Essay/Term paper: Child abuse

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Essays

Child Abuse


"Trust unto Jehovah with all thy heart,
And unto thine own understanding lean not.
In all thy ways know thou Him,
And He doth make straight thy paths."
(Proverbs 3:5,6, YLTHB)

The statistics on physical child abuse are alarming. Of the estimated hundreds
of thousands of children battered each year by a parent or close relative,
thousands die. For those who survive, the emotional trauma remains long after
the external bruises have healed. Communities and the courts recognize that
these emotional "hidden bruises" can be treated.

Children who have been abused may display a poor self-image, Inability to depend
on, trust or love others, Aggressive and disruptive—sometimes illegal—
behavior; Passive and withdrawn behavior; fear of entering into new
relationships or activities, School failure, Serious drug and alcohol abuse. The
child and adolescent psychiatrist is able to treat the "whole child"—medical as
well as psychological or emotional problems that have occurred as a result of
the abuse. The family can be helped to learn new ways of support and
communicating with one another. Through treatment, the abused child begins to
regain a sense of self-confidence and trust. Child abuse is a matter of degree:
the degree to which a parent uses inap-propriate or excessive control strategies
with a child and/or fails to provide standards of care giving. In fact, abusive
parents often do not know they are abusive. Our culture has, for generations,
used corporal punishment as a means of controlling child behavior. Some parents
think society places no restraint on such techniques. Many may recall the old
saying, "spare the rod and spoil the child." It is not always clear what the
limits are in efforts to get a child to behave. The best way to stop the child
abuse and stop the abusive parents from abusing their children is by forming a
non-profit organization working in cooperation with U.S. Dept. of Welfare , a
resource for children and families to report a child abuse and to search for the
abusive parents and put a penalty on them. These type of organizations have
worked considerably good in the other fields and I am sure that this solu-tion
will work out fairly well. In this Article " The goal of NCMEC," The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children states that

"The goals of the NCMEC:

A private, non-profit organization working in cooperation with
the U.S. Department of Justice, NCMEC is a vital resource for
families and America's 17,000 law enforcement agencies in
the search for missing children and the quest for child
protection."

In 1986, six youth and adult survivors of child abuse and neglect formed what
has become a nation-wide movement, the National Child Rights Alliance, which is
the only national organization directed entirely by youth and adult survivors of
abuse and neglect. (Non-abused supporters are important to our work as well.)
This is the Same Kind of Organization which is working for child abuse pre
vention and is going very well.

Parents can help prevent abuse if they monitor their own behavior by checking to
see the effect stress has on them. If you see you are losing patience easily and
that it is interfering with proper supervision of your child or children, you
should search out professional help and counseling. Parenting abilities can be
seri-ously challenged by personal stress-related problems. Professional
assistance from psychologists and other trained counselors could prevent child
abuse. Remember, child abuse is not restricted to violent behavior and the long-
-term effects of child abuse and poorparenting can last a lifetime.