Protecting Children: Rise of Child Abuse Despite Efforts to Combat It - Essay Sample

Introduction

Children represent a renewal of the population of our societies which makes their protection a critical aspect of social life. In the world we live in today; however, the prevalence of the tragic offense of child abuse has significantly increased despite the efforts by the legal system, the community, and other organizations and agencies attributed with child welfare. Results from a series of studies undertaken on a national scale indicate that child abuse continues to intensify and increase at an alarming rate. Attempting to understand the scope of this phenomenon, surveys targeting public opinions, attitudes, and awareness were performed while focusing on the significantly major cases regarding child physical abuse reported in the U.S. and its territories in the period between 1968 and 1968 through legal channels. The findings are conclusive that child abuse is attributed mainly to theories rooted in culture and the practices of bringing up children. Also, the incidence of child abuse cases is higher in the low socioeconomic and education sections of the society where families with more than four children and family brokenness prevail.

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Child abuse can occur in various forms consisting of neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, and the use of children as witnesses to domestic violence. Reports indicate, however, that the most detrimental of child abuse is the one inflicted by the society itself. This can be seen through statistics gathered from correctional institutions, infant mortality rates, malnutrition, poverty child care facilities, and the juvenile courts. When a child abuse case presents itself, there exists a specific chain of events and processes that need to be followed with the presentation to the criminal justice system sometimes appearing at the final part of the process.

Firstly, most cases of child abuse are reported by a mandated reporter to the proper agencies. These agencies conduct a follow up to validate the claim. Secondly, after the validation of the claim, law enforcement agencies will be notified to begin the stages of their investigations, and if the abuse claim comprises of concerns that necessitate the involvement of the Department of Children and Family Services, the Department is notified as well. The law enforcement, after the completion of the entire investigation, sends their report to the District Attorney's Office for the final decision of how to proceed. Nearly all the above stages of establishing the validity of a child abuse claim mentioned above will involve contact with the victim(s). Throughout each step, then, it is essential that these victims are referred to various services to allow them to cope, recover, and become a survivor. When the office of the District Attorney establishes that the claim is genuine, the court proceeding begins for the determination of the case. Every stage is very vital because it is the reports from each of them that culminates into the decision of the Attorney.

Forms of Child Abuse

Law enforcement and Department of Children & Family Services in conjunction with assorted agencies apply a multidisciplinary approach to the battle against various types of child maltreatment cases. These cases consist of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. The National Statistics on Child Abuse (2015), reported that an estimated 1,670 victims of child abuse and neglect died. In the same year centers for child advocacy were providing help to a staggering 311,000 child abuse victims. According to National Statistics, the approximated number of child abuse and neglect annually in the U.S is 700,000. Also, statistics indicate that in every five perpetrators of violence there is 78.1% of four of them being the parents of the victim as well as children who are possible witnesses to a crime. This is counted as a form of abuse because it subjects these witnesses to both emotional and psychological trauma. The children are forced to recounts the occurrences of crimes, some of which are tragic, so many times to establish their accuracy and reliability.

Sexual Abuse

As decades continue to pass with time in the United States, the more we as a country have learned to respond much more diversely to allegations of child sexual abuse. There have been multiple cases that have called national attention to this form of offense. These cases have varied in types of offenders from local church leaders to the famous Jerry Sandusky (Steinfels, 2012).

These cases have shown that one of the most commonly believed perceptions of child sexual abuse, "stranger danger" proves to be entirely misconstrued. These offenders use the process of grooming children, and then they prey on children slowly beginning their progression of sexual abuse. They are best able to do this when they are exceptionally well known and trusted by the child, one example being a child's caregivers. They pretend to care for the child, bring unique gifts, and know which children are most vulnerable and receptive to this treatment. They gain this trust to be allowed alone time with the child. Once they have begun the abuse, they use threats of physical violence or stopping the special treatment from getting the child to remain silent (Fieldman & Crespi, 2002).

The actual statistics of child sexual abuse are tough to determine because numerous victims will not disclose. Research indicates, one in ten children will be sexually abused before they are eighteen years old and ninety percent of this abuse is carried out by someone the child knows. There are severe consequences associated with sexual abuse that include a variety of metal and physical health disorders (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics, n.d.).

