Child Abuse And Its Effects On Children

What is child abuse? From the word “abuse” we can understand that it is some sort of a maltreatment of a child, causing harm and damage both to his physical and psychological well-being. At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) describes child abuse and neglect as: “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Child abuse is a very substantial and widely spread problem in U.S. affecting children of any age, gender, race, background or income, with almost 3 million cases reported every year and on average, killing more than 4 children every day . The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a parent, step-parent, sibling, coach, neighbor, etc.), who violates child’s trust putting personal interests first, therefore official numbers of how many children suffer maltreatment might be not accurate enough as remarkable amount of these cases go unreported. Each case of child abuse is unique, with a lot of individual factors involved, nevertheless, we can distinguish some of the common causes, such as poverty, lack of education, depression, mental or physical health problems, alcohol/drug addictions, social isolation, marital problems, insecure attachments between a parent and a child, etc.

Why people abuse a child varies depending on the person. Children resulting from unintended pregnancies are more likely to be abused or neglected. Over two thirds of cases that involve child maltreatment involve parents with substance abuse issues. The substances most commonly abused are alcohol, cocaine, and heroin. Unemployment and financial difficulties can also lead to increased rates of child abuse. Lastly, parents who physically abuse their spouses are more likely than others to physically abuse their children (Lo and Vandenburg)

Child abuse and neglect is a national problem which has increased to epidemic proportions in the United States. More than 2.5 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States annually with over hundreds of deaths related to child abuse that has been reported each year. In 2013, an estimation of 1,520 children died from abuse in the United States. In that same year, Children’s Advocacy Centers around the country had served nearly 295,000 child victims of abuse, providing victim with support to these children and their families. Moving to 2014 this number was maxed to over 315,000. An estimation of 679,000 children were victims of abuse. There were 47 out of the 50 states that reported approximately 3.1 million children who received preventative services from Child Protective Services agencies in the United States. In the first year of a child 's life it was the highest rate of victimization of 23.1 per 1,000 children in the national population of the same age. Of the children who experienced abuse, nearly 80% sufficer neglect; 18% suffered physical abuse; and 9% suffered sexual abuse.

There are certain demographics that are more prone to child abuse. Lower income families and young single mothers are the most likely to have child abuse in the home. This is due to the levels of stress in these types of families. When a person gets too stressed, and is not given the proper tools and resources to let that stress out, naturally it goes to a person that is close to them. Most of the time it is the children, all it takes is for the child to do something small, it can be something natural such as crying for no apparent reason as children often do, to take the abuser from simply over stressed to their breaking point.

valuable solutions to help eliminate this problem. According to the Childhelp Program, “There are clear links among child maltreatment and future violence perpetration or victimization; studies show that about 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse children, continuing this horrible cycle,”(Article 1 of childhelp solution articles). To help get this percentage down we should make more prevention programs and really enforce many people including young adults that might be having a hard time the idea of going to a child abuse prevention program. Similarly, from Kids First, “Some children who did not initially disclose abuse are afraid or ashamed to tell when it happens again”,(Kids First Center Prevention Article 5). In Child

Often, the abuse involves being used or hurt by a trusted adult. According to a 2003 National Institute of Justice report, “3 out of 4 adolescents who have been sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew well.”(“National Institute”). This number is rising every year. In many cases the child may become attached to the abuser for attention purposes. As they grow to be older, they may rely on sexual attention and become abusers themselves. “Researchers estimate that one-third of abused and neglected children will grow up to abuse their own children when they become parents.” (“Child Abuse”). Unfortunately since child sexual abuse is hard to prove, as many people do not believe children, many cases go unreported. However, if child sexual abuse is reported, it is important to get the victim the help they need so they can heal emotionally as they get

Child Abuse happens to about a million children a year in the U.S. alone. Each day in the U.S. 3 children die as a result of Child abuse. Most of the children are younger than 6 years of age. Child abuse is when a parent or guardian causes, injury, death, emotional harm, or if there is a risk of serious harm to a child, through the actions of the parent or guardian or them failing to act. There are many different forms of child abuse such as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Neglect accounts for 63% of child abuse cases, emotional accounts for 8% and even though it doesn’t seem like it, can be the cruelest form of child abuse. While most people might think physical abuse is a high percentage of the abuses it only accounts

6.3 million children are affected by child abuse each year. Of those 6.3 million children, only 3 million are investigated by child health care services. A report of child abuse is reports every ten seconds (“Child Abuse Statistics and Facts”). When people think of child abuse, many think of it as just physical bruises and broken bones. Although that most definitely is a huge part of child abuse, there are also many different kinds. Children can abused by neglect, sexually, physically, mentally and emotionally. Children all ages can suffer from child abuse, and the aggressor could be anyone; not just someone closely related to the child.

When you ask someone to list different types of abuse, they will likely list Emotional, Verbal, Physical, Mental and Sexual. There is another type, which not much is done about. Environmental Abuse. While many think this is a petty issue, when reported to Child Protective Services or CPS, they don’t seem to jump onto the situation and investigate. Environmental Abuse affects more of the children because the way they are raised is the way they will live in the future. Environmental Child Abuse can consist of living in filth to the point where they are insects infesting the house, no proper care of animals, not providing basic necessities or hygiene, no proper medical or dental cat, denying the children nutritious food and denying education of the children.

“According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, in 2005 approximately 3.3 million allegations of child abuse and neglect were made to child-protective services”. Now, those are just allegations. Half of the time, a child is not even aware of the abuse and they just see it as a normal day practice in their childhood because that is all they are surrounded

Child abuse is considered a form of domestic violence in today’s society. There are many different forms of abuse that a child or young adult can be put through. The two main types of abuse a child could experience is sexual or physical abuse. All types of abuse can permanently harm the person who is experiencing it and have a huge impact in their adult life (“Child Neglect”, 2013).

It seems like every other day there is another story on the news about a child who was found tied up in a yard, or locked in the closet, or killed by their parent. These abused children are then being placed in the foster care system with other children who were given up by their parents, with no guarantee that they will ever be placed with a family again. Why is it that our society continues to allow children to be born to unfit parents? Why do the current laws in place in America not protect our children until after something bad happens to them? Action must be taken to protect these children as early as possible, even before they are conceived. Parents should be required to obtain a parenting license prior to conception to ensure that children are conceived by competent parents who want them, which will lead to fewer instances of child abuse and adoption, both of which are damaging to developing children.

million children every year. While killing an average of 4 to7 children every day, and about

Around the world the number of children abusing drugs has been on the rise for quite some time. Children often turn to drug abuse in order to cope with psychological trauma such as rape, violence, physical abuse, and even mental abuse. In order to limit the number of children abusing drugs and prevent the rate from continuing to rise, the plan is to install a program in the elementary school systems to evaluate these students. When counselors evaluate students away from home they can generally see how their home life is by their reactions to things and their actions when certain things are mentioned. Counselors evaluating these type of actions and getting the children help at

only a few days old as well as teenagers are subject to child abuse. There are