Overwhelming many children suffer at the hands of child abuse every day. It appears to most people that child abuse is negative, something that no one should commit, or that it’s common sense not to harm a child. Yet it continues to be a problem around the world and it is largely believed that the chances of eliminating child abuse incidents completely is slim to none, however, that topic will be discussed later. There are four different types of child abuse in which a child can experience.
The first being neglect. Neglect is one of the more common abuse children undergo, but it also is the least researched and receives less attention when compared to the other forms of abuse. Neglect is also very difficult to define due to situations differing. For example: if a parent were to leave their toddler at home without supervision that would be seen as neglect, but if the child were around twelve it would not be.
Neglect has been divided into various categories: physical, educational, emotional, medical, mental health, stimulation, language, gross and fine motor skills. Physical neglect involves the guardian failing to meet the child’s basic needs through a lack of finance, inadequate supervision, and abandoning the child for long periods of time or permanently. Educational neglect consists the guardian allowing the child to miss school, does not enroll child in school or take them to school, and fails to provide proper education for child that has special needs.
Emotional neglect is when the guardian is not attentive to the child’s emotional needs such as developing a bond, while medial health is the failure to provide the child with adequate health care or there is a delay. Moreover, stimulation neglect puts the child’s development at risk because the guardian is not creating enough physical interaction with the child, and language neglect occurs a child is robbed of learning how to speak correctly at a young age, therefore, suffering in the long run when in school and future relationships.
Lastly, motor neglect is split into two types: gross motor and fine motor. Gross motor skills are those that the child develops when playing, exploring, and jumping, but if a parent disapproves they could hinder the child’s gross motor skills by disallowing the actions. While the fine motor skills are the smaller movements such as holding a spoon, picking up small objects, or solving puzzles. A parent may ignore the child and not encourage him/her to partake in any of these activities, thus inhibiting their development.
In addition, the second form of child abuse is sexual abuse. The majority of today’s society views sexual relations between an adult and a child to be disgusting and wrong. Let alone a relationship between one’s own kin. Although in the past children were married at younger ages to adults, generally young girls to older men, most societies have casted aside these traditions and instead deem it as taboo and illegal. Children who are exposed to sexual activities are more likely to have long term negative effects psychologically rather than physically.
The clear cut definition of child sexual abuse is an adult using a child for their own sexual gratification. Furthermore, a child can also experience sexual exploitation where the child does not necessarily have genital contact but are involved in child pornography or observes a sexual act being played out. There are many other terms that are used to describe child abuse such as; molestation, victimization, assault, and rape. Children who are raped are descried as having the perpetrator intrude an aperture of the child’s body by using any part of their body to do so.
Though even with these definitions it is difficult to determine certain acts sexual abuse, for instance when it is not okay for a parent to bathe with their children. Lastly, there are two different types of sexual abuse that are termed using the perpetrator. Interfamilial abuse, another word for incest. is a child being abused by a person that is related by blood or a parent that has taken on the role of parent such as a step father. The second type is extrafamilial abuse which is someone outside of the family of the child.
The third form of child abuse is the most dramatic and the one that the majority of people think about when they hear child abuse, physical child abuse. Although it is hard to determine what is physical child abuse due to the difference in other cultures, the definition is largely based on source of the culture. In general physical abuse of children refers to non-accidental injury inflicted by the caregiver, and though it is important for protective services to understand different cultural practices, those living in the United States must live within state and federal status ( ).
The medical community, as with the general public, view child abuse by the physical symptoms such as; burns, bruises, fractures, head and internal injuries, and welts. Leading to the term battered-child syndrome. While the law views lean toward the intent of the abuse. Of course it is not just the physical injuries that can determine abuse, there are also behavioral indicators as well when injuries cannot be seen. Some examples are impulsion, withdrawal, regression, and poor peer relationships.
There are many factors that can lead to physical child abuse, a main one being stress from the environment, economic, and/or social variables. The last form of child abuse that will be discussed is not often thought about even more so than neglect, psychological child abuse. It is also the most difficult to define because it is often at times connected to the other forms of abuse. For instance, a child’s injuries may eventually heal but the psychological trauma from the events may not.
A lot of children are haunted by their abuse for years and some never fully recover. Psychological maltreatment is split into two categories: emotional/ psychological neglect and emotional/psychological abuse. Emotional and psychological neglect includes insufficient nurturance, refusing to provide sufficient care for the child, allowing for maladaptive behavior such as delinquency or drug abuse, and insufficient affection ( ). While emotional and psychological abuse consists of emotional and/or verbal assaults, threatening the child, or close confinement.
Ultimately, psychological abuse is a pattern of mentally destructive behavior not an isolated incident. Furthermore, child neglect as well as physical and sexual abuse will be explored within the paper through several articles that relate to each form of abuse. Additionally, the treatments for child abuse through various programs will be analyzed to determine whether or not the treatment is correctly helping the children. In conclusion of the paper the topic surrounding the possible elimination of child abuse and reduction of events in our society will be discussed. Neglect