English 8th Grade: Child Sexual Abuse And Its Effects

English 8th grade
Friday, March 1st, 2013
Child Sexual Abuse and its Effects
Child maltreatment, which includes child sexual, physical, social abuse and child neglect, is a major social problem. According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) an estimated amount of 80 thousand children in the United States experience sexual abuse every year, but the number of unreported and undetected cases is believed to be far greater. This is because children are afraid to tell anyone what is happening to them and the legal procedure, to confirm that what happened to the child was sexual abuse, is difficult. It’s not only that they are abused but also the impact it has on the victim. The child who is a victim of sexual abuse usually
A study conducted by the University of Southern California and the National Institute of Mental Health stated that girls who were sexually abused as a child are far more disposed to early sexual activity. These children have an early initiation with the sexual nature and their lives might emphasis on sexuality, therefore, they start having sex at an early age. As a result, they have more sexual enter counters, and as the study done by the NCANDS stated, they are more likely to practice unsafe sex. This can expose them to having STDs and becoming a teenage parent. In the study done by the NCANDS, it was also found that men who were sexually abused as a child were eighty percent more likely than non-abused men to later impregnate a teen girl. This can also be linked to how they begin to be involved in the sexual nature starting from a young age. Victims of child abuse are also more likely to exchange sex for money, drugs, or a place to stay. Having sex for these things necessary in life can also put them in a major risk of teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV. Teenage pregnancy is not the only child sexual abuse consequence that can lead to other worst effects; there are many more of
“It is one of the most socially costly potential outcomes of maltreatment” (Currie, Tekin). A study conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) stated that 14% of all men in prison in the USA were abused as children. Abused children may develop aggressiveness at a young age resulting them to have criminal behavior as a teen or adult. Maltreated children also start to feel apart from their family and feeling that they are alone in life causing them to leave home at a young age. They might also find causing crimes a way of escaping from their lives. The same study also revealed that 36% of all women in prison were abused as children. This might be linked to how the primary effects of child abuse can lead to serious consequences like delinquency. Abused children might also fail in school having no other choice that committing crime to get some source of income. Children can also initiate this behavior by imitating abusers starting a young age. “Crime can start for reasons connected with the abuse and later becomes a way of life” (Garsden). The OJJDP also found that children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28% more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30% more likely to commit violent crime. Criminal behavior increases not only with the incidence of maltreatment but also with the severity of the case. “Being maltreated