Stolen Childhood- Child Soldiers

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Children in America may spend their evenings doing homework or watching television, or some adolescents may have jobs. This is normal for persons under the age of 18 in America. However right now, in other parts of the world, children are being bought, sold, and recruited into armies, where their fates and evenings are left in the hands of their leaders. Many people wonder why children are so often recruited into armies, and what happens to them once they are enlisted. Many different variables, including what are called push and pull factors, can play a role in the process of turning a child into a soldier.
The term “push factor” is used to describe any external source of pressure to enlist or be recruited. These factors can include traumatization, brutalization,deprivation, institutionalized violence, and sociocultural factors. A study was done on children who live in an underdeveloped, war-ridden country, and the results indicated that each child showed an average of four war stressors (Somasundaram). These war stressors include malnutrition, abuse, and displacement. Many times, people who experience a great deal of traumatization will feel numb to their surroundings. It would be easy for a strong man to take advantage of these vulnerable children, and either have take them as slaves or soldiers. Institutionalized violence, or violence that is distributed by the government, occurs especially in countries that enlist child soldiers. This can refer to laws that do nothing to stop child recruitment, officers who publically abuse their citizens, or laws that go as far as to provide loopholes for those recruiting children. For example, there is a loophole in the Kenyan constitution that does not outlaw all forms of slavery. It banis...

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Flock, Elizabeth. "Child Soldiers Still Used in More than 25 Countries around the World."Washington Post. The Washington Post, 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Mar. 2014.
International Decisions. 106 809. International Criminal Court. N.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Gray, Stephen. "Two African Child Soldiers: The Kourouma and Dongala
Kimmel, Carrie E., and Jini L. Roby. "Institutionalized Child Abuse: The Use of Child Soldiers." International Social Work 50 (2007): 740. Sage. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Odhiambo, E.O.S., J. Kassilly, L.T. Maito, K. Onkware, and W.A. Oboka. "Kenya's Constitution and Child Trafficking as a Security Threat." Journal of Defense Resources Management 3.2 (n.d.): 75. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Mar. 2014.
Somasundaram, Daya. "Child Soldiers: Understanding the Context." BMJ 324 (202): 1268-271. Google Scholar. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

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