A Community Program to Fight Child Abuse, Research Paper Example

Introduction

There are thousands of children being abused and traumatized in the United States every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “found that 678,932 victims of child abuse and neglect reported by Child Protective Services (CPS) in 2003”. (CDC, 2015. The acts of child abuse is one of the most harmful social problems the United States today. There are far too many acts of maltreatment of children resulting in a life time of physical and mental scars. Parents can be charged with child abuse neglect when they intentionally and deliberately hurt a child physically, sexually or psychological abuse. The primary definition of child abuse isa social problem that includes harmful actions or behaviors that are inflicted upon children that can take any form of sexually, physically or psychological abuse (Pierce & Bozalek, 2004). It is an alarming and shocking social trends of the rising numbers of abused children being reported every year. This paper will review the history of child abuse, different forms of child abuse, social effects of child abuse and possible solutions to the prevention of child abuse.

History

In the United States, we have a long documented history of child abuse that span the early 1800s to the current day and time (Egeland and Susman-Stillman(1996). The social ills of child abuse plagues the United States historically showing little evidence that this child abuse social problem has been resolved. In the age of the technology, the United States has made innovative technological advances yet the problem of child abuse continues to get worse from generation to generations. The child abuse phenomena can be attributed to generations of parents abusing their own children while passing on that trend to future generations that created a long cycle of psychological damage (Egeland & Susman-Stillman, 1996). The author (Egeland and Susman-Stillman (1996) suggested that abusive traits of children can be passed on from generation to generation in every family.

The American public and social services agencies have been fighting child abuse issues as early as 1888, during the Women’s Rights Movements led by Ladies Federal Labor Union (Liguori, 2012. The LFLU petitioned the local Chicago government authorities that 50,000 children from ages of seven to 14 years of aged were employed to work in filthy and dirty sweatshops (Liguori,2012). In the 1900 century begin the age of awareness that openly exposed child abuse causing many social activist, government and private agencies to address this social problem that increases each decade (Cradock, 2014). It was during this period that child abuse was no longer just a secret that children lived with for decades but a platform to help expose the brutalities committed by parents. However, the 1900 was just an awakening that child abuse was not just present in the United States but other countries were have the same child abuse problem. In a social article by Mintz (2013) found that generations of child abuse has found a linkage moving forward in time from 1896 to 1926 parents tried hid the abuse with marital separation,  financial payments or divorce. There is evidence that mothers passed on their abusive tendencies to their children and their children continue the pattern of child abuse into the future.  The answer to child abuse from 1896 to 1926 was sending the children to an orphanage or boarding school to hide the child abuse from the parents (Mintz, 2013).

In the middle of the 1960s, the government realized that the urgency for programs and legislation such as the Child Abuse Reporting Law that was set-up by the U.S. Children’s Bureau. This was the beginning of tracking child abuse from state to state (Newberger, 1983). This was a successful program that prevented child abusers from hiding from authorities child abuse charges in other states.In addition, the child abuser were unable to from changing states or counties residents of the children because the Child Abuse Reporting Laws including all local schools and social programs (Chen & Feng, 2009).

The problem continued to grow in the 1960s, the medical industry began to recognized the symptoms and trauma caused by abuse. The medical industry was not involved with the child abuse problems because it was considered a family problem not a medical issues (Evans, 2004). However, the shaken baby syndrome started the medical industry seeking the root causes of the baby injuries or deaths in the 1960s. As the medical industry and social services started to address potential child abuse cases the awareness of the shaken baby syndrome was recognized as a potential child abuse case.

The author Evans (2004) fund that in 1960, the police department and social services agencies started collaboration with the medical profession finding a new platform to prevent and identify true child abuse victims. The change was needed because in the past there was no technology that linked all the social and court services that could identify repeat child abused offenders. In the 1960s, the number of child abuse incidents decrease and increased because the reporting platforms had not caught up with legislation. In addition, the court system would send the children to foster homes but did not address the social problems of children being hurt and killed by habitual child abusers. It was a step in right direction in the United States to combine the resources and information from the police department, juvenile courts and the medical industry (Evans, 2004). However, during this period, the United States has one the worst records in the nation in 1960s, because the child abuse statistics continued to climb(Child Abuse Effects, 2015). It is evident that child abuse has a long history dating back to the 1800s which innovative solutions used by each generations. However, our society has not found enough solutions to the child abuse problem.

