Child Abuse: The Unintentional Cover Up

There are children all over the world that get abuse by their parents. In situations like

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.

The authors help to inform reader as to why child abuse is such an important issue that needs to be taken care of. Funk and Wagnall list the forms of child abuse and the impacts they have a children’s lives. The article is organized in a straightforward style with little to no opinion involved. Although the article is solely based on facts, the authors stray away from making the article monotonous.

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:

Everyday there are children being abused by someone who is supposed to protect them. An estimated 905,000 children were victims of child abuse or neglect in 2006(Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2008). In 1996, more than three million victims of suspected abuse were reported to child protective services agencies in the United States (Baker, 2002). The numbers have changed and still many cases of abuse go unreported. The number of incidences of child abuse rises when the family is under stress, such as being in our economy. The effects of physical abuse can last a lifetime and are measured by the physical, psychological, behavioral, or social outcomes. Normal physical abuse scenario involves a parent who loses control and lashes

Child abuse in American today is amongst the most saddened topics of mankind. Many children are subjected to neglect and abuse on a daily basis. The sex and age of child makes no difference when it comes to child abuse.. Boys and girls are equally likely to suffer maltreatment. The problem is how often child abuse goes unreported. Millions of children across the world are abused in some way, whether it is verbal, emotional, physical or sexual. Child abuse has been happening all over the world to young children, however many children keep this a secret because of fear of what could happen. Child Abuse consists of any act of commission or omission that endangers or impairs a child’s physical or emotional health and development. It can be

Within the United States, child maltreatment is becoming more and more commonly reported as there is over 3 million reports each year. Due to the constant increase of child maltreatment reports, society has become more aware of the issue, which has led to awareness campaigns. (Payne, 87). Even with societies’ knowledge of such abuse there are still serval child maltreatment cases that are not reported. The children that are victims of maltreatment pertains any sort of harm to the child whether it is by injury, neglect, physical, emotional, or even sexual abuse by someone who holds a major role in the child’s life, a parent or guardian figure (“What is Child Abuse”).

In today’s society discipline and abuse are very different. Discipline in the 20th century is nothing more than talking to your children about their actions, the act of spanking your children today will have your children taking from you and you will face some sort of jail time. Society has changed so much in 60 years. Now a child can call the police on their parent if they even threaten the child about spanking them.

There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,

Today, people are out of tune with human civilization. This did not happen overnight. Due to people using negative words in their daily vocabulary change occurred. One evident cause is individual values. Constantly, the local daily paper is full of people committing wrongful acts of behavior. The band aid answer is contributed to one’s upbringing. While partially accurate it continues well beyond. An individual’s values are comprised of discipline and ethics. Very few children today receive a good old spanking that some old folks reminisce about when talking about the “good old days”. People who grew up over the past 25 years lack discipline, which has flowed into the work force. Discipline comes in various forms. Just like discipline a adults parental rights are eroding too. Society has put their nose in how parents raise their children. Parents are afraid to spank their child, have them perform additional chores, or stand in the corner with their nose touching the wall when they do wrong. The current laws tie parents’ hands. According to American Humane Association “an estimated 3.3 million reports of alleged abuse and/or neglect involving approximately 6 million children were made to local child protective services (CPS) agencies across the country. An estimated 899,000 of these children were determined to be victims of abuse

EREPORT # 19309 stated the following: The incident occurred approximately 1-2 weeks ago. It was reported on 2-23-2016. During a forensic Interview, Both Abigail and Kaylee disclosed physical abuse by their Grandfather, Randy, and their father, Nicholas. On 2-29-2016 the girls had a forensic interview. Detective Owensby asked Nicholas regarding the abuse. He stated his father, Randy, didn't choke the girls and he allegedly only spanked the girls once. The girls don't seem to have much respect for their dad. The child’s emotional state is sad and withdrawn. The dad responds by saying the girls have an attitude and makes excuses. The child has other special needs. On the date of the initial incident, Nicholas Foster was at his girlfriends and

Some definitions focus on the intentions of the alleged abuser, whereas other definitions may ignore the level of intent and place emphasis primarily on the potential or actual harm committed toward the child (Crosson-Tower, 2007).These interchanging definitions of child maltreatment ultimately lead to a level of controversy when it comes to addressing the fine line between physical abuse and parental right to discipline. According to the text, “Historically, parents have the right to bring up their adolescents as they see fit, including administering punishment to curb behavior when they thought it was necessary” (Zastow and Kirst- Ashman, p.200). Adolescents who are faced with child maltreatment are at greater risk of developing negative physiological and psychological growth. These results can be the outcome of the lack of awareness by parents, teachers, schools administration, and the

Child abuse is a serious probleam happening all over the world. On a daily basis, 100s of child are being abused whether it is: emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect. There are many different subtypes of abuse steming from those four main catagories. “Injuries inflicted by caregivers on a child can take many forms”, (World Health Organization, 2017). Child abuse has been around since the existence of humans, but until within the last 100 years or so have we had clear standards of what is or isn’t considered child abuse. The definition of what falls into the catagories changes rapidily on what is socially acceptable or unacceptable behaviors.

Many people today are getting arrested for simply disciplining a child. But, in older times disciplining a child set good moral standards and taught that child on what that child was supposed to do and what not to do. There is a fine line between abuse and discipline. So what is child abuse? Child abuse consists of any act of commission or omission that endangers or impairs a child’s physical or emotional health and development. Child abuse includes any damage done to a child which cannot be reasonably explained and which is often represented by an injury or series of injuries appearing to be non-accidental in nature. There are also different kinds of child abuse; which include physical, emotional, and sexual. But, discipline does not

Although child abuse has soon become a more discussed issue, it is nothing new in today’s society. Dating back to ancient times, physical child abuse has always attributed to lives of people around the world. Approaching and understanding child mistreatment has changed as societies have modernized and progressed; whereas one thing remains an unalterable issue, child abuse happens constantly and continuously worldwide.