The Role Of Child Abuse In The Hispanic Community

Gender roles in Puerto Rican society has been viewed as very male dominate, leaving women in domestic roles. Women’s roles in Puerto Rico have followed the same pattern as many other women’s roles in different countries all over the world. Puerto Rican women have been viewed as subservient to men for centuries. Women are used as “material” for a man’s needs, Philippe Bourgois, In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, stated that “Rape runs rampant around us, and it is as if a society maintains a terrifying conspiracy of silence that enforces this painful dimension of the oppression of women in everyday life.” By tradition, Puerto Rican women were responsible for cooking, cleaning, and other household chores, including that they are there for a man’s pleasure. Therefore, rape culture has become a major problem country to country. Puerto Rican women have been viewed only as domestic workers who were there to serve their husbands. Rape culture is defined as “… an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a society that disregards women’s rights and safety,” as stated by Marshall University in their article, Rape Culture. In some cultures, rape is part of becoming a man or women, this shows to them that

Growing up in a Hispanic household has shaped and built my values in life. At Appleton North High School, I am one out of the few Hispanic students. Knowing that my parents have migrated to America to give me a better future has motivated me to make it happen. Although, as a Mexican-American, I have felt out of place as a minority. However, with time I learned to accept my cultural differences. In fact, to this day, I thank my widowed father for the sacrifices and greater opportunities he has given me. My goal is to keep representing the few Hispanic students in college by working hard to achieve my career goals; not all Hispanics are fortunate enough to attend college. I also work to inspire young Hispanics to find their potential and follow

Growing up, those two words have always left my stomach in knots and caused my eyebrows to come together in confusion. At the tender age of 8, family parties were meant to be fun and enjoyable, but whenever I heard an uncle or grandfather say those two words I was left in a state of discomfort without really knowing why.

Costin, Lela. (1996). The Politics of Child Abuse in America. Oxford, New York: Published by Oxford University Press. Retrieved from Kaplan University’s library at: http://books.google.com/books?id=B70rt3SyhtkC&pg=PA40&dq=Effects+of+child+abuse+in+America&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bpJ1UrbkOvLdsATO54DwAw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Effects%20of%20child%20abuse%20in%20America&f=false.

Growing up in a Latino household is hard. My parents only spoke Spanish therefore my first language was Spanish. For the first few years of my life this was not really a problem, I enjoyed life as any normal little girl would. I got to talk to all of my cousins and all of the neighbor’s children. It wasn’t until I got to school that it became real that I was going to learn English. Don’t get me wrong I always knew I had to learn English my parents always talked to me about school and helped me as much as they could. It was also around this same time where I started to understand that it was not only hard for me it was hard for them as well. My parents had to live in this country not knowing the main language spoken.

Although mistreatment caused considerable suffering for Mexican-Americans, it also forced them to overcome internal differences in order to form a secure community, and contributed to the eventual development of a sense of mexicanidad. Gutiérrez explains how the abuse faced by Mexican-Americans caused the formation of such ties, stating, “it is common for such newly created minority populations to develop a new sense of identity as a natural defense mechanism or as part of a larger ‘oppositional strategy’ against the prejudice and discrimination shown them by the majority or dominant group.” The Mexican-Americans developed barrios and colonias throughout the Southwest to act as such defense mechanisms. These were communities of Mexican-Americans

When looking at Latino families who are faced with their children being a victim of sexual abuse, it is important to understand their culture and their values. Culture connects people of a same community together, and it gives individuals a unique identity which serves as the foundation for the principles of one’s life. Culture provides individuals with a common interest with one another in their society (Fontes, 2007). When Latinos are faced with their child being sexually

Interestingly it has been discovered that studies involving both immigrants and non-immigrants have generally found that Latinas born in the United States were at greater risk. Within the American born group there was a 48.4% rate of victimization in their lifetimes while foreign born Latinas only 22.2% reported physical assault by an intimate partner (Hazen & Soriano, 2007). Studies have also found that there is an association between the age of Latina women and the risk for physical victimization (Kessler, Molnar, Feuer & Appelbaum, 2001; Lown, Vega, 2001; Smith, Thornton, DeVellis, Earp & Coker, 2002). In other studies it has been found that divorced or separated Latina women are more likely to report physical violence and sexual violence than married women are (Coker, Smith, McKeown & King, 2000; Smith, et.al., 2002).

In this paper the theories of multigenerational family therapy and structural family therapy are applied to the Melendez family. Beginning with the biography of the Hispanic family, assessment of the strengths and vulnerabilities of the family, stage of the family life cycle, cultural elements that impact the family and explanation of the types and qualities of relationships depicted in the Melendez genogram and ecomap the foundation for therapeutic goals and interventions are set. Goals and interventions based on the multigenerational family therapy theory are theoretically applied with the goal of the family to recognize emotional patterns to decrease anxiety. The Structural Theory application will focus on the presenting

The American Dream for everyone alike is to prosper and succeed in a land that individuals are determined to call their own. Almost every immigrant that has entered the United States has done so in hopes of finding a better life for themselves and for their families. For most Hispanic-Americans, the goal was the same. Hispanic-Americans come from a variety of different Spanish-speaking countries. Just as the wave of immigrants from Europe came to the United States of America in the late 1800's and early 1900's, Hispanics came from places like Mexico, South and Central America, and the Caribbean Islands. Although everyone came with the same goal in mind, to make sure their families would have a better life in a new environment, each subgroup within the Hispanic community faced different circumstances once they arrived in the United States and have different definitions of what it feels like to be an American.

The Hispanic/Latin American population of the U.S. has been growing steadily over the last four decades (Casas, Vasquez, & Ruiz de Esparza, 2002 retrieved from Alvarez) and recent census statistics indicate that 42.7 million Americans identify themselves as Hispanic (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006 retrieved from Alvarez). The Hispanic population is expected to continue to grow and expand. Hispanic living in the United States face many challenges and social injustice. When facing challenges and social injustices people tend to handle those stressors in different ways. For some people partaking in substance and alcohol abuse has become a coping trend in America. “Substance abuse prevalence rates for Latinos/as generally mirror those of the

In the Hispanic community, people usually go to their natural support system before even considering going to a formal system to seek support. There are various reasons why people in the Hispanic community refrain from getting assistance from formal systems. One of the reasons why Hispanics refrain from using formal support is, the individual may be undocumented; therefore, they are unable to receive benefits and are afraid of being deported. They, being unable to receive benefits from formal systems, they go and seek support from their natural systems. Natural support systems differ from formal support systems because support that comes from a natural system is from our family, friends, clergy members, and maybe even co-workers. Support

Most parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but abuse is defined by the effect on the child, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver.Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them.Child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most of us can’t imagine what would make an adult use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. But the incidence of parents and other caregivers consciously, even willfully, committing acts that harm the very children they’re supposed to be nurturing is a sad fact of human society that cuts

There are certain demographics that are more prone to child abuse. Lower income families and young single mothers are the most likely to have child abuse in the home. This is due to the levels of stress in these types of families. When a person gets too stressed, and is not given the proper tools and resources to let that stress out, naturally it goes to a person that is close to them. Most of the time it is the children, all it takes is for the child to do something small, it can be something natural such as crying for no apparent reason as children often do, to take the abuser from simply over stressed to their breaking point.

Although the extent of child abuse is difficult to measure, it is recognized as a major social problem, especially in industrialized nations. It occurs in all income, racial, religious, and ethnic groups and in urban and rural communities. It is, however, more common in some groups, especially those below the poverty line.