Each Day The Children Are At Risk Of Becoming Victims Of

Every day children around the world are being abused by their parents, trusted adult, caregiver and peers. Children are constantly suffering when there are things that everyone as a community can do help them. Psychologists, social workers and the victims to childhood abuse have studied and worked together to establish precautionary measures to execute child abuse all together.

In conclusion, it is beyond any agency, facility or government to keep child abuse from happening in today’s society in which children are suffering and perhaps dying from child abuse and neglect. Child abuse and neglect are problems that can be alarming and can cause an amazing psychological and economic direst to the child and the abuser. By identifying early on child abuse can be treated to prevent long term occurrences of abuse. Also through treatment a child(ren) can be taken from that environment and placed into a haven to regain trust and continue to receive on-going support. It is every child’s need to be loved, protected and care for in a way that prevents him/her from maltreatment and harm as well as bringing those who mistreat them to justice. When these children are abused and neglected steps must be taken to ensure their safety.

Human trafficking is one of the largest growing criminal activities. The commercial sexual exploitation of children, also known as CSEC, is often perceived as a hidden atrocity that occurs in an international setting. However, this manifestation of sexual abuse has increased and has become a recognized health issue in the United States. You may hear this problem to be known as domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST). Domestic minor sex trafficking is defined as the “recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” where the person is a citizen younger than the age of 18 years by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. This includes sexual acts like survival sex, prostitution, and stripping, where the child is the victim of criminal exploitation in exchange for remuneration in the form of money, food, shelter, or other valued entity. Approximately twenty-eight percent of US minors living on the streets are reported to exchanging sex for drugs or money. The estimation so far is that 150,000 to 300,000 children are falling at risk of being victimized each year, and the average age at which they are recruited is twelve to fourteen years of age. By raising awareness we are avoiding children suffering from long-term health consequences such as severe sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. By raising awareness a family may not lose their little boy or girl to human trafficking. Consider how many young women have been kidnapped, drugged, tricked or even sold by

Sex trafficking, particularly that of children, has become a growing concern in the United States over the past several decades (Kotrla, 2010). By definition, child sex trafficking is “when a child (under 18 years of age) is induced to perform a commercial sex act” (U.S., 2013, para. 4), and includes forms such as prostitution and pornography (Kotrla, 2010). Researchers suggest that children are the most vulnerable to becoming victims of prostitution (Kotrla), and it is estimated that there are at least 100,000 victims in the United States (Estes & Weiner, 2001). Sex traffickers, otherwise known as “pimps,” often lure children with promises of food, clothing, love, and shelter, and then the pimps manipulate the children to keep them in prostitution (U.S. Department of Justice [DOJ], 2015). Awareness of the issue has led to the development of organizations, such as Children of the Night, that seek to help victims escape the sex trafficking industry (Children of the Night [COTN], 2016d).

In addition, about 16% of the children suffered from physical abuse, while 9% of the children suffered from sexual abuse”. The amount of children being abused and neglected does not stop there; “7% of children suffered from psychological maltreatment, 2% experienced medical neglect while 9% of children suffered from other forms of maltreatments” (CAPTA, 2010).

Abuse usually occurs due to poverty, lack of education, marital problems, changing of environments, family violence, and lack of support from family members, loneliness, social isolation, unemployment and many other factors which also relates to non-accidental incidents by caregivers, parents, older adolescents or other adults that is not within the norms of conduct and whom necessitates a considerable risk of inflicting physical or emotional harm to a child. Incidents like this can be un-intentional but other people also intentionally abuse their child which includes commission and omission. Instead of coming home to a safe environment, 40,844 children are abused. Evidentially child abuse is a very serious contemporary issue which has acquired many legal and non-legal

Millions of children are abused, affected by maltreatment, and neglected all over the world every day. However, a lot of these cases are not reported to the proper authorities. Kim, Mennen, and Trickett (2016) state that, “all the forms of abuse and neglect frequently result in adverse effects on children and adolescents over many domains including physical, psychological, behavioral and social functioning.” In some circumstances, the definition of abuse can be questionable. A lot of parents do not have all the necessities and resources needed to take care of their families. This creates situations in which children are taken from their parents and are placed under the control of the state. These kids are sent to foster or group

Child abuse is epidemic in many countries as well as the United States. It is estimated that every thirteen seconds a child is abused in some manner: physically, sexually, emotionally or by neglect (Friedman). Each year, there are over 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States involving more than 6 million children. Child abuse can be reduced with proper education of the parents and with greater public awareness.

Child maltreatment proves to be an issue afflicting children today, and this does not leave out children with disabilities. It is a fundamental cause of childhood fatalities (Hibbard & Desch, 2007). Millions of children are affected every year due to child maltreatment. During the year 2015, child protective services registered 4 million referrals that involved about 7.2 million children, and it was determined that 683,000 of them were indeed suffering due to child maltreatment which can occur in many methods and children

The seriousness of sexually exploited youth in the United States is an alarming and distressing problem, and the amount of victims that are affected continue to rise. Williams (2015) found that the U.S Department of Justice reported there are approximately 100,000 to 3 million youth members under the age of eighteen currently engaging in prostitution, child pornography, and trafficking. Placer County Grand Jury (2015) found in 2012, 16 students who attended the Sacramento County School District were victims of sexual exploitation for approximately four years before the two ringleaders were arrested. Walker (2013) found that every day, there are thousands of children that are coerced into performing sex for hire, brutally beaten and raped into submission, literally stolen off the streets, isolated, drugged, and starved until they become “willing” participants (p.5). Statically, one out three youth members who runaway will be forced into prostitution within the first 48 hours of being on the streets (S.T.R.E.A.T.

Child abuse and neglect used to be overlooked by medicine and society and now it is slowly making its way to the public eye and some cases of child abuse and neglect are shown in the news media. “Child maltreatment is intentional harm or threat of harm

The articles discuss the risk and protective factors of child human trafficking and child sexual exploitation, suggesting that child abuse assessments and treatments should be modified to reflect child trafficking victims due to the victim’s subjective experiences. According to Fong and Cardoso (2010), internationally, each year 1 to 2 million children are trafficked, with an average age of 13 to 14 years old. Children who are at higher risk for trafficking coupled with prostitution are likely runaways and within the foster system (Fong & Cardoso, 2010). In an effort to crack down on child trafficking and sexual exploitation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened offices in areas where there is a prevalence of child prostitution. Yet, the efforts of the FBI to crackdown on child sexual exploitation may prove difficult, for instance, in some cultures outside of the US as well as some laws within the US permits for consent of marriage of an older adult to a young girl who has not yet experienced puberty (Grover, 2007).

A survey by the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that abuse and neglect doubled in the years from 1986 to 1993. The report estimated that over 2.8 million children were reported as abused in 1998 (Sexual Abuse Statistics, 1996). In 1999 3,244,000 children were reported to CPS as victims of child abuse (Child Abuse Statistics, 1999).

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.

Violence against children is a phenomenon happening worldwide, in forms of physical, psychological violence. Children are deprived of care, basic social services, health care and education, child abuse, neglect, exploitation, forced to beg, trafficked. Children are still one of the social groups at risk, facing many problems that remain unresolved. Although the consequences may vary according to the type and severity of the violence, the short and long-term consequences for children are very often serious and destructive and are costly. The laws that protect children’s rights are often not effective.