The Causes and Effects of Child Neglect

1922 Words4 Pages

Neglecting Children
Today child neglect is the largest part of child abuse in the United States, and almost two-thirds of all reported cases in child protective services is neglect (Dubowitz). Before the 1970’s child abuse mostly referred to physical abuse; however, now it encompasses physical, emotional, and sexual abuse as well as neglect (Compton’s). Physical abuse is when a child is hurt by getting hit, punched, kicked, or any other form of beating by an adult (Compton’s). This abuse will only harm the child physically and though it is horrific and can lead to long term effects it will normally only lead to violence. Emotional abuse is when an adult is hateful to the child by calling him names, and another form of emotional abuse is when an adult is punishing a child in a way that will cause him mental trauma (Compton’s). Emotional abuse is terrible for the child’s self-esteem however they can go and learn that they are important to the world by their contributions. Sexual abuse is when a child is touched inappropriately or molested (Compton’s). This is detrimental to a child but in most cases the child will block this out for when they grow older it is like it never happened which will cause no harm to their mental state. Neglect is when an adult will not seek medical help for their child and will not provide them with food, shelter, clothing, or emotional support (Sullivan). This is where the real trauma takes place on a child. The child will not suffer from being hit but they suffer from starving until someone is kind enough to feed them or they die from malnutrition. The child will not suffer from a parent calling them names but they might never know if their parent knows their name or cares to even speak to th...

... middle of paper ...

...kground checks for child care providers, described the circumstances and conditions that obligate mandated reporting of known or suspected cases of abuse, and provided definitions necessary for juvenile [and] family courts determination of child dependency” (Ellard et al). All of this has made it possible for the rates to go down and today people are still searching for other methods to prevent it from taking place at all. Both the prevention act and the National Center are incredibly responsible for the reasons why the amounts of children who are neglected have gone down. It has also caused the short and long term effects to decrease which is another reason why the percentages have decreased over the years. The United States did the right thing by realizing some action needed to be in place in order to treat the current cases and to help prevent future cases.

Open Document