Child Abuse Casts a Shadow the Length of a Lifetime

"Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime."

- Herbert Ward -

Child abuse is one of the most disturbing and controversial topics in the news today. The number of stories that cover the mistreatment of children seems to be growing by the day ranging from accusations of neglect to murder. Child abuse and neglect is something that is unacceptable and should not be tolerated. The health and well being of a child is the primary responsibility of their parents. Raising a child is an incredible responsibility to have. Most parents want to provide the best for their children so that they grow up healthy. For these individuals parenting becomes their way of life. Proper child rearing is an intensive and frustrating process that some can not handle resulting in abuse and neglect that is alarmingly common.

According to most organizations child abuse consists of any act, or failure to act, that endangers a child's physical or emotional health and development. Someone is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child (online 1). This is a general definition that covers all areas of abuse and neglect and becomes more specific for each of the four major abuse types; physical, emotional, neglect, and sexual. This problem has caught the attention of the media and public officials across the nation which is raising public awareness. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children Bureau released a community resource packet this year titled Safe Children and Healthy Families is a Shared Responsibility. This packet calls on us to unite locally to deal with this troubling problem. It does this by increasing the education level on everyday situations like toilet training to time out and explains normal behavior of a child at certain stages. This new knowledge has given way to countless support groups that are dedicated to targeting child abuse from every angle and creating a truly safe environment for child care.

What would make someone hurt a defenseless child in the first place? Sadly, there is no correct answer to this question, but research has uncovered many factors that may contribute to the problem. Although these factors are not the greatest predictors they do act as warning signs to concerned individuals. One factor that has shown a high correlation with child abuse is if the individual was abused as a child. Unfortunately this is not usually known until the abuse has already started. It is estimated approximately one-third of abused and neglected children will eventually victimize their own children.

In the recent years there has been an increase in the reported number of child abuse incidents. This increase has been misinterpreted as a growing problem in our society. This increase is most likely contributed to a lower public tolerance than it is to higher abuse rates (online 2). Of those reported cases 57 percent are of neglect, 19 percent are of physical abuse, and 10 percent are of sexual abuse. The remainder falls under other, but it is stressed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Children Bureau that many cases never get reported.

Children are the worst victims because of their inability to understand what is happening to them. They perceive the neglect or abuse to be punishment for something that they did when in reality there is nothing that warrants any form of abuse. In most cases they feel ashamed about what took place and never speak of it again. When this takes place noticeable changes set in. A common change is impaired social behavior such as becoming withdrawn and anti-social and the child begins to regress mentally and emotionally. In all cases cognitive ability becomes severely damaged and they began coping in unacceptable ways which is easily misinterpreted and punished which further confuses the child.

Much research has been done about the possible consequences of child abuse and neglect. The effects vary depending on the circumstances of the