Child

Abuse
Rebecca Keppler
Widener University

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Child Abuse
Child abuse is can be defined as any recent act or failure to act of the parent or caregiver
which could result in death, serious physical or emotional harm, or sexual abuse; or an act or
failure to act which prevents an imminent risk of serious harm (What is Child Abuse and
Neglect). Child abuse was not thought as abuse until 1962 when the term battered child
syndrome was put into the medical dictionary and in 1976 every state in the United States
created laws that mandate the reporting of reporting of suspected child abuse (Mersch). In 2009
over three million reports were made of suspected child abuse and in some cases there were more
children so in 2009 there were about six million children being abused every year (Mersch).
More than five children die of child abuse every day, and 80% of children that die from child
abuse are under the age of four (National Child Abuse Statistics Child Abuse in America). There
are four different types of child abuse neglect, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual
abuse. There are many factors that could make a child more likely to be abused. The age of the
child is one of those factors, 67% of abused children are less than one year old and 80% are less
than three years old. Other factors are that if the child had a mental or physical disability, or if
the child is in foster care.
Child abuse fifty years ago was very different from child abuse today. Fifty years ago
child abuse was very rarely reported and many things that are categorized as child abuse today
were not seen as child abuse. When a child was bad fifty years ago their parent or caregiver
would punish them and it was not like just getting grounded they would get hit or whipped with
a belt if they were bad, and in some extreme cases the parent might actually cause physical harm
and cut off some of their fingers of they were misbehaving. Child abuse in 2012 is much

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different there are much stricter guidelines that classify what is child abuse and what is not child
abuse.
Child neglect can be defined as, the failure to provide for the shelter, safety,
supervision, and nutritional needs of the child; child neglect may be physical, educational, or
emotional. Child Neglect is also could be as simple as not providing the child with food, water,
clothing, and housing. Child neglect is accounts for 63% of the cases reported (Mersch). Physical
neglect is when the parent does not seek medical attention for doctors appointments, the parent
will abandon a child, or would provide inadequate healthcare. Educational Neglect is when a
parent does not send their child to school at the proper age and the parent will not help the child
if they need help with homework. Emotional neglect is when the parent does not attend to the
emotion needs of the child and does not provide psychological care, and will allow the child to
use alcohol or other drugs (What is Child Abuse and Neglect). Signs of neglect are clothes that
do not fit properly, or would be inappropriate for the weather. Other signs of neglect is bad
hygiene, untreated illnesses, or if the child is frequently missing from school (Saisan, Smith,
Segal).
Physical abuse is a non-accidental physical injury (ranging from minor bruises to severe
fractures or death) as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing,
choking, hitting (with a hand, stick, or other object), burning, or otherwise harming a child, that
is inflicted by a parent, caregiver, or other person who has responsibility for the child (What is
Child Abuse and Neglect). Physical child abuse is the second most reported form of abuse and it
accounts for 16% of child abuse cases (Mersch). There are many signs of child abuse, child
abuse signs are unexplained bruises, welts, or cuts on the child. Other signs of child abuse are
that the child will be on edge and they will get nervous if an adult is near them and they will look

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like they think something bad will happen to them or they would not want to go home. Injuries
normally appear in patterns and there normally is not just one bruise or mark. The last sign is that
the child will wear inappropriate clothing to try to cover up the injuries.
Emotional abuse is a pattern or behavior that impairs a childs emotional development or
sense of self-worth (What is Child Abuse and Neglect). There are seven different categories of
emotional abuse. The first category is rejection, this means that the parent or caregiver refuse to
acknowledge the childs emotional needs. The second category is isolation, isolation means that
the parent will not let the child play or socialize with other children and in extreme cases the
parent will lock the child in a closet or confined area. The next category is terrorizing, when the
child is terrorized it is normally a verbal assault with no weapons present. Ignoring the child is
the next category which is when the parent or caregiver refuses to show affection. The next
category is corrupting, when a child is being corrupted by their parent or caregiver, they will be
reinforced to be antisocial, destructive, or sexually exploitative behaviors. Verbal assault is when
the parent or caregiver uses extreme sarcasm, name calling, or public humiliation. The last
category is over-pressuring a child, this is when the parent will pressure their child to over
achieve at everything and will discipline them if they do not achieve. Emotional abuse of
children account for 7% of all child abuse cases, and is less common to be reported. The sings of
emotional child abuse are that the child would be withdrawn, fearful, or anxious about doing
something wrong. Another sign of emotional abuse is if the child does not seem attached to the
parent or caregiver. One of the biggest indicator of emotional abuse is if the child does not act
their appropriate age; either acting older for their age where they will be taking care of other
children at a young age or acting younger than they are where they would suck their thumb or
have temper tantrums.

