The American Society For The Cruelty Prevention Of Child Abuse Children

From the beginning, the United States Constitution has guaranteed the American people civil liberties. These liberties have given citizens rights to speak, believe, and act freely. The Constitution grants citizens the courage to express their mind about something they believe is immoral or unjust. The question is, how far are citizens willing to extend the meanings of these liberties? Some people believe that American citizens take advantage of their civil liberties, harming those around them. On the contrary, many other people feel that civil liberties are necessary tools to fight for their Constitutional rights.

An American’s civil liberties are among some of the most important rights awarded to a citizen. After 9/11 some of those liberties were taken away by the expansion of executive power, the National Security

Mary Ellen’s case, in 1874, was one of the first cases of child abuse recorded. According to American Humane Association (2013), she was being abused by her stepmother. There was no such thing as child protective services or the department of family services. There was only the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Her story led to the founding of the New York Society for the Prevention and Cruelty to Children (American Humane Association, 2013). In the 1960s’ child abuse was first recognized as a social problem;

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

Civil liberties are our natural rights, such as freedom, equality and pursuit of happiness, which the government cannot modify by making new laws or by judicial interpretation. Civil liberties are important because it helps restrain the power of the government to dictate how we behave. This ensures that our daily life is not interrupted by authoritative figures that may just try to intentionally cause harm. Civil liberties contribute to the protection of our personal choices, such as the right to abortions. The bill of rights is important to civil liberties because it does not allow the government to govern our personal lives. Unfortunately, with this war against terrorism, we have given those authoritative figures the ability to mandate

One might ask the importance of civil liberties after so many years. The answer is that we are all touched by these liberties every day. Even though civil liberties were embedded into the Bill of Rights in the late 1800’s, we today, as Americans, still have the right to be protected against any abusive power used by the government (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 106). Although Americans are protected fully today, it took over a century for all civil liberties to be implemented. With several civil liberties in place, which is most important? Which liberty protects us as Americans, most significantly? I believe all of our civil liberties are equally as beneficial and lead to the safety of every citizen in the United

When the Bill of Rights was established, it was to ensure civil freedoms to all. Little by little these days, all of these rights are now gaining more and more stipulations that are restricting our rights as Americans. Due to the unrest of the world from all of the terrorism, it appears that our right to freedom of speech (Amendment I) and the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures is diminishing rapidly.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 was originally created to protect a target population of children, under the age of 18, from child abuse and neglect; however, over the years this act has been amended and improved to protect a wider population, with many specific subpopulations, over the past 42 years. In the original text of the act, two specific populations are addressed with different goals: reducing the rate of child abuse in children under the age of eighteen, and improving the treatment of children who had been maltreated or neglected (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2014). It is easy to see that this act and policies within it are aimed at protecting children specifically, yet looking only at the children,

Child abuse is a very sensitive issue that needs to by carefully handled. Child abuse is defined as a no accidental injury or pattern of injures to a child for which there is no reasonable explanation.

A man that goes by the name of “Paul Ryan” once stated, “We believe, as our founders did, that ‘the pursuit of happiness’ depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government’”. In fact, at the Constitutional Convention, in order to protect against giving the central government too much power, the delegates added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution in which these individual liberties are as stated in it . The Bill of Rights are the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution that guarantees legal and civil rights of the citizens. The Founders had high hopes of these individual liberties that were promised to the people. However, the government, which was supposed to have a limited power or say in this, has been attempting to compromise these liberties with sugar coated words such as they are doing this in the name of security or general welfare for the people by taking advantage of our desire for security.

Each week Child Protective Services receives more than 50,000 allegations of child abuse. Two-thirds of the allegations have enough evidence to start investigations. The results of these investigations showed 2,450 children are abused everyday (Ianelli, 2006). In 1999, CPS, nearly four, confirmed an estimated 1,401 child abuse and neglect fatalities every day. (Child Abuse Statistics, nd).

These liberties include freedom of thought, belief, expression, and assembly; protection against unreasonable searches and captures; and provisions for a court hearing prior to government taking of a person 's life, liberty, or property. Civil liberty is not absolute, it is subject to limitations in order to secure or promote the greater interests of the community. The State may protect civil liberty through its laws against interference by other individuals, or through its constitutional system against interference by any single part of the Government. But the State always possesses the power, through its legal power, to limit and shorten or even destroy civil liberty.

The earliest report of child abuse was in 1874 with the case of Mary Ellen McCormack, who was 10 years old and living in Manhattan at the time. This case brought attention to reformers who strived to prevent child abuse and protect victims, an effort that persists even today. The awareness of child abuse also prompted researchers to find a correlation between abuse and criminal behavior in adulthood. At the time of McCormack’s case, there were no laws protecting children from physical abuse from their parents. In late 1873, Mary Ellen McCormack caught the attention of her neighbors who realized how severely battered and neglected she was by her adoptive mother, Mary Connolly. The neighbors reported this to the Department of Public Charities and Correction, which was in charge of New York’s insane asylums, orphanages, jails, and public hospitals.

Ever since the Bush Administration and the events of September 11, 2001, the American people have dealt with the government taking away bits and bits of their constitutional rights. Such rights like the freedom of association, speech, unreasonable searches and seizures, the right to legal representation, speedy and public trial, and the right to liberty. Any new law that infringes on these rights ands is created and passed is a bit of freedom being taken away. The government has limited individuals’ right to freedom of assembly by authorities seeking to repress the activities of those that are simply defending human rights. Censorship has also limited

For generations, we as a society have evaluated what we call our freedoms, as they constantly continue to influence our quality of life. In the 1940s, President Franklin Roosevelt's Message to Congress promised the people of America Four Freedoms, or freedoms that are imperative to human life. These freedoms included freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. Freedom of speech goes back to the first amendment where there is the liberty of expression. Freedom of worship allows people to practice any belief system they desire, as well as worship the God that they please. Freedom from want meant no citizen should have to yearn for the basic needs to survive, and should be provided with a standard living. Finally, freedom from fear meant for there to be no fear of having to use aggression against a neighbor, in addition to being granted peace and a sense of security. These were the guaranteed freedoms stated by the president for the future. However, as time progressed and certain events in history began occurring, these freedoms may have slipped from view and become less practiced. It is clear to see that the United States government did not effectively uphold these freedoms during, the time the U.S declared war against the Japanese, during the scare of Communism, and in the day to day life for citizens in minority groups.