Child Abuse And The United States

David is a 10 years-old boy doing his homework at the kitchen table. The homework consisted of mathematical problems, a short reading and answer question, and memorizing the 50 Capitals of the United States. All the assignments for homework were due on Friday morning, so he quickly finished his homework so he could get to bed. Around 10:00 pm, David’s father came home from work, checked his son’s homework and saw many errors. He immediately went up to David’s bedroom and kicked open the door. Yelling at David, “You see this homework, you have many mistakes in math, your answers to your short readings are not correct and you did get all the 50 capitals right!!, you are worthless, stupid, and a big mistake of being born.” David’s father then proceeded to hit him with a wire hanger in both legs, and arms, the face and on his buttocks. David’s dad yelled again “Tomorrow morning when you get up, you will not eat breakfast and go to school hungry!!” David cried the rest of the night, hurting in pain, then eventually falling asleep.

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 more than 1.8 million investigations done every year and on average, killing more than 5 children every day. The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a 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

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 3.3 million referrals for alleged maltreatment were made in 2013. Out of the 3.3 million referrals, 899,000 children were officially documented as being maltreated(Child Abuse & Neglect 2015). Child abuse is the mistreatment of a child. Child abuse is recognized in several forms; physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Children who experience any form of abuse will tend to withdraw themselves from their peers and sometimes from other family members who are not aware of what is taking place. Child abuse occurs not just in the homes of these children, but can also occur in schools, churches and after school programs. Anywhere a child is present there is a chance that abuse can

There is not one specific type of child abuse in fact there are more than one form of child mistreatment such as: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Before going into further details of the problems and treatment of child abuse; one must know what child abuse is. The United States Department of Health and Human Services provides a standard legal definition of child abuse, CAPTA (2010) states:

It 's difficult to comprehend that an adult, often a parent or caregiver, would intentionally hurt an infant or child. Yet nearly a million children are abused in the United States. Unfortunately that excludes children who 's incidents of child abuse are unreported and undetected. Child abuse can be defined differently from state to state, but commonly presents in the form of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment. The focus of this review is physical abuse, which is defined as non-accidental physical injury, from bruising to fractures to the most serious cases of abuse ending in death (Sink, Hyman, Matheny, Georgopoulos & Kleinman, 2010).

Child Abuse laws in the United States varies from state to state. Therefore, if one is found being abusive their punishment is determined by where they live. I think that defining a distinct crime of child abuse is a great idea. This makes it easier to gather evidence rime allows one to know that child abuse is taken very seriously. Due to the numerous ways that child abuse can occur it is important that it is seen as its own crime. Another reason why It is a good idea is because children deserve the same protection from the laws adults do. Children are our future and if they are not shown that child abuse is bad in every aspect, when they become adults it may be seen more often. Why should that person be allowed to keep their child.

Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving more than 6 million children. The amount of children abused is doubled due to the fact that a single report can include multiple children. The U.S has one of the worst records among industrialized nations, losing an average between four and seven children everyday to abuse and neglect. The sociological theories that can be used to research the issue of child abuse in the US are symbolic interactionism and the conflict theory.

Child abuse is a very serious issue here in the United States. Child abuse is defined as the physical, mental, sexual abuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or maltreatment of a child who is under the age 18 (Pro Quest Staff). Many of the children get abused by the person in charge of the child's care. This includes loved ones of the child, people who the child once could trust. In the all U.S. states allow parents to hit/spank their children in the manner of discipline.

Children will make mistakes, it’s apart of growing up and learning lessons, no one is perfect. We need to teach children that it is okay to mess up, it helps us learn from our mistakes. The last thing we want is having our own children afraid their parents. They should be able to trust their parents and know that they will care for them and love them. Physically punishing children makes it harder for kids to trust their parents, and it sends their stress levels through the roof knowing that they have to try and be perfect or else there will be a punishment. Children can be a blessing, but sometimes they can be a little too much to handle. When parents take the physical charge to hurt their children, people don’t know if they took it too far

More than 24 million people of the United States of America are victims of relationship abuse in a given year. Women are not the only sufferers because it happens to men too. Stoprelationshipabuse.org defines relationship abuse as “a pattern of abusive and coercive behaviors used to maintain power and control over a former or current intimate partner.” Sources say that it can stem from childhood experiences or caused by alcohol. Facts and myths cloud the subject and create misinterpretations on the causes. Either of these can create detrimental effects to the victims. Abuse is a choice that can be influenced by outside factors.

According to dictionary.com, child abuse is the “mistreatment of a child by a parent or guardian, including neglect, beating, and sexual molestation.” About five children die every day from child abuse and many children who are abused start experiencing it at eighteen months or younger. While abuse can start at any age, more than 25% are under the age of three and over 45% are under the age of five. The younger a child is, the more vulnerable they are. If signs of abuse are discovered at a young age, it is possible to recover from them completely through therapy and patience.

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.

In terms of feral children the focus of maltreatment is on the physical and emotional harm done to a child. The generalized interpretation of neglect is “a caregiver’s failure to meet a child’s basic needs, leading to risk of harm” (Fong, 1). Abuse varies, no case is the same, but the results are all devastating especially when the abuse is during the critical developmental stages of a child’s life. As Perry state 's “Deprivation of critical experiences during development may be the most destructive yet the least understood area of child maltreatment” (Perry, 88). He explains that it is the least understood because the type of attention and care needed at one age may not be needed at another age, making it confusing. If a child’s basic

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.

Child abuse is a prevalent thing in communities and often time the victims are suffering in silence. We, as a society, have a bad habit of “turning our heads the other way” or “not wanting to get involved.” The mentality of “it’s none of our business” is an extremely dangerous mind set to have. It is time for America to step up and start helping the ones that are not able to fight for themselves. The children of our country.