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Sexual abuse is the third most reported type of child abuse and it accounts for 10% of
cases. Sexual abuse are activities by a parent or caregiver such as fondling a childs genitals,
penetration, incest, rape, sodomy, indecent exposure, and exploitation through prostitution or the
production of pornographic materials (What is Child Abuse and Neglect). Signs of when a child
is being sexually abused are when the child has trouble walking or sitting. Another sign is when
the child displays knowledge or interest in sexual acts inappropriate for their age, or even
seductive behavior. Other signs of sexual abuse are a child that does not want to get changed in
front of other people, they do not want to participate in physical activities, children that have
STDs, or they are pregnant (especially under the age of fourteen) (Saisan, Smith, Segal).
Children who are sexually abused also normally run away from home to get away from the
sexual abuse that is happening to them.
Child abuse cases are somewhat different between boys and girls. Girls are more likely to
be abused, in 1996 a survey was conducted and about 52% of the children abused were girls and
48% of them were boys, and when the survey was conducted again in 2005 there was not a huge
change (Mersch). Girls are 75% more likely to be sexually abused then boys, and girls are more
likely to suffer from emotional abuse and neglect. Boys are more likely to suffer from physical
trauma not including sexual abuse. It terms of death by child abuse mothers more often kill by
neglect, like not feeding her child and fathers more often kill his child by neglect, for example
beating his child to death. Reports say that children who come from household where their
annual income is 15,000 per year or more are 25% more likely to be abused than children that
come from households making 30,000 or more a year. Many researchers so not believe that this
is true so there are more studies being conducted to see if these findings are correct (Mersch).

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People who abuse their children are very disturbed people. 75% of people who abuse
children are the parents of the children. People who abuse children are young single parents,
people that did not graduate from high school and people that were abused as children
themselves or people that saw child abuse at a young age. Other factors that could cause a parent
to abuse their child is if the parent is an alcoholic, if the parent is abuses drugs, and if the parent
is suffering from some psychical illness. Some psychical illnesses that could cause a parent to
abuse their child are depression and impulse control. In most cases many people believe that men
are more likely to abuse their children but actually women are 61% more likely to abuse children
then men are (Mersch). People that abuse children are not just parents of the victims but also
relatives and other care givers. According to studies that are conducted parents are 77% of the
people that abuse children, 11% are relatives, 2% are caregivers, and 10% are non-caretakers.
Approximately 81% of the people that are abusing children are under the age of forty (Mersch).
When a child is being evaluated for abuse, they are looked at by a physician, social
worker, or the police department, or in some case all of these people. When the child is being
questioned, so are the parents or caregivers. When the child is being evaluated by physician they
have to take photographs of any busies or marks that could be evidence of abuse. The child also
has to get x-rays, cat scans, MRIs, and they have to get laboratory exams to make sure the child
is not taking any drugs, or if they have any STDs. Babies also have to have an eye examination
to make sure they do not have shaking baby syndrome (Mersch).
When a child is treated for child abuse there is steps that are taken to insure that the child
is safe. The child is first taken away from their parents and put into safe hands, and in most cases
that is with a foster family. The parent or offender is arrested and sent to jail. The child has to go
through counseling to help with the trauma that the child has gone through. If the child was

