Child Abuse Essay Sample

📌Category: Child development, Family, Parents and Children, Psychology, Social Issues, Violence
📌Words: 924
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 07 September 2021

Nelson Mandela once said,”The true character of a society is reveled in how it treats children”.This quote relates to this essay because people treat children in abuse as a way to discipline them. The reason I chose to speak about the different types of abuse on children is that I recently saw someone get abuse by a parent, so when we were giving the chance to speak about a topic that works with psychology this was the best topic for me. Child abuse works with psychology because the person who is doing the abuse will have reason in their mind for why they are doing the abuse to a child. The child will have different emotions going on in their heads about what they should do to themselves and to the adult who is doing this to them. The three different abuses are physical abuse, sexual abuse, and child neglect.

Physical abuse

Physical abuse of children in our society is a serious problem that has only recently been recognized by the medical community.(David M. Pressel, M.D., PH.D.,2000) Physical abuse can ruin a child’s life. For instance, last month was my first time seeing this kind of abuse on a person who is close to me. My cousin's father was abusing her for no reason while she was screaming and crying “Daddy I didn’t do anything”.This made me burst into tears because I had never seen abuse in real life. Always seen it on television or read about it in books. “In 1996, approximately 1 million children were confirmed to be victims of maltreatment, and 1,185 children died from their injuries.”(David M.Pressel, M.D., PH.D.,2000) Thinking about this and realizing the number is much higher in 2021 and my cousin could have been one of the many children who died from these injuries is scary. Talking about this situation is hard because the scenes constantly appearing in my mind.”However, the patterns of injuries seen in children who are physically abused differ from injuries seen in children who are hurt accidentally.”(David M. Pressel, M.D., PH.D.,2000) If she was to go to the hospital to lie and say she got these bruises from falling, the employees would notice the difference because “bruises in the shapes of handprints, belt buckles, cord loops or encirclements represent child physical abuse”(David M. Pressel, M.D., PH.D.,2000) Children who are experiencing physical abuse will feel neglected.

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse is defined as any sexual contact between an adult and a sexually immature (sexual maturity is socially as well as physiologically defined) child for purposes of the adult’s sexual gratification;(Frinkelhor, D.F.,& Kobin, J.K. 1988). Sexual abuse can occur with both females and males. It is important to stress the kinds of activities that are not sexual abuse.(Frinkelhor,D.F.,& Kobin,J.K. 1988). For instance, some males do not take pleasure in changing a baby girl's diaper. Although, this is not sexual abuse if all the male is doing is changing his daughter’s diaper, but if the daughter was at the age where the body grows it would be considered trying to do sexual things with her.”This type of abuse was once thought to be extremely rare, but indications now are that in the United States as many as 1 in 20 female children have suffered some form of such abuse with fathers or stepfathers “(Frinkelhor, D.F.,& Kobin, J.K. 1988)This goes back to the story about my cousin. Her father made her take her clothes while he was abusing her. The father was not trying to sexually abuse her, but why would he make her take all her clothes off except for her underwear. She is 15 years old with a body that is developing into a young woman. However, I do not understand why fathers do this with their daughters. What do they get out of doing this and how is it enjoyable. Many psychologists have been trying to figure this because the father that is doing this has to have a reason somewhere in their horrible minds. “Children in these situations appear to suffer from rejection and alienation from the whole family.”(Frinkelhor, D.F.,& Kobin, J.K. 1988)Why does a child have to feel it is their fault for getting sexually abused. In movies, mothers tend to fuss a child for dressing a “grown”, but using how the child dressed as an excuse is not right.”Unlike physical or sexual abuse, which is usually incident-specific, neglect often involves chronic situations that are not as easily identified as specific incidents.”(Kathryn L. Hildyard, David A. Wolfe, 2002).

Child neglect

Child neglect is not giving a child what they need to survive and letting a child witness abuse. There are two different types of neglect.”physical neglect (i.e., failure to meet adequately the physical needs of children), permitting criminal behavior, abandonment, and educational neglect account for the majority of other cases, with medical neglect, failure to supervise leading to sexual abuse, and failure to provide necessary treatment for a child being less common.”(Kathryn L. Hildyard, David A.Wolfe,2002). For example, I have an aunt that has a child in her teens. She still likes to attend parties even if that means leaving her infant with her friends. Her parents will not babysit, but they do not want the infant to be left with her friends who are also in their teens. However, they will babysit the infant if they know she will leave the baby with a friend. My aunt should have known the responsibility of being a mother, meaning she would have to give up many things such as partying.”Emotional neglect (i.e., acts or omissions by the caregiver that could cause the child to develop behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders) and exposure to family violence are difficult forms of maltreatment to define because of their lack of visible injuries and often delayed impact on development.”(Kathryn L. Hildyard, David A. Wolfe, 2002). Several children are the middle child and feel neglected. The parent may not show the same amount of support to the middle child. A person needs support through everything, especially as a teenager.

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