Persuasive Essay On Child Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse can be hard to define because of the many different forms it can take on, the different levels of frequency, the variation of circumstances that can occur. Until a child is fit to function as a self-supporting and informed adult, we have an obligation not to take advantage of their lack of power or protection to inflict damage, or demand submission to acts that are not in their own best interests within. Children are being abused every day in different countries. While commonly accepted wisdom had been that childhood sexual abuse results in long lasting negative outcomes.

Everyday children under the age of 18 are maltreated. One out of eight children throughout the U.S suffers from either physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Unfortunately, emotional abuse is not even considered a maltreatment when people think of child abuse. When people think of child abuse the first thing they think about is physical or sexual. Now do not get me wrong, any abuse a child receives is a horrible inhuman like thing because every child is innocent and deserves to live the best life they possibly can live. Although, if we are being quite honest with ourselves nobody really notices this happens until it is mentioned later on when the child gets older. Which I do not blame anyone for because a child does not recall if something is good or bad until they have the ability to be aware of their environment.This is due to the fact that child abuse can start occurring at such an early age. This happens most during the development stage of the child because when a child is young it starts to absorb everything it sees and hears based on their surroundings. Basically, when they start noticing the difference from good or bad. The problem in this situation is that there is a high percentage rate of the youth who are diagnosed with mental disorders and are not being helped properly because most of the time the adults around them do not know how to help. The solution to this problem is simple, we should bring awareness to the main people in the child's life: their

One of the most perverse traumas experienced by children is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is an unfortunate reality for many children all over the world. Most

You’ve heard the saying, “children are our future.” Therefore why does the “United States have one of the worst records for child abuse” (childhelp.org). According to the 2015 child maltreatment report,” almost 7.2 million children were involved in some sort of abuse whether mental, emotional, physical or sexual and 75.3% of victims are neglected” (americanspcc.org). You’ve seen the news reports of children being neglected whether it’s a parent who forgets their child was in the car and locks them in on a hot summer day roasting their child’s little life away, or the parent who beats their child to their death, or the parent who is suffering an addiction and doesn’t provide the proper quality of life and care to their child or children that they are taken away by the state only to be dumped into the foster care system. Research states, “that an estimated 1,670 children died in 2015 from abuse or neglect and 207,000 children received foster care services” (americanspcc.org).

Some children are left to be watched by another family member or a friend of the family and get sexually abused by them. Sometimes children are forced to have sexual activities going on with an adult without the parents knowledge. That leaves the child to think that their parents really do not care for them. Children get scared when sexual abuse happens. Some will not tell, because they think they will get in trouble. Sexual abuse can hurt the child's as they get older in life.

It should be noted that statistics show that 1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age 18; 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18; 1 in 5 children are solicited sexually while on the internet (Darkness2light, 2009c). Also children who are ill, disabled, or otherwise perceived as different are more likely targets of abuse(Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2009).

The risk that the media pushes for parents to realise for their child safety is not as severe as they perceive. The major cases that happens to children mainly revolve around child molestation, which does come under sexual assault. The statistics for child molestation/ rape in the gold coast are very limited and difficult to retrieve. A news reporter, Jessica Elder, stated that 50% of sexual offences that occurred in 2015 involved children under 17 (Elder, 2015). Children that are at the ages of 10-14 for female and males are the most attacked and the most commonly reported to the police. The lack of child sexual assault statistics is mainly due to many of the crimes are not reported as they may be too young and scared or they have just held it to themselves through their life. “In Australia, the personal safety survey results for 2012 indicated at almost 1:5 women aged 18 or over had experienced sexual assault since the age of 15” (pdf…). As for males it is at 4% for men after the age of 15 years to have experienced sexual assault. Male children, between the ages of 0-9, held the highest rate of sexual assault for men in 1997. Overall, in 1997, there were 2,858 child victims of sexual assault under the age of 10, children victims held the highest percentage of sexual assault (AIC, 2001). Child sexual assault is

According to Counseling Children “James and Burch (1999) suggest some activities that can be conducted in schools: 1. Prepare school personnel by teaching about normal sexual development, 2. Deliver an abuse prevention program at school that educated children to danger signs, prevention skills, and the importance of telling adults about abuse, 3. Develop a network of professionals to build skills in assessment and include child protection workers, other counselors, therapists, and agencies that diagnose and treat victims.” These are three activities listed that James and Burch suggested should be conducted in schools.

James and Gilliland (2017) noted, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center`s (2005), reported the numbers for sexual abuse in childhood are astounding. One in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18 years old (Finklehor, hotaling, Lewis, & Smith, 1990).

3) Recognize the sign- The most common symptoms of the child sexual abuse is change in

I. Attention getter: Do you know a friend or family member who has been sexually abused? Or maybe you have experienced sexual abuse yourself? Are you aware of the psychological and developmental effects it can have on you or someone you may know? Chances are, you don’t—while sexual abuse is common, may people do not speak up, and the problem goes unrecognized.

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true

Children between the ages of three to five years old are considered to be the most vulnerable to be a victim of sexual abuse. Children need to have supervision at all times, especially during times like changing clothes and bathing. If unsupervised, this can open the door for sexual abuse by the relatives, babysitters, etc. The second risk factor is the socioeconomic status; the offender will notice the child isn’t getting any attention from the family and will manipulate the situation with the child. The perpetrator will offer to buy the child things that the family can’t buy for the child, listening to the child’s problems and gain their trust. The level of education plays a role, if the child is raised by a single parent and/or if the parents have marital problems. Once trust is established this is when the perpetrator will sexually abuse a child. Lastly, the final part is how well the

Research indicates that 1 out of every 4 children will be the victim of sexual abuse before reaching age 18

Controversy is rampant regarding the sexual education of grade school children. Some insist that it is prudent to educate children on this subject beginning as early as kindergarten. Others strongly disagree that earlier education has any effect at all on teen sex and pregnancy and, therefore, abstinence should be the focus. Lastly, we have those who believe advocating abstinence is appropriate, but agree that a more in depth sexual education is also necessary for those who are going to have sex anyway despite our best efforts to teach them otherwise.