look at the effects living in a poverty infested neighborhood has on a child along with just living in a poverty stricken household may have. “The residents of neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, who experience these multiple forms of social and economic disadvantage, are disproportionally members of minority groups.” (Aber, Lawrence) This is found to be true in the novel considering Ladydi lived first in a small village surrounded by outsiders with bad intentions, and then was also classified as a minority when her mother moved her to the United States of America.
Sex trafficking is a form of human trafficking which is a modern-day form of slavery involving the illegal trade of people for exploitation or commercial gain. Sex trafficking in specific refers to selling and forcing people into prostitution by any means necessary. In “Prayers of the Stolen” the main goals of the mothers was to protect their young daughters from being abducted and then sold into the sex trafficking ring. They went to great lengths such as disguising their daughters as boys In order to protect them, which shows how serious of an issue sex trafficking really is. Although sex-trafficking is not a new occurrence, in recent years a lot has been done to raise awareness about this increasing issue.
“Sex traffickers use a variety of ways to “condition” their victims, including subjecting them to starvation, rape, gang rape, physical abuse, beating, confinement, threats of violence toward the victim and victim’s family, forced drug use, and shame.” (Skinner) Now imagine all of these things being done to a child.

It is obvious that such torture would have lasting and sometimes even irreversible effects on children, as well as other victims of sex trafficking in general. Some of the psychological issues that are a result of sex trafficking are clinical depression, personality and dissociative disorders and Post-traumatic stress disorder. (Skinner) There are so many possibilities when it comes to how a person’s mental and physical body will react to such a detrimental situation, some people for this reason never

recover.