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Abuse Within The Foster Care System Essay
Child abuse and its effects
Child abuse and its effects
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Recommended: Abuse Within The Foster Care System Essay
In this background paper I am going to discuss child abuse and the safety percussions there are to keep those children safe. The main focus of this paper though is to give the general audience a view that may not have seen. Those points can be the different types of abuse to ways to get adults help to stop abusing. This paper will also focus on foster care and the pros and cons it has towards children and families. The focusing audience for this issue is the parents of the abused children, workers of foster care and child welfare system, along with the general public so they will understand what children go through. I want to focus on those specific groups because it will raise awareness to those parents to how dangerous it is to their children.
This paper will contain research done about foster care, including a brief history and progressing along to the system today. This research interested me because it is a professional career option after graduation. I found both positives and negatives about the foster care system that children and foster parents go through on a daily basis. As the paper progresses I will be explaining these positives and negatives in more detail. Throughout the paper I will be referencing different scholarly sources that explain foster care in different ways. Overall, this paper will show different aspects that the general public may never know about foster care.
The author, Rachel Aviv, raises various questions about the new approaches being taken by the government in regards to child abuse. The traditional approach in regards to child abuse cases is to keep families together. Over the past 40 years, child care agencies have changed their methods and have taken an adoption approach. Children who are placed in foster care after being removed from their family develop different types of needs. These children are also more susceptible to being involved in the criminal justice system.
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
“The Signs of Safety approach is a relationship-grounded, safety-organized child protection framework designed to help families build real safety for children by allowing those families to demonstrate their strengths as protection over time. This strengths-based and safety-organized approach to child protection work requires partnership and collaboration with the child and family. It expands the investigation of risk to encompass strengths and signs of safety that can be built upon to stabilize and strengthen the child’s and family’s situation. Central to this approach is meaningful family engagement and, in particular, capturing the voice of the child” (http://www.cebc4cw.org/program/signs-of-safety/detailed). Because this approach proposes a framework for child welfare it offers broad applicability to the areas of juvenile justice, foster care and adoption. If one looks at the principles of this approach across all child welfare settings it is evident that they can be used as a map for assessing and planning, building constructive relationships, and improving communication.
Chronic abuse and neglect is a huge part of the foster care system. According to the Children's Rights website, “Nearly 700,000 abused and neglected children will spend time in foster care in the United States this year.” Many children find themselves being looked after by a social worker, and eventually into the arms of a new family. The authors of Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults state that “More than half a million American youth currently [are] in foster homes due to child abuse and neglect,” (Tyler, Kimberly A., and Lisa A. Melander). This is a very terrifying statistic. It’s hard to think that there are that many children in foster care, let alone that over half a million are in the system because of child abuse and neglect. Some have even dealt with abuse before, during, and after foster care (787). This leads me to my first point; if foster care is so great, why are children still having to deal with abuse once they’ve been placed in foster care? Why are children like Krystal Scurry being raped and killed by those who are supposed to be offering better living conditions (Ambrose, Jeanne). Why are little children like Joshua Lindsey being beaten to death by their foster parents (1)? Who is re...
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
Twenty-five percent of all participating adolescents experienced physical abuse, which is a nearly three-fold increase in risk compared to the general population. Prevalence rates in residential care, especially in secure care, were significantly higher than in foster care” (Euser, Alink, Tharner, Van IJzendoorn, Bakersman-Kranenburg, 2013). Children who are abused often act out in other forums. These are the children that become the bullies, or begin stealing from stores. They also have a decrease in grades. It is sometimes difficult for children who are abused before entering foster care, to find a home placement due to their background. Many foster families do not want to take a chance with an abused child who may begin to act out, especially with older children. Abused children many times, turn to drugs and alcohol. They become addicted to these things and when they become legal age to live on their own, they become homeless. They do not have the skills and knowledge that they need to
The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual cases in which children dealt with physical and mental abuse from their families that caused them to end up within the system. Also, some of these children had issues in adapting to foster and adoptive families based on the issues they faced earlier in life. As we have learned earlier in the course, the violence that a child experiences early in life has an overall affect on the person they become as they grow into adulthood. When children deal with adverse childhood experiences, they are at a higher risk for abusing drugs and/or alcohol, increased likelihood of abusing their own child or spouse, higher rates of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior, along with several other issues throughout their lifespan.
Though foster care was originally established to help children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected or abused, it has also caused problems for children. Agencies often have difficulty providing adequate, accessible, and appropriate services for the families in their care. (Chipungu and Goodley, pp. 76, 2004) This paper will examine the negative impact of foster care on children as a social problem and how it is viewed and understood. Also this paper would point out the key figures and groups that are affected by problem. This paper would analyze past attempts to better the foster care system and current policies that exist to face this problem. Throughout this paper the goals and objectives of the current polices would be addressed.
Now there is no sugar coating in this research paper so some examples of crimes committed in the foster care system have been a 12 year old girl who was sexually abused by her foster father and this occurred in 2004 and all together the foster parent had 85 counts of sexual abuse based off his abuse with another child that was being fostered as well. Sadly by the time it was 2005 all of his counts were dismissed because they said the victim was “mentally unstable.” Another case was based off a woman who was the foster mother of two children and adopted one of them but what the endured is unimaginable and pure evil. The children were abused for a course of about 20 years and they suffered from starvation and having no food caused an upset stomach
Although foster parenting is one of the most rewarding experiences, it can also be an exhausting journey. The parent must have compassion, understanding, and tolerance for the children. It involves nurturing and providing a safe environment to previously traumatized or neglected children. And the children must grow and learn from their experiences. Both the parents and the children must overcome the frustration and exhaustion in the system. Inadequate service and training can lead to poor family bonding. Therefore, a child needs nurturing to be a functional citizen of society. The foster care system is supposed to offer a family, not perpetrators. However, there are some foster parents who contribute to the child’s behavior, in which affects
Child protection is the part of safeguarding which protects and supports children that are at risk of being abused or neglected, due to a number of factors in their lives. The first being their family circumstances, parents and main carers should protect the safety and wellbeing of the children in their care. However this is not always the case, some parents struggle with personal issues such as mental illness or substance abuse, which may result in them neglecting their childrenâ€TMs needs or failing to provide them with a safe environment (i.e. in the case of domestic violence). Parents/carers are required to make important decisions regarding their childrenâ€TMs wellbeing and safety which if made wrongly can lead to childrenâ€TMs needs being neglected. For example, a parent who decides to send their child to school without clean and suitable clothing is being neglectful of their needs.
“If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.” Yes this is the reality of child abuse and not just a scary movie. According to Child abuse statistics five children die everyday due to child abuse, 9.3% of children are sexually assaulted, 7.1% are emotionally abused, and last but not least, 62.8% of children are neglected. Child abuse should be prevented from happening because it is going to affect a child, emotionally, physically, and mentally. The main goal in this paper is to show that child abuse can lead to a violent lifestyle in the future, what child abuse is and how to recognize child abuse, child abuse leads to mental illness and last but not least, is there a limit a parent 's can go before it 's considered child abuse.
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.
Each year, thousands of children are killed or injured because of the car accidents. It was not until 1962 did people design Child safety seats to protect children from injury or death during car accidents (Car Seats.) There were two inventors who invented the child safety seats. The first inventor was Briton Jean Ames, who invented the seat featured a Y-strap, which was similar to the modern one. The second designer was an American called Len Rivkin, who invented the seat surrounded by the metal frame (A Graphic History).