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Paris 1 Lindsay Paris FCST Albert 5 December 2013 Child Abuse “Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.” This powerful quote was written in Dave Pelzer’s novel, A Child Called “It”. This book tells a true story of himself, an abused boy, and how he fought for his life. This was actually the most severe child abuse case California had ever faced. Child abuse is a very serious act that is done to children every single day and people do not realize how serious it actually is. No child should ever be treated so badly and abused in any way. Children need to feel comfortable in speaking up and seeking help for being treated in such a disgusting way. Child abuse can happen in many different ways. According to the Child Welfare Information Gateway or childwelfare.gov, child abuse can leave a life long impact on a child. The website also states that they can grow up dealing with long-term consequences such as physical health consequences, psychological consequences, behavioral consequences, and societal consequences. In Swea Jelic Tuscic’s article, “The Consequences of Child Abuse,” she provides critical information to all “experts working with children, as well as the general public” (24). It basically discusses the health and psychosocial consequences of child abuse. It also discusses the different types of child abuse. “Child abuse is traditionally divided into four basic forms: physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect” (24). Physical abuse is when a child is abused “physically” such as being slapped, beaten, thrown, pushed or shoved, burned, or even being strangled. Emotional abuse leans toward a child being neglected. According to the Family

Paris 2 Resource Center, physical consequences (such as damage to a child's growing brain) can have psychological implications (cognitive delays or emotional difficulties, for example). Psychological problems often manifest as high-risk behaviors. Depression and anxiety, for example, may make a person more likely to smoke, abuse alcohol or illicit drugs, or overeat. High-risk behaviors, in turn, can lead to long-term physical health problems such as sexually transmitted diseases, cancer, and obesity.” Even if a child is not being abused physically, it still hurts a child’s feelings when they are not given attention or even feel as if their parents do not even love them. According back to the article, “Sexual abuse is defined as a) any form of sexual act between an adult and a minor, or between two minors, if one has power over the other; and b) forcing or convincing a child to take part in a sexual act of any kind (with or without contact)” (25). However, sexual abuse is not always acting sexually upon a child, it is also where someone forces someone else to watch pornographic material. “How serious the consequences of child abuse can be may be seen in the fact that 2000 children a year die from abuse or neglect in the USA” (25). The article also discusses how there are short-term and long-term consequences of child abuse. Short-term consequences occur after experiencing abuse and it may only be present for a certain period of time. However, “If it is a case of a long-term abuse, short-term consequences may be present throughout the entire time of the abuse” (25). Overall, this article tries to describe that if a child is abused for a short period of time, the effects on the child are not as serious, but if a child is abused for a long period of time, the effects of the child may last forever. Although there are different types of child abuse, sexual abuse is the most common abuse among females. In the article, “Girl Child Abuse,” the article informs the reader that girls are more sustainable to child abuse. Girls are mainly abused based upon how their generations

Paris 3 before them were raised and treated. In most generations “women and girls don't have decisionmaking power of their own life. It is always somebody else who makes decisions for them” (2). Child abuse in females causes a greater rate of suicide than a male being abused. However, “every second child reported facing emotional abuse equal percentage of both girls and boys reported facing emotional abuse. In 83% of the cases parents were the abusers, 48% girls wished they were boys” (4). Sexual abuse is one of the most common forms of abuse done upon a female. According to the article, there are many different indicators, physical and behavioral, if a female was sexually abused. Some of the physical indicators would include “physical complaints of pain or irritation of the genital area, appearance of sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy in young adolescents, frequent, unexplained sore throats, and urinary tract infections” (5). Some of the behavioral indicators would include “excessive masturbation in young children, inappropriate physical or verbal displays of sexually terms or acts in young children, depression, and suicidal gestures” (5). In the conclusion of this article, prevention is mainly discussed on how a child should reach out if they were ever in such a position. Child abuse happens every single day and most often effects the child’s development throughout their entire lives. In the article, “Understanding Attachment in Abuse and Neglect: Implications for Child Development,” it is discussed on how children are effected by being abused and neglected. In the article there are also a few key points mentioned. The first key point is, “A child’s development of attachment begins at birth” (295). Once a child is born they start to understand who their caretakers are. A child is very dependent on their caretakers because their motor skills are not fully developed yet. The second key point is, “Children need to feel safe, loved, protected and nurtured to be able to make sense of the world around them” (295). If a child is abused, their whole look upon the world is changed. They see the world as a scary

