Relationship Between Child Abuse and Delinquency

The definition of a social worker is, the professional activity of helping individuals, groups, families and communities. The adoption process became legal in 1850.

Depression and anxiety, for example, may make a person more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol or drugs, or overeat. High-risk behaviors, in turn, can lead to long-term physical health problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases, cancer, and obesity. Not all children who have been abused or neglected will experience long-term consequences, but they may have an increased susceptibility. The immediate physical effects of abuse or neglect can be relatively minor (bruises or cuts) or severe (broken bones, hemorrhage, or even death). In some cases, the physical effects are temporary; however, the pain and suffering they cause a child should not be discounted. Child abuse and neglect can have a multitude of long-term effects on physical health. NSCAW researchers found that, at some point during the 3 years following a maltreatment investigation, 28 percent of children had a chronic health condition (Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation [ACF/OPRE], 2007). Below are some outcomes other researchers have identified: Impaired brain development. Child abuse and neglect have been shown to cause important regions of the brain to fail to form or grow properly, resulting in impaired development. These alterations in brain maturation have long-term consequences for cognitive, language, and academic abilities and are connected with mental health disorders (Tarullo,

When a person is abusing a child, he/she does not think about the effects. When people are mistreating a child, they will be in the moment and not thinking of what they are doing. If an individual chronically abuses his/her child, he is not thinking about the effects the abuse has on his child. There are various long and short term effects of child abuse. Unfortunately, these short-term effects of child abuse are not the most frightening; most abused children do not have lasting physical effects. Other than some bruises and social withdrawal, short term effects are not clear. If asked about bruises, children will make up a lie to protect their abuser (Friedman). The effects of being abused as a child continue into adulthood and create the long term effects. The disturbing part is that abused children will most likely grow up to be troubled adolescents and adults who may even abuse their own children.

Being abused can also leave the child feeling worthless and with low self-esteem, this can then lead to the child feeling depressed which can possibly lead to self-harming.

The consequences of maltreatment can lead to psychological problems and physical problems. When a child has been abused this can make the child angry. Self-esteem is usually caused when someone is emotionally abused as the person may talk down to the child and make the child feel useless. When somebody is sexually abused, the consequence may be an STI or even unwanted pregnancy. Other consequences that can happen due to abuse is, diseases, stress, and illnesses. These can be due to Neglect, if the child is not looked after properly then the child could end up ill, this can also happen due to neglect if the home environment is not healthy.

There has been an enormous amount of research, going back almost thirty years, about the relationship between childhood trauma, and juvenile delinquency. Many researches cannot say that there is a direct link between the two, but after much research, researches have found that childhood trauma can perhaps be a predictor for juveniles who later in life commit crimes. Trauma is defined as, “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury,” because the definition is broad and can range from a variety of different events, for the purpose of this paper, the focus will be on neglect trauma in juveniles (Trauma, 2016). Neglect according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is, “the failure of a parent or other person with the responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision such that the child’s health, safety and well-being are threatened with harm” (Kazemian, 2011).

Ethical responsibilities as a professional are extremely important to be a successful social worker. A social worker should be competent in their line for. They should know past and previous knowledge about their line of work. They should also be familiar with any related knowledge to their field. Many

The people doing it or seeing it may not even know that it is happening. Emotional abuse can change a thought of a child. A positive to a negative if you will. Then eventually many thoughts a child may have will direct to completely negative. Emotional abuse can be crippling to a child’s everyday life. Humiliation, judging, criticizing and degradation are just some forms of emotional abuse. Verbal abuse is not the same, but can identify with the silent scars as emotional abuse. These kinds of abuses will interfere with a child’s development and may be more likely to have self-esteem issues than most children. The physiological effect will ultimately damage a bond between the child, and the attacker.

“Child abuse can affect the child physically, psychologically, behaviorally, and on some conditions can affect the children in all three ways. ”(Child welfare information gateway) “Young adults who have been abused have experienced many problems after including, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and even suicide attempts. ”(Child welfare information gateway) There are many long term effects that victims can have these also include low self-esteem, depression, and relationship difficulties. “Not all victims of child abuse will experience behavioral or emotional consequences, but they will definitely appear to be more likely among this group.

Strain theory describes the idea that there are certain events and conditions in an individual’s life that are disliked and involve the inability to achieve goals, loss of positively valued stimuli, and presentation of negative stimuli (Brezina and Agnew). Child neglect and abuse can be described by this theory, and often is, because of its elements and the effect it has on children. Before the idea of child abuse and neglect causing juvenile delinquency can be argued, juvenile delinquency must be defined. Brezina and Agnew define juvenile delinquency as law violations committed by minors. One of the largest debated consequences of child abuse and neglect is it causes juvenile delinquency in victims. Juvenile offenders are view by the justice system as “‘immature’ in the sense that they are less capable of appreciating the consequences of their actions, less able to exercise self-control and more easily lead astray by others.” Supports of this claim say abuse causes delinquency because weak bonds, low self-control, and confrontation with negative stimuli.

It is general knowledge that being abused as a child will leave lasting impressions on them even into their adult life. The severity of the abuse does change how much of an impression was made, but, nonetheless, abuse leaves nothing but negative results. It will affect how children handle issues and communicate with others. It will likely worsen their grades in school and, if the child’s relationship with their parents is still bad, they will continue into a downward spiral later on in life. People who have experienced abuse as children will experience thoughts of inadequacy and/or superiority, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and even personality disorders. Depending on the type of abuse, some children might develop paranoia, OCD, psychosis,

In other instances, the parent can confiscate the child’s belongings or force the children to strip down naked and be photographed as a form of punishment. Considering the types of abuse that these children experience, there are psychological effects that can affect their life as they get older. The effects of household abuse can extend outside the home and affect the child in their performance in society. “Children Exposed to Domestic Violence” states that children exposed to family violence can experience difficulties in paying attention and staying on task (Geffner 39). Abused children are prone to externalizing problems which causes children to act out. Externalizing problems include temper tantrums, impulsivity, hyperactivity, aggression, conflict, cruelty and bullying. Another issue that abused children develop are internalizing problems. Internalizing problems are issues such as headaches, sleep disturbances, anxiety, fear of separation, social withdraw and depression. This overall causes the children to be less engaged in tasks and in normal behaviors.

INTRODUCTION: “Child Abuse occurs when a parent or a care taker physically, emotionally, or sexually mistreats or neglects a child resulting in the physical, emotional, or sexual harm or imminent risk of harm or exploitation, or in extreme cases the death of a child,” child abuse is a big deal because in today’s society many children face abuse, there are many effects and reasons as to why a child may be abuse.

Child abuse and neglect are considered a social phenomenon that plays a crucial role in American society as well as in the American criminal justice system. All types of ages, genders, ethnicities at some point or another are represented as victims or perpetrators of child abuse or neglect. Child abuse includes physical, psychological and sometimes sexual abuse to a person who is below the age of 18. Child abuse or neglect victims tend to grow up with long terms consequences such as low self-esteem, depression, and other major consequences such as engaging in criminal behavior as adults, teen pregnancy and not to mention the severity of physical child abuse consequences can end up in a death of an innocent victim. This literature

This literature review explores existing literature and scholarship that outlines the effects of early child abuse (2-8 years old) on future acts of delinquency. Literature suggests that a correlation exists between the effects of child abuse and delinquency. Common problematic behaviors are socialization changes and learning abilities from early childhood to adolescence. Studies indicated correlations along with social theories such as the Social Control Theory which is dominant in explaining the relevance of these correlations. Researchers have developed programs such as early