Present Day

In American today, we have a catastrophic number of children that are injured or dying because of child abuse. In the United States today we have more than 3 million reports of child abuse and 4 or 5 children are killed by child abuse or neglect (Findlaw, 2015). The United States is not doing very well with the prevention of child abuse. This is evident in the United States because of the number of children in overloaded foster care system, homelessness and poverty. The families of the United States has been failed by society to protect the innocence of our children and failed to find innovative ways to find their predators of children (Chen & Feng, 2009)

In the present day, progress has been made with awareness of child abuse at the forefront of social problems in the media. In addition, over the last 20 year, significant improvement in the decline of report physical and sexual abuse (Healy, 2013). This is a social indicator that the United States is addressing the problem with legislation, advocated support and federal programs that allow local authorities to take action about abusive parents. However, a 2013 study by National Academy of Science (NAS) reported that the psychological and abuse of children does not reflect a decline with 75% of social cases reported are child abuse related (Healy, 2013). The author Healy (2013) indicated that the child abuse impact to society is a financial burden of $80.3 billion spent annually on child abuse cases. The United States is losing the battle of protecting children from predators and their own family members. The child abuse epidemic has reached catastrophic proportions that is a direction reflection of our society. There is a lack of urgency by the government and agencies to provide enough resources and funding to address the nationwide problem. This is a powerful conclusion that the United States has made major strides in creating prevention programs for abused children however, the long term cumulative damage to families is concerning for future generations.

The American Society for Positive Care of Children(2015) that over the last 10 years to present date over 200,000 American children have been killed by their own family members from child abuse. The social innovations that include social agencies such as Departments of Children and Families (DCF), Health and Human Services, foster homes for abused children and many other social programs fail to prevent the alarming number of children killed by their own family members. In addition, the hidden child abuse incidents that have not been reported need innovative programs to help those that are suffering in silence. The United States solutions to the prevention of child abuse starts with the reporting of the child abuse. In many incidences, the child is not old enough or mature enough to understand the parent’s abuse. This means that the number of reported child abuse cases is probably extremely higher.

Social Institution

The social institutions are impacted when the abuse child is admitted without the full background the child’s past child abuse. The abuse child may be admitted by the schools, social services, government agencies and simple referrals. The mental institution have certain protocol when children are not submitted by their parents. The healing process for this child does not start until the social or mental institution intervenes address the year’s maltreatment.  The negative effects of thousands of children being sent to mental institutions does not address the real issues of child abuse with the children. The second negative about the mental health programs accept the unruly child as a trouble makers instead of trying to uncover the layers of child abuse.

Socio-Demographic Variable

The gathering of the Socio-Demographic variable information on child abuse has many barriers to the reporting of the child abuse. The factors of location, family size, male, females, and medical agencies reporting child abuse. In order to track and record the child abuse statistics to find trends to prevent the child abuse is a difficult task. The child abuse incidents are reported from different avenues such as children affairs, juvenile, foster homes, social agencies and police department all have different ways to report child abuse. However, these avenues are not interconnected to prevent child abusers from slipping through the system undetected as habitual child abusers. The medical providers have a difficult time understanding which child is truly sick from the flu and which ones are being neglected. In addition, the emergency room have difficult time determining the illness or child abuse (Evans & Rosch, 2015).

The demographic variable that helps determine the highest concentration of child abuse is skewed because not all agencies are reporting their incidents and classifying them differently. The best example is the juvenile system that finds a child in custody that has severe cigarette burns and the child has some mental problems. They will classify the child as mentally ill sending the child into the world of psychiatry care. The obvious child abuse signs should be referred to Child Services to determine what family household previously abused that child.   The task becomes more difficult because which demographic variable should be tracked as the originator of the abuse because what location, which parents or foster home parents, race, gender and income. All these factors allow researchers and public agencies to track the child abuse offenders. The juvenile offender may have been in several foster homes and lived with many different family members

Sociological Theory

Child abuse is considered a sociological occurrence that is not a normal behavior patterns for human beings because the child abuse is learned from the abusing parents.   The sociological traditions and learned behaviors derived from years of verbal and physical abuse. This makes it true that child abuse is a sociological child abuse is considered a sociological phenomenon because this behavior is not a normal. The social impact of the child abuse is passed on to future generations while society still looks for new and innovative ways to prevent untimely injuries.

