Child Abuse

A child’s naked body photographed and put on the internet for others to view, a child being beaten, slapped, or kicked because they didn’t put away all of thir toys, a child being told thay are the reason why the parenst got a divorce, these are all examples of child abuse. Child abuse affects thousands of children everyday. There are horrible effects of child abuse, meantally, physically, and sexually. The traumas brought into a child’s life because of the abuse are harsh and never ending. It’s a serious matter that many people sweep under the rug. Most people are nervous to jump to suach a hasty assupmtion that a child is abused because that child has several bruises on their body. Many write off the child as just another clumsy kid running and falling. This issue has many different faces and many new forma of showing u in everyday life. Child abuse is a serious matter and should never be taken lightly. Although in early years child abuse was never talked about and viewed as a family matter, today it is a topic well known to everyone around the world. No one bothered to take action against the matter in the early days, but that changed in 1639 which was he year the first recorded trial for chils abuse took place in Salem, Massachusettes. In 1848 Pennsylvania made it illegal for children twelve years of age or younger to work in factories. On July 1, 1899 the first juvenille court system was established in Chicago, Illionis. In 1904 The National Child Labor Committee was formed to bring attention to the exploitation of children. In 1972 The C. Henry Kempe National Center for Prevention and Treatment f Child Abuse and Neglect was started to confront child abuse treatment and prevention. In 1974 the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed by Congress. It is exclusively dedicated to the identification, treatment, prevention, and assessment of child abuse and neglect. In 1996 Megan’s Law was passed by congress, which makes all sexual offenders to be registered in a public directory (Leverich 219-22). Although there have been drastic improvements because of these allterations to the legal system, child abuse has not been eliminated. While he legal system does its best to try and extinguish child abuse it may also make a situation worse. A mother merely called a hotline asking about tips for breastfeeding her daughter and the next day she was in jail and her daughter was in foster care (de Koster 42). When there is a false report filed it affects the whole system and everyone in it. The children that are being abused aren’t getting the attention they need because time, money, and man power are being invested into a situation that didn’t need to be investigated. There are thousands of flase cases reported every week, and with every false case a child in the abusive path gets left behind because the social workers and leagal system were paying more attention to a case that wasn’t even in danger ( de Koster 45-46). There are two main catagories for abusers. There are the molesters and the pedophiles. The molester is a less common one. A molester will pick a child from random at a public place such as a park, carnival, or even a school. Molesters, because they attack random kids, only normally attack once and move on. They are more likely to use harm rather than a pedophile that would use emotional blackmail. A pedophile is a sexual abuser who is normally close to the victim, such as family or friends, and will abuse the child more than once. Seeing as how the pedophile that abuses the child is normally so close they are able to use facts about the child against them. Pedophiles typically target a child that they would have easy access to and are easily manipulated. A pedophile may say “If you tell your mommy what I’ve been doing she’ll have a heart attack and then it will all be your fault.” the pedophile has more emotion attached to the abuse. A child would need more consuleing in order to cope with the abuse, while a molester is a one time occurance it would take less therapy to cope with the abuse. Molesters are the criminals are that caught for often for sexual abuse. More people are likely to report a stranger to the cops before they report a family member. Eighty percent of the cases reported for sexual abuse was the secernio where a child was being abuse by a pedophile (Cooney 4-7). There are horrible effects brought on by child abuse. A child may become distant from the rest if the family. They may even run away from home trying to get away from an abuser or such. The most impact brought on from a child being abused is the mentally change. Most children will become distant from all of their peers and family. They don’t believe they can trust anyone because the person that hurt them the most was normally very close to them. They view it as if this person would do such harm to me than everyone else would. They develop a warped sense of viewing human connections and emotions. The child believe all of the abuse was their fault, if they were a good child none of the abuse would have happened. Although the mental issues brought on by child abuse is the worse of the effects of child abuse another major issue is the sexual aspect of the child’s life. When the child grows up to be an active member in society their perseption of sex turns to be very warped. A normal adult views sex as a loving act between two adults who are in love with each other, the abused child may view sex as a power holder. If you want to control someone you victimize me through sex. Most abused child never are able to break the cycle of abuse and continue it with their children or children that they know very closely. The abused children never knew anything different so they view all the abuse as normal childhood as others would view time outs as a normal childhood act, the abused view sexual, physical, or emotional abuse as nothing new and every child goes through it. Some of the children that were sexual abused later in life have problems with having sex with a partner. They can’t become aroused or fear the sexual aspects of relationship due to the fact they would have flashbacks to the abused part of their childhood. They may also view sex as a way to obtain another’s affection. When they were being abused they may have started to engage in the sexual activities hoping to get affection from the abuser over time. They then start to believe the only way to obtain affection from anyone is to engage in the sexual activities and that you really cannot make an emotional connection with someone with out the sex (lksdjhfias PDF!!). The physical aspects of child abuse are the most obvious ones. A child may come to school with multiple bruises all over their body, and have no excuse as to why they got so many bruises. The child may have broken bones, cuts, and/ or burns on their body as well. Teachers are always asked to investigate when a child has these random cuts, bruises, or burns. Although it is easy to say a child is just clumsy and that is the reason behind all of the physical injuries, some are just unable to be explained through a child just being a klutz and falling down a lot. These children normally are always “on alert” and flinch with sudden movements. They are scared to go home and will often wear clothes that are inappropriate for the weatther, such as wearing long sleeves when it’s a hot day ( child abuse & neglect: recongnizing and preventing child abuse)