The Effects Of Sexual Abuse On Children Essay

Of the many problems faced by children and adolescents, few provoke such moral outrage as childhood sexual abuse. Many times, as on the television show “To Catch a Predator”, such abuse can be inflicted by strangers who may gradually become familiar with the child online. Sadly, however, often times the perpetrator of sexual abuse on children is someone much more familiar to the child- someone the child may even love.

There are many types of abuse: physical, mental, emotional, and sexual. Each has different outcomes for the victim and long term effects. Abuse can play a huge role into how victim’s romantic relationships play out. There are even more negative effects when the abuse happens as a child verse an adult. There has been research done over the years for each type of abuse and at different ages, but the focus here is on sexual abuse in children, and how it affects marriages later.

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

Back in the day there were not as many child protecting laws and assisting facilities like there are today. In 1960’s there was very little information as it relates to child abuse. A Canadian psychologist by the name of William L. Marshall said, “you could read all the information in one morning. With the lack of information there was no way for individuals to readily identify what constituted as child abuser. Child abuse before 1875 was in fact the era before child services were created to protect the children.

Many children that are sexually assaulted have many deficit after the assault. Corwin & Keeshin (2011) states in sexual abuse, genital injuries may result in acute pain and increase the risk of long-lasting effects such as sexual dysfunction, urinary problems, sexually transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency virus and reproductive problems. (p.2). Sexual abuse is not only physical but it is psychological as well as is it emotional. Especially with being sexually abuse, the child would be in so much pain, and at the same time try to figure out what just happening to them. Not just that there is a chance that they might get diseases like sexually transmitted diseases, but they may experience dysfunction in their body like urinary problem because their bodies has not fully developed. The other side effect according to Corwin & Keeshin (2011) some child victims of sexual abuse display few initial effects, the majority show some signs of posttraumatic stress, and more than one-third meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Another effect that this may have according to Corwin & Keeshin (2011) is

The negative consequences of sexual abuse on children should never be underestimated as it has the potential to damage the child victim psychologically, mentally and physically both in the short term and long term. This has been demonstrated in the findings of studies on sexually abused children. Some studies also conclude that sexual abuse is not a traumatic experience to some children at the time of the abuse. This suggests that there is no lasting effect on these children as it does not harm them. Other studies suggest that some children are resilient as they device some coping mechanism to deal with the

It is important that we as practitioners receive the most up to date training in safeguarding as the signs and symptoms, indicators and behaviours of abuse in children and young people can come in different forms, and they are physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and sexual abuse. The forms of physical abuse can include signs and symptoms such as unexplainable recurrent injuries or burns, missing hair, a child running away from home, fear of going to the doctors or hospital for a medical examination, fear of contact with others and being touched, or clothing that covers injuries especially when the weathers hot. The physical injuries that indicate that a child has been abused could come in the form of pinch marks or bruising to the ears, bruising around the eyes, cheeks or face, including finger marks. Bruising around the neck or marks that indicate abuse there, i.e. grasp. Bruising and grasp marks around the chest area and on the shoulders. Bruising, burns and grasp marks to the arms. Burns and scalds to the hands. Bruising to the genital area. Bruising, scalds and burns, or an outline that indicates that a belt has been used to the buttocks area, thighs and back. The signs of emotional abuse can include low self-esteem, lack of confidence or speech problems and therefore find it difficult to make new friends, unexplained toiletry accidents when previously trained, upset after making a mistake, self-harming or mutilation (biting self and head banging) and other

Child maltreatment is an issue that most social workers will face throughout their career. Although there are many causes to a child being neglected, sexually or physically abused; studies have shown that poverty is in many cases linked to child maltreatment. There are currently 488 counties in America where twenty percent of the population has lived below the poverty line for the past thirty years or more (Clyburn, 2014). Studies have shown that poverty is linked to child abuse and neglect. With poverty comes the stresses of housing and instability, childcare burden, substance availability and susceptibility to crime in order to satisfy material needs. And in the midst of all of this, there are children who are being targeted by their parent or guardian when life becomes too difficult to endure.

I feel that this novel can relate to women especially teenagers. People can relate to this because I feel that the author captures the pains and troubles of everyday high school life with honesty and emotionally.The characters are relatable and the book is honest. This is an important book for the content and message it presents. It gives a lot of insight about troubles these victims have faced and speaks volumes about them dealing with issues. It is important for girls and they need to be aware and watchful and to also be compassionate if they know someone who has gone through this trauma. It explores the damaging effects of sexual assault I think the author has done a great job by sending out the message, that any kind of assault or abuse is a big deal and it is not something to keep quiet about. It explores the deeply damaging effects of sexual assault.

In recent years, due to the church sex abuse scandal, childhood sexual abuse has become one of the most highly publicized crimes in the United States. Unfortunately, despite this newfound interest in the scandalous topic of abuse, incest and more common sexual abuse cases involving family continue to be overlooked by society and the media. Understandably, intra-familial sexual abuse is a delicate and complex subject to acknowledge and dissect. Yet, by ignoring the subject entirely, we are doing a great disservice to the victims that have to actually endure these atrocious crimes and stay silent in fear. Furthermore, in choosing to not acknowledge that children are more likely be abused by a family member than by a stranger,

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

The current research shows that child sexual abuse has a long-lasting impact on attachment style from early childhood continuing into adulthood. Fresno et al. (2014) were interested in the attachment representations in preschool aged children in Chile because few studies focus on CSA survivors that young and the results of those few studies have not been conclusive. Past studies have found inconsistent results; some studies have determined a CSA is directly linked to insecure attachment representations in survivors, and other studies have found no differences in self-representation among children with CSA history and non-abused children and furthermore, children who were sexually abused had more positive representations of themselves than

child abuse as any act or series of acts of omission or commission instituted by a parent or caregiver that directly

Most people do not intend to hurt one another or any living individual. There are several types of abuse, there’s physical, emotional, verbal and several others abuses. But the abuse I would like to focus on is child abuse. Domestic violence towards children is important because there is a way to prevent it from happening. Typical parents and caregivers do not intend to abuse their children. Abuse is mainly directed toward the behaviors that are given off towards one another. Author David Gil defines child abuse as an occurrence where a caretaker injures a child, not by accident, but in anger or deliberately. Research illustrates material accustomed to child abuse, for instance, the myth of child abuse, the amount of abuse, as well as the physical signs of violence.

Child abuse is just one of the problems in America we face today. Child abuse affects a child’s mind, emotional state of being and this type of abuse or cruelty molds a person to whom they are by the age of eighteen and is a worldwide prevailing occurrence. “Child abuse or ill-treatment creates all forms of physical and /or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.” Child sexual abuse had been extensively known as one of the distress in a child’s life. Previous study have delivered tough indication of child sexual abuse is connected with a quantity of psychological, social, and mental health problems. Depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, and most illnesses among adult child sexual abuse victims. Former analyses have stated that some of the fears include sexual illnesses, victimization, and close acquaintance violence. In recent times, it has been establish that various physical health conditions are connected to child sexual abuse. In accumulation, child sexual abuse fighters have been found to accomplish less in knowledge and revenue.