Paris 4 place. The third key point is, “The care provided by parents is often shaped by their own experience of attachment received in childhood” (295). Most likely, if a parent is abused as a child, they are prone to abusing their own child. The fourth key point, “Early childhood experiences affect the physical composition of the brain” (295). A child’s critical learning period is during their infancy stage. If a child has a good or bad experience while they are young, it can leave its mark on their brain for the rest of their lives. Finally, the last key point, “School nurses can work with children, parents, children services, schools and other agencies to promote awareness of attachment problems and its lasting impact on children” (295). This article thoroughly explains the effects of child abuse and neglect and that there are millions of people and many child advocacy organizations throughout the world that desperately want to help children in need. Now although child abuse only typically happens between the child and their families, society is also, in fact impacted. Society pays back direct and indirect costs for child abuse. According to the website, Childwelfare.gov, for direct costs “The lifetime cost of child maltreatment and related fatalities in 1 year totals $124 billion, according to a study funded by the CDC.” On the other hand according to the same website, “indirect costs represent the longterm economic consequences to society because of child abuse and neglect. These include costs associated with increased use of our health-care system, juvenile and adult criminal activity, mental illness, substance abuse, and domestic violence.” The money that people are shoving out for this is ridiculous. People should not be abusing children in the first place, therefore, if people would stop abusing poor innocent children, we as a society would not have to pay all of this money and we would be able to use it for other beneficial things. The website also states, “prevent Child Abuse America estimates that child abuse and neglect prevention strategies can

Paris 5 save taxpayers $104 billion each year.” Again, if our society were to stop abusing children, we would be able to save our money and also, children will always be safe in their own homes. There have been plenty of advocacy efforts made to address Child Abuse. According to Teresa Huizar’s article, “Child Advocacy – Putting the Needs of Child Abuse Victims First”, she describes what the National Children’s Alliance does. “National Children's Alliance provides training, support, technical assistance and leadership on a national level to local children’s and child advocacy centers and communities responding to reports of child abuse and neglect.” Advocacy centers make it known to people how child abuse can be prevented, what to do if it happens, and how to recover from it. Children have always suffered some type of abuse within their family, typically being whipped with the use of a belt that we wear around our waists. Children would also be beaten if they did something wrong. According to the article, Child Abuse Background and History, they mention a historical event that occurred. In the early 1870s, child abuse captured the nation's attention with news that an eightyear-old orphan named Mary Ellen Wilson was suffering daily whippings and beatings at her foster home. With no organization in existence to protect abused children, the orphan's plight fell to attorneys for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). These attorneys argued that laws protecting animals from abuse should not be greater than laws protecting children. Mary Ellen Wilson's case went before a judge, who convicted the foster mother of assault and battery and gave her a one-year sentence. More significantly, the orphan's case generated enough outrage over child abuse that in 1874, citizens formed the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Paris 6 This event was definitely an eye opener to the public on why child abuse advocacy centers and advocates are needed. Without them, children would fall into depression and feel lost and forever scared because they will feel like their life was destined to be this way. As for Mary Ellen Wilson, she was smart enough to seek for help in her time of need and create advocates for other children in need who are facing what she did. Children often respond positively to these advocacy centers because they feel as if they are cared for and they begin to learn that things will get better. The website, nationalchildrensalliance.org states that, “Child advocacy centers ("CACs") across the nation are an important part of this success. CACs intervened in some 267,000 child abuse cases last year, and provided over 519,000 individuals with child abuse prevention training - clearly, the dual approach of intervention and prevention is working.” The outcomes of these advocacy centers are quite positive and are still trying to create ways to make children speak up. Relating to Mary Ellen Wilson’s case, there was also another case that occurred in Delaware known as the Bradley sex abuse case, according to the article, “Best Practices for Investigating and Prosecuting Child Abuse: Applying Lessons Learned from Delaware’s Earl Bradley Case.” Within this case, Bradley was sexually abused. The people of the Delaware, the state in which Bradley lives in, came together to create more efficient policies and procedures to help enhance child protection. “Despite being faced with such an unspeakable tragedy, Delawareans took, and continue to take, substantial steps to achieve that feat; they responded by immediately taking strides to ensure that the state's children are significantly better protected from victimization of this kind” (51). The article mentions how child sexual abuse occurs very frequently regardless of children’s backgrounds. Child abuse can happen anywhere; especially in places you’d least expect it too. “Every two minutes, someone in the United States is sexually

Paris 7 assaulted; crime statistics from the Department of Justice indicate that sixty-seven percent of sexual assault victims are juveniles” (52). The article states that a relative will sexually abuse children mostly under the age of six, who are victims. “For victims over age six, "most sexual assault offenders were not family members but were otherwise known to the victim" (52). The article overall explains how common it is for a child to be sexually abused and how states, such as Delaware, seriously need to come together to create a better and more safe environment for its children and civilians. In the article, Risk of Fatal Injury in Young Children Following Abuse Allegations, it is discussed on how children face serious injuries. Studies were preformed upon children in “examining variations in children’s risk of an unintentional or intentional fatal injury following an allegation of physical abuse, neglect, or other maltreatment” (e39). In doing so, they “linked records of 514,232 children born in California from 1999 to 2006 and referred to child protective services for maltreatment to vital birth and death data” (e39). They “used multivariable Cox regression models to estimate variations in risk of fatal injury before age 5 years and modeled maltreatment allegations as time-varying covariates” (e39). As a result, “children with a previous allegation of physical abuse sustained fatal injuries at 1.7 times the rate of children referred for neglect. Stratification by manner of injury showed that children with an allegation of physical abuse died from intentional injuries at a rate 5 times as high as that for children with an allegation of neglect, yet faced a significantly lower risk of unintentional fatal injury” (e39). They found out that “data suggest conceptual differences between physical abuse and neglect. Findings indicate that interventions consistent with the form of alleged maltreatment may be appropriate, and heightened monitoring of young children referred for physical abuse may

