Abuse And Neglect

This research paper is being submitted on December 8, 2011, for Mara Pehkonen’s M230 Medical Law and Ethics Course.

When you’re a kid you should still have so much hope because you have not seen the tragedies in the world. Imagine just for a second that before you were even five, you had to take care of yourself. As a toddler you felt unloved and neglected. Each year 5.5 million children experience this feeling, not just for a second, but throughout their childhood. Neglect is child abuse, as well as physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Child abuse is awful because it causes the child to feel worthless, to lose trust, and to have serious psychological problems early on in life.

Domestic violence is skyrocketing in our society. In the U.S., as many as 1.5 million women and 850,000 men were physically assaulted by their intimate partner last year, and numerous children abused by their parents. These sad criminal acts will continue to grow in our society, unless our community takes action to stop these crimes.

This act of abuse is when the victim is being touched or sexual act is being preformed is unwanted. The abuser sometimes uses this tactic as a punishment. “Financial abuse is the use or misuse, without the partner’s freely given consent, of the financial or other monetary resources of the partner or of the partnership.” (Types of Domestic Abuse). The abuser will keep the victim(s) away from their jobs, which will cause them to lose money and eventually get fired. The abuser will also create conflict with the victim’s coworkers. They will also take the victim’s credit cards and will also take control of their bank account(s) and control their spending. “Identity abuse is using personal characteristics to demean, manipulate and control the partner…tactics overlap with other forms of abuse, particularly emotional abuse…comprised of the social “isms”, including racism, sexism, ageism, able-ism, beauty-ism, as well as homophobia.” (Type of Domestic Abuse). The abuser will stereotype the victims(s) by their ethnicity, race, sexuality, or gender. They will also humiliate them and judge them by their behavior and how they do things. This will also lower the victim’s self esteem and self confidence. These types of abuse are very dangerous psychologically and physically.

Children in the foster care system are being constantly abused, how is the government in fault for everything?  Various times tragic and violent things happen like children starving or kids being verbally threatened and the government is blamed with no proof making it invalid, in this case there is proof about how they are in fault, as Kubitschek in her 2005 article “ Holding Foster Care Agencies Responsible for Abuse and Neglect” illustrates how the government “removes children from their parents who are claimed abusive and the government places them in a safer environment, most cases this doesn’t happen”. Interesting thing is that although it’s away from their previous abusive home they are being but again into the same situation. As Kubitschek

What cause even more alarm, is the fact that “the damaging effects of psychological abuse are similar, if not identical to those of physical abuse”, as said by psychologist Steven Stonsy. Some of the life-devastating effects include “anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and low self-esteem”.

Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura (2015) states “the domains of child maltreatment include both child abuse (wilful acts such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse which harm a child) and neglect (failure to provide for a child’s basic needs) (Fontes, 2005)” (Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura 2015, p. 3). These areas will have a life-altering impact on a child’s life and it might change how they view people and things around them. Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura (2015) states “neglect, as a form of child maltreatment, can take many forms such as failing to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, supervision, medical care, emotional care or education” ((Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura 2015, p. 3). Neglect is also big issue just as Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura (2015) mentioned, not giving a sufficient amount of food, not providing them with emotional support or proper education or medical care could put a child in this category. Therefore, simply providing a child with their basic needs can solve the problem, although not everyone can afford this basic needs because of life’s situations. Situation like poverty, lack of work, and others can cause this to happen. This is why Tufford, Bogo, & Asakura (2015) also states that “Child Neglect can often be confounded by poverty, inadequate housing and dangerous neighbourhoods as parents or caretakers have fewer resources to provide children with the care they need (Jonson-Reid, Drake, & Zhou, 2013)” ((Tufford, Bogo, &

The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), is a state-run agency that provides counseling, rehabilitation or placement services for neglected or abused children.

According to statistics found by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Every nine seconds a woman is abused by her husband or intimate partner. At least 1 in every 4 women and 1 in every 9 men have been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in their lifetime. Most often the abuser is one of their own family. Domestic violence is a problem that somehow affects every one of us in this room at some time and is actually the leading cause of injury to women -- more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined.

With child abuse and neglect being so prevalent globally, it is important to recognize why these types of maltreatment occur and is a relevant topic for all to explore. Many are interested in how child abuse and neglect affect the individuals who are victims as well as the use and efficacy of treatment procedures. Child abuse has serious physical and psycho-social consequences which adversely affect the health and overall well-being of a child. There are long-term consequences of experiencing these forms of maltreatment. Awareness and understanding needs to be brought to this devastatingly common crisis and the advancement of child abuse and neglect prevention needs to be encouraged.

Abuse can have many different meanings, there is one in particular that takes control in many Americans relationship, “physical maltreatment” (Abuse). Sadly there is an increasing amount of young adults going through an abusive relationship or were in one. Many of the people that become abusers consider violence as a normal behavior because they have witnessed it on a daily basis. They than begin to mistreat everyone that comes in his or her way. An abuser is frequently interested in controlling their victims. An abuser’s behavior is usually manipulating, in order to make their victims

The issue of child abuse and neglect is serious, controversial, and is escalating in today’s society. Many people are not aware, but child abuse is rampant in our society. Many child abuse and neglect cases go unreported because a person may not know the signs and symptoms of child abuse and neglect or perhaps the person or person may feel that this is an private issue and needs to be handle with in the home and no outsiders should be involved. Without the proper awareness of child abuse and neglect and the involvement of everyone this issue will continue to raise our eyebrows.

Since the ancient human times, corporal punishment has been one of the most popular methods parents have used on enforcing their tutelage onto their children. Corporal punishment is defined as the physical punishment that parents use on their children to enforce rules. The act is seen as something of the past in 48 countries around the world, but for Canada. This is because they still have not resolved it in their legal systems, for Canada this law being the infamous Section 43. Even though it was implemented for the protection of parents and teachers from prosecution because of minor disciplining, it really is an excuse for violence against children. In this generation, the justness and effectiveness of corporal punishment have come into question, which is what this writing piece aims to further delve into.

This Since the beginning, of this century a global tendency to abolish corporal punishment have been introduced to challenge old dependence on corporal punishment as a tool for reforming children’s misbehavior, according to Global Report (2008). According to Straus (2001) Corporal punishment is defined as “the use of physical force with the intentions of causing a child to experience pain, but not injury, for the purpose of this control of the child’s behavior”, corporal punishment was almost universally approved of and used by parents in at least the first three quarters of the 20th century.

"I feel sorry for never reporting the domestic abuse to the police. Rape, violence, confinement, threats with weapons, death threats, stealing and destruction of property. I think he would be in jail for a long time if I had reported him. But I think it 's too late. There is no proof other than the little bit of pain left in my heart from the years I wasted with a monster, caged in an abusive relationship.” (Jeanne) Jeanne wasted her five years of broken-winged life with a monster. She doesn’t remember the first time he hurt her. All she shares is cries and screams of pain. Every day, we see images or hear about violence against women in the news, on TV shows, in the movies and in our homes and workplaces. But, have we ever thought of any steps to prevent it? I doubt as everybody around is just happy in their own wonderful wacky world. It is a common problem for women of all ages, races, and classes as violence against women is a global problem. Recent global prevalence figures indicate that 35% of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.( http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs239/en/ ) Rape, battering, sexual harassment, financial and emotional abuse are acceptable to those who commit these forms of violence. Violence can also strike women in the form of stalking, sexual assault, human trafficking, forced marriage and domestic/physical abuse.