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neglected the child will be told over and over what is expected of them because the entire trauma
from the neglect can cause the child to feel like they are worthless. The person who abused the
child has to go through counseling and questioning from police, and they have to be put on the
sex offender list and their name will never be removed from the list. When they are on the sex
offender list everyone can find out that they were a sex offender and people in the neighborhood
are normally notified that they are a sex offender. The outcome of children that are abused is
always different. A child that is abused has a 59% likelihood of being arrested as a juvenile and a
28% likelihood of being arrested as an adult. Women that are abused as a child have a 77%
likelihood of being abused as an adult (Mersch).
Prevention of child abuse is very hard because a good amount of children that are abused
are so young that they go unreported. Some ways that child abuse can be prevented is that
doctors pay special attention to make sure that the new mothers are not too stressed and they are
suitable to take care of a child. In many cases it is a requirement that a social worker checks up
with new mothers to make sure that they do not have postpartum depression. Another way child
abuse can be prevented is in programs in school for children and in those programs they talk with
the children about good touching compared bad touching. Parents also should be sure that
the daycares that they send their children to is licensed and have an open-door policy so they can
go into the daycare whenever they want to make sure that everything is ok. Public awareness is
also a great way that child abuse can be prevented if more people are aware of child abuse the
less likely it would happen. Another way that child abuse could be prevented is other people
being the advocates for children that are being abused. Being an advocate for a child is keeping
everyone informed on safety of children like always sitting in a car seat, buckling up, wearing
helmets, awareness on pool and water safety, fire alarm safety, poising prevention, and

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preventing violence. Preventing child abuse is very important because it is very sad to hear about
children falling victim of child abuse, and it resulting in an innocent child dying from child
abuse.
In a functionalist perspective they would think that if a childs parents grew up in a loving
household that they would be less likely to grow up to be parents that abused their children, also
if there is a positive mood in a household the family would also get along nicer. In a conflict
theorist perspective perpetrators inflict violence on others so they may advance their own
interest, which means that the person who is abusing the child is just doing it to advance their
interest. The symbolic internationalist perspective studies how each person comes to understand
issues that pertain to violence, this means that this person wants to know how everyone in the
situation feels about the issue and wants to know if they understand how it happened.
There are more than 6 million children being abused every year. Child abuse is a serious
issue that needs to be stopped. There are four different ways children are abused neglect,
physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. Child abuse is a horrible thing and it can
happen to any child. Factors if people who abuse could be past offenders or parents who have a
psychical illness, like depression or impulse control. There are also some factors that can make
children more likely to be abused, girls are more likely to be abused and children with
disabilities, like mentally or physically challenged children. Awareness of child abuse has to be
spread to stop child abuse, if I were to make a policy it would be that every parent would be
required to go to parenting classes and in those classes parents will learn how to take care of their
children properly and they need any help the people at the program can help them. Another thing
that I would do is have more counseling in school so that the children can learn about abuse and
they could tell the people running the program if anyone is hurting them. There are many things

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that can be done to prevent child abuse and as advocates for children we need to speak up to try
to stop child abuse.

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This Graph represents the increase of children who

died every day from child abuse from 1998 to the

Work Cited

This pie chart shows the percentages of

different types of child abuse that occur every

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Mersch, MD, FAAP, John. "MedicineNet.com." MedicineNet. 4 Apr. 2008. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.medicinenet.com/child_abuse/article.htm>.
"National Child Abuse Statistics | Childhelp." Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse |
Childhelp. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics>.
Saisan, MSW, Joanne, Melinda Smith, MA, and Jeanne Segal, PhD. "Child Abuse & Neglect:
Recognizing and Preventing Child Abuse." Helpguide helps you help yourself to better
mental and emotional health. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.helpguide.org/mental/child_abuse_physical_emotional_sexual_neglect.htm
>.
"What is Child Abuse and Neglect?." Child Welfare Information Gateway. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr.
2012. <www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/whatiscan.cfm>.