Paris 8 advance child protection” (e39). Within this entire article, this whole research project is explained thoroughly from the start to the finish. When I was growing up, I was a child who was abused. My dad could not control his anger and his outlet was to beat me. He would hit my sister too, but never as bad as he would to me. He would not only hit me, he would pull my hair and throw things at me, sometimes being a chair or an eating utensil; whatever he was accessible to. One time when I was younger I locked my door and he would still bust it open anyway and come for me. That one particular time I remember trying to call the police on my dad because I had no idea what else to do. I did not have a cell phone at that time, but I did have a landline phone in my room. As soon as I picked up that phone and tried to dial, my dad had taken another phone off the line so therefore, I was unable to dial any numbers. I remember being terrified to come out of my room sometimes. I thought that as I would get older, it would stop. Unfortunately, it had not stopped until the age of nineteen. When I was about sixteen, he once chased me around the house until I slipped and fell on the kitchen floor. He then grabbed the hair on my head and repetitively banged my head against the cold, hard tile floor. My tooth had chipped and I was bleeding from my mouth. I wanted to call the police on my father again, but I just could not bring myself to. I look back and sometimes regret not doing so. After every time he would hit me I would just cry and feel helpless. My mom would always scream at him for doing what he had done to me and even during the act of him hitting me, my mom would try to stop him. I never felt a real connection with dad, as everything I wanted to do with him or needed from him was a bother. I often do get upset when I see in movies father-daughter relationships and I cannot help myself to wish that I had such a relationship with my father. My best friend and her father have such a fun, loving relationship. Her father actually enjoys doing things with his daughter and when I see how great

Paris 9 their relationship is, I sometimes find myself jealous. My parents recently got a divorce a few months ago and I hardly ever see him. He rarely makes attempts to see or even talk to me. There are days where I do miss him sometimes, but I realize how much happier I am and how much more safe I feel living with my mother and sister. Child abuse still exists today because children still seem to be “quiet” about the matter. They do not want to be separated from their parents even though they wish the horrible acts would just stop. Barriers to addressing the problem are that children feel scared to speak up because they fear that people will not listen to them and the parent will then deny everything, making the child seem like a liar. In the article, “Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse: Considerations and Guidelines for Mental Health Counselors,” it is discussed on how and where people should reach out to help children who are abused. To address these barriers to children, the article explains about the benefits of why a child should speak up as well as addressing the benefits to a person who helps out the child in need. Children think that no body will believe them if they speak up about getting abused. They are afraid that people will think they are lying. The article explains that it often helps children if someone discusses similar experiences that he or she has experienced. Therefore, I would also tell them my experience in being physically abused and how I should have spoken up at the time. I would align myself with the child because the child is in desperate need of help. I would try to align myself with the abuser in seeking professional help for him/her as well to prevent the act from ever occurring again. According to the article, some reasonable outcomes that someone would expect to see to know that he or she has been successful are seeing the child happy and smiling again, without feeling as if the horrible act is still continuing, seeing the families overall bond without a sense of tension,

Paris 10 families reaching out to therapy, etc. Basically observing that the child is going through the healing process successfully. Child Abuse occurs around the world regardless of what age or gender you are. The information that I found on this topic relates to the concepts learned in class is relevant to the concepts we’ve been discussing in class due to the importance of children being comfortable enough to reach out for help against abuse. We want children to understand that it is not their fault that the abuse is happening to them and we only want to help them for the better. In unit three there was discussion of child abuse and neglect and how it should be reported. In the article that we read, Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect, if we are unsure of a child being abused, we should always report it no matter what. It is better for a child to be safe than sorry.

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Works Cited "Child Abuse Background and History." Findlaw. Thomson Reuters, 2013. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. .

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). Long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau. .

Ensslin, K., & Phillips, N. L. (2013). Best Practices for Investigating and Prosecuting Child Abuse: Applying Lessons Learned from Delaware’s Earl Bradley Case. Widener Law Review, 19(1), 51-72.

Family Recource Center. Effects of Child Abuse. Family Resource Center, Saint Louis, MO. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. . Henderson, K. L. (2013). Mandated Reporting of Child Abuse: Considerations and Guidelines for Mental Health Counselors. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 35(4), 296-309.

Huizar, Teresa. "Child Advocacy – Putting the Needs of Child Abuse Victims First." Children's Advocacy Centers & Community Services. National Children's Alliance, 2009. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. . Jelic Tuscic, S., Buljan Flander, G., & Mateskovic, D. (2013). The Consequences of Childhood Abuse. Pedijatrija Danas: Pediatrics Today, 9(1), 24-35. Obadina, S. (2013). Understandin...