Abuse: A Short Story

Child abuse is learned and passed from generation to generation. Families that live in a violent community are more than likely to become violent members of society

Violence affects a healthy family’s relationship, state of mind and well-being, in other words, it’s normal functions. Because of violence, children are forced to endure and cope with mental, physical and emotional trauma leading to a display of impacts on health, development, and wellbeing. The effects build up over time and can impact on every aspect of their life.  How many children and innocent lives must suffer from something unnecessary? Imagine walking into a home late at night to find a child hiding in a corner, with a bloody face and cuts all around their body saying they were self-inflicted or making up other silly excuses like falling down the stairs out of extreme fear. Up to 75% of all acts of domestic violence occurs between the ages 18-24. No child should ever see domestic violence as normal because the moment that happens a future perpetrator has been born. We need to take a stand and refuse to let domestic violence become something we ignore.

Social learning theory suggests that the mechanism underlying the continuity of violence is observational learning in which children who were abused learn to repeat abusive or neglectful modeled behavior (Begle, Dumas & Hanson, 2010). Observational learning, in the case of child

For us to be able to define abuse, I think we should look into the dictionary to see the meaning of the word ABUSE.

There are two sides of abuse to every harmful relationship: the victim and the victimizer. This relationship can tend to put stress on someone in order to have them do something they wish not to do or experience an event they wish not to experience. This aspect represents the victim side of abuse. The person or oppression in the relationship that puts stress on another is the victimizer as this side of the relationship can attempt to force ill-will upon their targets. This is the forceful side of the destructive relationship and is always the root of the problem. The characters from Generation X, Less Than Zero, and Twelve undergo a series of harmful relationships that can be construed as a relationship between a victim and victimizer. Some of the characters from each book are the victimizers, while the others are the victims.

Violence in any form can have a lasting effect on a person. Children who witness violence are permanently scarred because of what they are seeing. Children who witness family or domestic violence are affected in ways similar to children who are physically abused. Children are often unable to establish nurturing bonds with either parent and are at a greater risk for abuse and neglect if he or she lives in a violent home. Statistics show that an estimated 3.3 million children are exposed to violence against their mothers or female caretakers by family members in their home each year (Ackerman & Pickering, 1989). When a spouse, woman or male is abused, and there are

So you ignoring my calls now,” DeMarcus roared on the other end of the phone.

According to the United States department of Justice, Over sixty percent of American children are exposed to a type of violence every year (Finkelhor, D., Turner, H., Ormrod, R., Hamby, S., and Kracke, K. 2009). These forms of violence can be perpetrated by a victims home, community or school, with majority of children knowing the perpetrator(s). These experiences with violence whether primary or secondary, can cause serious psychological trauma to a child and in worst case scenarios death. The 2009 survey by the Department of Justice also found that children exposed to any form of violence were more likely to engage in violence in the future and almost forty percent of these children were exposed to multiple acts of violence ( pg.2). The

Effects of domestic violence on children, result from witnessing domestic violence in a home, plays a tremendous role on the well-being and developmental growth of children witnessing the violence. The child will always be on guard, scared for himself, and his mother. The child will suffer emotional and psychological trauma from living in a home where his father abuses his mother. Most experts believe that children who are raised in abusive homes learn that violence is an effective way to resolve conflicts. They may replicate the violence they witnessed as children in their teen and adult relationships and parenting

Exposure to domestic violence can impact the behavioral, social-emotional, and cognitive development of children. Children who are exposed to domestic violence tend to exhibit more aggressive behaviors with their peers, show signs of depression, and have a difficult time forming relationships (Brown & Bzostek, 2003). Cognitively, studies have shown that children exposed to domestic violence may have difficulties learning and concentrating in school, have difficulties with conflict resolution skills, and may believe in male privilege, (Brown & Bzostek, 2003). Concentration is difficult for children exposed to domestic violence because of how unsafe they may feel in their surroundings. They may be preoccupied with the violence that is

When faced with domestic violence these children sometimes carry on violence when they become adults or blame themselves. This article explores theories and situations that show the long term and short term effects of domestic violence. They identified 41 studies that provided relevant and adequate data for inclusion in a meta-analysis. Forty of these studies indicated that children 's exposure to domestic violence was related to emotional and behavioral problems, translating to a small overall effect (Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003).

I fell in love with books at an early age and like many young loves,

Cummings continues to talk about the long term psychological effects that domestic violence can have adolescence. “They[researchers] were curious to learn more about what stresses might be most strongly correlated with the child's diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They found two factors to be the strongest predictors: a history of sexual abuse and witnessing chronic domestic violence. In fact, exposure to domestic violence seemed to be more harmful overall” (Groves 189). This statement alone shows that exposure to domestic

In order to conduct the research, twenty-nine children and their families were selected from 426 different areas within England, Wales and Scotland. Some parents refused to take part in the research, while 76% agreed to be interviewed (Meltzer et al. 2009). The research that was organized determined that the violence affects different age groups and sexes in different ways.

Children learn very early about right and wrong. The exposure to violence at a young age can have an effect on a person’s development and behavior as an adult. Children who witness violence often are more aggressive. Those rejected by their parents are more likely to experience PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and problems with social information processing, which can lead to violence toward their intimate partners. A violent upbringing and a lack of early positive experiences, increases a child’s tendency to become violent in the future.