Child abuse

These are news makers but they never make it to the front page. It would be a miracle if it made one small corner of the paper in such a miniscule font that even Sherlock Holmes with his magnifying glass would have trouble deciphering. These are horrifying instances where the wrong doers must be hanged for their crimes but all they get is a week and maybe and lecture. Examples:
3 year old saw her father kill her mother...

Three year old Julia was traumatized after her mother was shot to death by her father, who then turned the gun on himself. She was found asleep on the bed, in between the bodies of her parents.
9 years ago, a 13 year old was raped...

They just found the rapist. In 1996, a 13 year old girl was brutally raped behind a dumpster while walking to school. A foul smelling homeless man pulled her behind a dumpster and assaulted her. He pulled her shirt over her face so that she could not identify him.

Have you seen my kitten?

Brothers, aged 6 and 3, were playing outside when they agreed to help their neighbor search his apartment for the kitten. Tom was a friend to all of the children in the apartment complex. He was also a registered sex offender, but no one knew. Sammy and Tommy were lured to his apartment with the kitten story, sexually assaulted and tied up. An intense search for the boys by law enforcement and neighbors saved their lives. This are not just heart wrenching stories but is the reality that many children have to face in the world today. In India it is more prevalent and the girl child is always targeted. Children are easy targets as they trust easily and their innocence is always used to the advantage of these sick minded people. The children are often not educated or aware of how to distinguish between a bad touch and a loving touch. Many children do not open up and discuss with a responsible elder about what they are going through because in many cases it is the responsible adult who is causing harm. The children do not understand what they are going through and grow up with bitterness.

What is child abuse?

Child abuse is the physical, psychological or sexual maltreatment of children. While most child abuse happens in the child's home, a significant portion also occurs in organizations involving children, such as churches, schools, child care businesses, and residential schools. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse. There are different subcategories within each type of abuse. Since there are many forms of abuse and neglect, many governments have developed their own legal definition of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. In the United States, the Federal Government puts out a full definition of child abuse and neglect and creates a summary of each State definition. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines child maltreatment as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Examples of acts of commission include physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. Examples of acts of omission include failure to provide (physical, emotional, medical/dental, or educational neglect) or failure to supervise (inadequate supervision, or exposure to violent environments.)

Types of Abuse
Neglect can take many forms. An example of physical neglect would be the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, or hygiene. An example of emotional neglect would be inadequate nurturing or affection. Physical abuse may include striking, burning, shaking, pinching, or pulling hair or ear. Child Sexual Abuse is said to include penetration, fondling, violations of privacy, exposure of children to adult sexuality and rape Psychological or Emotional abuse includes verbal abuse, withholding affection, extreme punishment and corruption, ignoring, rejecting, terrorizing, and isolating. It may also entail the abuser minimizing, or "downplaying" the severity of abuse along with the act of invalidation. Invalidation is to reject, ignore, mock, tease, judge, or diminish someone's feelings. It is an attempt to control how they feel and for how long they feel it.

Prevalence
According to the (American) National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, in 1997 neglect represented 54% of confirmed cases of child abuse, physical abuse 22%, sexual abuse 8%, emotional maltreatment 4%, and other forms of maltreatment 12%. 30% of children are threatened. According to a recent UNICEF report on child well-being

in the United States and the United Kingdom ranked lowest among first world nations with respect to the well being of their children. This study also found that child neglect and child abuse are far more common in single-parent families than in families where both parents are present. Recently a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that 1 in 50 infants in the United States are victims of nonfatal neglect or abuse. In the US, neglect is defined as the failure to meet the basic needs of children including housing, clothing, food and access to medical care. Researchers found over 91,000 cases of neglect over the course of one year (from October 2005- September 30, 2006) with their information coming from a database of cases verified by protective services agencies.

Effects
Children with a history of neglect or physical abuse are at risk of developing psychiatric problems, or a disorganized attachment style. Disorganized attachment is associated with a number of developmental problems, including dissociative symptoms, as well as anxiety, depressive, and acting-out symptoms. A study by Dante Cicchetti found that 80% of abused and maltreated infants exhibited symptoms of disorganized attachment. The effects of child abuse vary, depending on its type. A 2006 study found that childhood emotional and sexual abuse were strongly related to adult depressive symptoms, while exposure to verbal abuse and witnessing of domestic violence had a moderately strong association, and physical abuse a moderate one. For depression, experiencing more

than two kinds of abuse exerted synergetically stronger symptoms. Sexual abuse was particularly deleterious in its intrafamilial form, for symptoms of depression, anxiety, dissociation, and limbic irritability. Childhood verbal abuse had a stronger association with anger-hostility than any other type of abuse studied, and was second only to emotional abuse in its relationship with dissociative symptoms. More generally, in the case of 23 of the 27 illnesses listed in the questionnaire of a French INSEE survey, some statistically significant correlation were found between repeated illness and family traumas encountered by the child before the age of 18 years. These relationships show that inequality in terms of illness and suffering is not only social. It has also its origins in the family, where it is associated with the degrees of lasting affective problems (lack of affection, parental discord, the prolonged absence of a parent, or a serious illness affecting either the mother or father) that individuals report having experienced in childhood.

Treatment
There are a number of treatments available to victims of child abuse. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, while developed to treat sexually abused children, is now used for victims of any kind of trauma. It targets traumarelated symptoms in children including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), clinical depression, and anxiety. It also includes a component for non-offending parents. Several studies have found that sexually abused children

undergoing TF-CBT improved more than children undergoing certain other therapies. Data on the effects of TF-CBT for children who experienced only non-sexual abuse was not available as of 2006. Abuse-focused cognitive behavioral therapy was designed for children who have experienced physical abuse. It targets externalizing behaviors and strengthens prosocial behaviors. Offending parents are included in treatment, to improve parenting skills/practices. It is supported by one randomized study. Child-parent psychotherapy was designed to improve the child-parent relationship following the experience of domestic violence. It targets trauma-related symptoms in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, including PTSD, aggression, defiance, and anxiety. It is supported by two studies of one sample.