In a study byAdults Serving Child Abuse (ASCA) (2015), found several sociological theories such as child abuse behaviors are passed down from generation to generation, child abuse is learned from the abusers or parent and children of abuse have a life time of personality disorders and anxiety. The child become withdrawn because all the places of trust have been eliminated because the abuser uses verbal and physical abuse to alienate the child from society. The children that survive child abuse have learned how to hide their emotional damage in social setting such as schools and family gatherings. The child has learned a new set of social skills from the parent abusers which the art of deception (Silverstone, 2014).According to Fontes (2005), the impact of child abuse affects the social skills because they become withdrawn because the love and affection comes from the same abuser. This confusions often find children withdrawing from society because that trust has been broken and they seek love in all the wrong social circles (Fontes, 2005).A study by Silverstone (2015), found the social network of churches, schools, and home are no longer a safe haven for the child because of child abuse, however, there will be signals that the child is not trusting of society. The abused child will more than likely be depressed, anxiety, low-esteem and because nervous around adults. The end result from years of abuse the child becomes non-social.

Social Action

The United States has a serious problem with child abuse that has continued to plague society. There is a need for more social advocates and social agencies working together to find ways to reach those damage children. The children that are being abused often are ashamed of their parents/abusers so they shy away from the community and school. There are many social programs that exist to address potential child neglect however more resources need to be stationed in the community. In a study by Cox, Weber and Joachim (2007) found that community based outreach programs for abused children assisted with prevention of child abuse while providing safe havens for abused children. The study also found that children are more prone to talk to a community member that is a familiar face because they are seeking social settings where they can find love, affection and trust. In addition, the use of confidential hotlines gives the child a way to expose the child abuse without being detected by the parent abusers.

Conclusion

It is clear that child abuse has a history dating back to 1800s that has continued through many generations. The consensus that one of the primary problems is that all the different agencies do not always linked their abuse information and resources. The schools, court system and social agencies need to address these gaps to improve national, city and state communication channels. There has been many efforts on behalf of social agencies and the government to fight this child abuse cycle but the child abuse statistics are getting worse. The cycle is difficult to break because the parents embed negative social skills into the child’s life because children are like sponges the absorbed all the good and bad from parents. The present day child abuse problem continues to plague our society today while the mental health services are at a disadvantage trying to resolve child abuse issues. It is clear that abused children will face a lifetime of damage from abusive parents.

References

Adults Serving Child Abuse (ASCA) (2015).Impact of child abuse. Retrieved from http://www.asca.org.au/WHAT-WE-DO/Resources/General-Information/Impact-of-child-abuse

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2015).Child maltreatment prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/index.html

Chen, Y., Yeh, L., & Feng, J. (2009). Concept analysis of child abuse [Chinese]. Journal of  Nursing, 56(4), 71-76.

Child Abuse Effects. (2015).History of child abuse. Retrieved from http://www.child-abuse-effects.com/history.html

Cradock, G. (2014).Who owns child abuse. Social Sciences. Vol 3.4, pgs.854-870

Cox, J., Webber, B., & Joachim, G. (2007). A community program to fight child abuse: the Fort Wayne Children’s Foundation and Kids’ Law. Journal of Manipulative & Physiological Therapeutics, 30(8), 607-613.

Egeland, B. & Sussman-Stillman, A. (1996).Dissociation as a mediator of child abuse across generations. Science Direct Journal.Vol.20, Issue 11, pgs.1123-1132

Evans, H. (2004). The medical discovery of shaken baby syndrome and child physical abuse. Pediatric Rehabilitation, 7(3), 161-163.

Evans, K., & Rosch, J. (2015).Barriers to reporting child maltreatment: Do emergency medical services professional fully understand their role as mandatory reports. North Carolina Medical Journal.Vol. 76, no. 1, pgs. 13-18

Findlaw. (2015). Child abuse background and history. Retrieved from http://family.findlaw.com/child-abuse/child-abuse-background-and-history.html

Fontes, L. A. (2005). Child Abuse and Culture: Working with Diverse Families. New York, NY, USA: Guilford Press. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Healy, M. (2013, Sept).Child neglect accounts for 75% of reported abuse cases. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/12/child-abuse-neglect/2803099/

Liguori, E. W. (2012). Nell nelson and the Chicago times “city slave girls” series. Journal of Management History, 18(1), 61-81. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17511341211188655

Newberger, E., Newberger, C. & Hampton, R. (1983). Child abuse: The current theory base and future research needs. Journal of American Academy of Child Psychiatry. Vol 22, pgs.262-268

Pierce, L., & Bozalek, V. (2004).Child abuse in South Africa: An examination of how child abuse and neglect are defined. Science Direct Journals.Vol.28, Issue 8, pgs. 817-832

Silverstone.J. (2014).Jimmy Salvile: Abuse and a question of trust. British Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 30, Issue 3, pgs.384-398