Physical Abuse

Child physical abuse is an intentional act that results in harm or injury to the child. These injuries are typically a by-product of kicking, punching, burning, biting, hitting or pushing. This type of abuse is the most highly evident form of child maltreatment due to the visibility of marks or bruises. This form of abuse tends to stem from a parent being angry, pursuing discipline, lack of skills, or substance abuse. Children who are exposed to this form of abuse are more vulnerable to a range of mental and physical health disorders to include post-traumatic stress disorder. They are most likely to witness domestic violence in the home between caregivers and display violent tendencies to others themselves (Physical Child Abuse, 2017).

Physical abuse substantially goes underreported for an assortment of reasons. One distinct reason is that when a child is brought to an emergency room, they are often misdiagnosed (Allareddy et al., 2014). Another reason is a significant lack by staff in understanding their role involving mandated reporting. Teachers play a crucial part in the battle against child abuse. They are with these children every day throughout an entire school year, yet data indicates they make less than one percent of reports for suspected child abuse to child protection agencies. This is primarily due to a lack of awareness in the process or concern about the procedure (Matthews et al., 2017).

Neglect

Neglect is cited as the most common form of child maltreatment. Children are reported to be neglected in four typical ways; including physical abandonment, educational neglect, emotional neglect, and medical neglect. When the parents, guardians, or caregivers fail to provide for a child's necessities including access to medical care, education, food, clothing, and shelter, they become perpetrators of child abuse in the form of neglect. Neglect, like any other form of child abuse, impacts negatively on the life of the victims (Mathews, 2014).

The most popular category of neglect is physical neglect beyond the shadow of a doubt. Through this form, the caregivers are unsuccessful in providing the fundamentals that are required for a child to be able to thrive adequately. Furthermore, they are insufficient at being responsible for supplying their children with the essentials. In addition to this, they can be unsuccessful in providing sufficient emotional support to their children even for extended periods.

Following that, the next form is referred to as educational neglect. This type is quite self-explanatory. These children are denied the right to a proper education. They are denied the opportunity of attending their scheduled classes at their registered school. Even more, they may not also be registered in school at all or even participating in the form of homeschooling. This category of neglect is quite regrettable because these children are being held back from the best possible option to assist them in taking a new lease on life.

Next, the disgraceful form of neglect is referred to as emotional neglect. These children are frequently paid no attention to by their caregivers or parents. The children are made to feel either abandoned, exposed to danger, detached, or a combination of these factors. The guardians in these situations bring into existence an atmosphere of apprehension. They continuously refuse to direct any attention towards the child, participate in social interactions.

Furthermore, they deny the child of the emotional support they need to develop appropriately. Cases of emotional neglect are regrettably the most challenging form of negligence to substantiate in the criminal justice system. As a result, they are generally left unidentified and unreported.

Lastly, the fourth most common form of neglect in child abuse cases is referred to as medical neglect. When considering these situations the caregivers or parents are not responsible enough to arrange reasonable medical treatment for the child. For one to find this a case of neglect on the guardians though, they have to be able to meet the expenses of the medical care or have the care accessible to them and have still denied the endeavor. In cases such as these, Department of Children and Family Services can generally intervene when preventing the medical attention for the child may result in impairments, learning disabilities, mutilation, life-threatening conditions, or even fatality.

Witness to Domestic Violence

Children are exposed to or experience domestic violence in many ways. Just like adults who have put in witness protection programs after witnessing sensitive crimes, children need to be put in a protection program too inclusive of specialized care to deal with the stress of having seen a crime, some of them at a very young age. They may hear one parent/caregiver threaten the other, observe a parent who is out of control or reckless with anger, see one parent assault the other, or live with the aftermath of a violent assault. It is the mandate of the legal system to ensure the protection of these young witnesses (Nowling, 2003). It is essential that more efforts be put into ensuring that children who witness domestic violence are protected before they can be left in the hands of their mothers who were themselves victims of the abuse (Nowling, 2003). This is because witnessing domestic violence has significant adverse impacts on a child's life.

Children living in homes riddled with domestic violence are at a much higher risk of becoming victims of the abuse. In short, domestic violence poses a serious threat to a child's emotional, psychological, and physical well-being, mainly if the violence occurs for an extended time. Domestic violence can only be prevented by stopping it at its roots. However, research indicates that persecuting the victims of domestic violence, for example, the mother, for failure to protect their children against the abuse a...