Child Abuse Essay

Child abuse in America is an ongoing problem and something needs to be done. There are approximately one million children abused annually in the United States. (Table 339) Cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every ten seconds, and researchers believe that there’s three times that amount that goes unnoticed. (Child Abuse: Know the Signs and Stop the Violence Against Children.) Something needs to be done for these children who are too weak and too powerless to help themselves.

“The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act” states’ that “child abuse is the leading cause of death in children under the age of eighteen.” Child abuse occurs when adults inflict violence and cruelty upon children. Abuse is any willful act that results in physical, mental, or sexual injury that causes or is likely to cause the child to be physically, mental, or emotionally impaired. Abuse happens to children of any age, sex, race, religion, and social status.

Abuse can come in many different forms such as verbal, physical, and sexual. Each of these can affect a person differently, and sadly even become hereditary. A factor that causes abuse to be so lethal is that the majority of the time it is directed towards children. At a young age, the brain is extremely impressionable and that is why something like verbal abuse can cause so much damage. “Parents who tell their children that they are dumb, bad, etc., raise children who think they are dumb or bad and act as

deal with it in a way that works for them. To refer to the “Myths of

Emotional abuse is one of the most common forms of child abuse. When it comes to children emotional abuse includes encouraging children to develop self-destructive behavior, behavior that is threatening or likely to place the child or the child’s loved ones in danger, excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands in which place expectations on a child that a child cannot meet, and ignoring a child’s attempt to interact. Emotional abuse in a child also includes the failure to provide the proper nurturing necessary for a child’s psychological growth and development. Terrorizing is the most common form of emotional abuse recognized in the case files, with nearly 81.1 percent of emotionally abuse children suffering from it. 63 percent of the emotionally abused children have experienced physical abuse and

Emotional abuse can be inflicted upon a child in many different ways; these can include telling a child that they are “worthless or unloved”. It may also include not allowing the child opportunities to express themselves, or teasing them about the way in which they communicate or what they say.

Child abuse causes various problems in children’s lives. Not only can the abuse affect how the child grows up, it affects them everywhere they go in their life. Multiple studies have been conducted on children to see how they would react in specific situations. The result shows in high anger and rage management issues and all of the child’s other emotions seem to be heightened. A Harvard Medical School professor, Bessel Van Der Kolk, did a five year study on 528 traumatized patients to produce these diagnoses on the patients. Because abuse has such a major effect on the child, it is one of the most common reasons for low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, difficulty in performance at family events, and other addictions which

Although all therapists are aware of the childhood emotional abuse issue, it is possible that only few therapists understand the scope of the issue. Emotional maltreatment is harder to detect than other forms of abuse because it is more subtle. When Child Protective Services (CPS) conduct family assessments, it is the hardest form of abuse to prove because parents are very open about the topic and emotional abuse does not leave any physical evidence behind. However, it certainly influences a child's self-esteem, promotes the feeling of guilt, insecurity, and creates the inability to form stable relationships during adulthood. Although some behavioral disorders are related to emotional abuse, it is not possible to predict it correctly

Another way parents abuse a child other than mental abuse is physical abuse, which is approximately 26 percent, according to the Public Health article (10). This is when the child is being spanked, slapped, kicked, or hit. After being beaten the child is left with scars and that is when the child reflects on what he/she did to deserve such a beating. After the incident has taken place the child then starts to understand and believe psychologically that physical violence is the only way to get through to a child. In the child’s mind the only way a situation will be resolved is by force. So, when the child becomes older he/she tends to think that he/she could do this to their own family because this is the only way to resolve

While some physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect can be identified by changes in the physical appearance of the child, there is a time when the effect is physiologically and id difficult to identify because it affects the child internally. According to the book “Child Abuse Sourcebook” by Juntunen, signs of abuse that parents can be aware of are, children not wanting to sleep alone, children are afraid when they are with other children or adults, they do not want to talk with their parents about their life, children do not want to talk about their relationship between them and their parents with others, or their personality changes by start to be more aggressive. However, not just because a child is turning angry or being scared does it mean a child is being abused. It must be a difference between his or her behavior. For instance, a child who is constantly happy and respectful, but turns aggressive continuously will be a sign of abuse because it is not common for that

In today’s society, child abuse is widespread and has an affect on everyone who comes across it. The act of child abuse happens everyday to a variety of kids who are typically younger and scared to tell anyone. All children are born with the right to be able to develop, grow, live and love according to their needs and feelings. For a child 's development they need protection and reassurance from adults who love them and help them acquire the skills to be a successful adult. However, some children are neglected and hurt by adults that they trust. The abuse a child receives makes them feel bad about themselves, and it is much worse when it occurs within a family because it makes them feel unloved and alone causing them to have problems. “Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged. Numerous studies have investigated the psychological sequelae of childhood trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), dissociation, personality disorder, and substance abuse ”(“New Retrospective Measure of Child Abuse and Neglect” by David P. Bernstein). The act of child abuse causes kids to have one or more mental problems. Additionally, since people do not recognize the abuse while it is occurring, it causes these problems to

Child abuse causes pain in children’s life, Child abuse is a major problem in the society Child sexual abuse is a big problem in our society today especially the sex trafficking the sex trafficking occurs when a human uses force or some kind of fraud. It’s like when an adult forces a minor to commit a sex act it’s when you are being forced to make someone else some money for themselves and that doesn’t benefit you. Trafficking is built on the economic principle buyers who are willing to pay for forced women is the wrong thing to. Paying people to let you have sex with someone. “For 30 years, advocates, program administrator, and politicians have joined to encourage even more reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Their

The issue of child emotional abuse is often a difficult topic to discuss as well as treat. Emotional abuse can be very difficult to recognize since it is generally a relationship between a child and a caretaker and not a specific incident or series of events that can be pointed to as abuse. In fact, emotional and psychological maltreatment have no definition that is universally agreed upon, therefore, the two terms are often used interchangeably. Emotional abuse is the most common form of child abuse. While emotional abuse can be present absent any other type of abuse, such as physical or sexual abuse, there is almost certainly emotional abuse present with all other forms of abuse. Emotional abuse may not leave physical scars but it does appear to leave long lasting psychological scars. While there is evidence of psychological damage due to emotional abuse, it is not clear exactly how deep and lasting the damage may be. There is a great need to research the effects, treatment, and interventions for emotional abuse.

It is not hard to imagine the pain or hurtful emotions the person who wrote this quote could have possibly endured or felt. This paper explores the definition of emotional abuse, how it impacts development of empathy, causes and long term impacts, types of prevention and the need to develop trauma informed care.

When one thinks about child abuse, usually the first thing that comes to their mind is physical harm or aggressive behavior. However, the issue is much more complex than one can think. Usually, child abuse can be manifested in both physical and emotional forms. Childhood is thought as to be like a garden, protected by walls and hedges. However, in reality, most children are often neglected, abused and exploited. Child pornography and sexual abuse are two of the most disturbing issues in the world today. Having a very international background, I was able to travel around the world and learn about different cultures, especially those of third-world countries. I was able to see the immense amount of poverty, violence, and hatred in all these countries, however, I have never thought about the amount of children that are forced into child trafficking, abuse, and pornography. According to statistics, 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse and self-report studies show that 20% of adult females and 5-10% of adult males recall a childhood sexual assault or sexual abuse incident. In my opinion, this is horrifying and shocking to know that there are more people than one might think that have been through some sort of sexual assault or sexual abuse.