Child Abuse Essay, Research Paper

Child Abuse

People tend to think of childhood as a happy time, a time of freedom before having to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. People spend most of their adult lives wishing they could turn back the clocks of time to come back to that happy time where their greatest memories are stored. Unfortunately for many children around the world they do not have this sense of fulfillment during their early years, they instead have harsh feelings toward the people that were supposed to be their caretakers.

Child abuse comes in three forms. One is verbal one is physical such as punching the child and the last is sexual. Often verbal abuse gets the self-esteem of the child down while physical abuse could seriously injure the child. Many times the child had done nothing wrong, but the parents or guardians may be in a bad mood and use the child as a punching bag.

The impact of sexual abuse reaches all levels of a childs emotions. These emotions and the effects are listed below:

Confusion:

This is usually the initial reaction of the child. They will usually question, “What is going on?” and ” Is this right or wrong?”. For a young child these types of questions can be an emense burden on their physcological development. Once the abuse begins the victim experience a tremnedous conflict with their emotions. They feel pleasant due to the attention they are recieving from the parent, as well as the sensual pleasure. On the other hand they experience pain, guilt, and anger for what is being done.

The question, “Is this right or wrong?” posses the greatest conflict within the childs mind. The abuse feels so wrong yet the abuser insits it is okay, taking advantage of the childs mistrust and naivety. Below are the thoughts of an abused victim as she thinks back to her abuse and questions her father. It is an example of this mistrust as well as the confusion which goes through a childs mind.

Since I was a little ten-year-old child, I had to deceive and hide from the world and my mother that my father took a sexual interest in me. Remember how you taught me that art of deceit? First you put me in a situation that had to be kept a secret then you pledged me to secrecy…As a ten-year-old child, what was I supposed to do? You are an intelligent man you figure out the options available to a ten-year-old in that position.” (Life,1992)

Guilt:

The abused will feel tremendous guilt for a numerous reasons: They feel they did nothing to stop the abuse therefore they are responsible and it should continue. They felt uncomfortable but the abuse was sometimes pleasureable. They somehow deserved and/or caused the abuse. A victim will usually feel this way when their self-esteem has diminshed and they have no more answers for what is happenning.

A nine-year-old girl had a nightmare and went to her father’s room for comfort but instead he sexually abused her. The girl then concluded that she caused the abuse by going to his room. The abuse thereafter continued and she now felt she deserved for it to continue.” (Child abuse.com) The guilt hits the child so hard that they are unable to clearly see reality.

Another major source of guilt comes from the mother. Often when the mother is told about the abuse she will not want to believe the accusations and will blame the child. Other reasons for why the mother may pass guilt: 1) she may feel inequipped to challenge the husbands domination in any area of life there fore she shes passes the husbands faults and looks at the child. 2) The mother doesn’t want to lose her husband. She does not want to give up the security provided by her husband and will block out the abuse.

These chidren are not free to play or to socialize at all. This deprivation leaves scars that can take years to heal. They lose trust in others, particularly adults and become vulnerable to further exploitation. Can people still use children as sexual objects, or keep them in working conditions that are unacceptable after they realize the devastating results these acts can have on children? This is the question that must be answered. People must find it in themselves to protect these children and no longer ignore them.

Some causes of child abuse are from the uses of drugs, alcohol abuse, or the abuser was also abused when they were little. These causes start problems such as runaways who have no place to go. They could grow up to be bums. Another problem is that when the child grows up they could become the next generations of child abusers. Child abuse can be prevented in a number of ways such as counseling for the adults as well as the children. Another way is for the school to educate the children about child abuse. Teachers should tell the children what to do in a case of child abuse. The children should tell a person they trust and also speak forward when someone abuses them. In my opinion everyone should try to prevent child abuse any way they can.