ANALYSIS
The research shows two vital things, the first being that the number of cases of child abuse are exceedingly high, and two, that the number of cases are increasing. With the amount of money being spent on child abuse prevention, the question must be asked as to why rates continue to increase. While some believe that the increase is only due to increased awareness, this does not hold true when you consider both the extreme rise in numbers and the rise in the numbers of severely injured children. If sexual abuse cases had been increasing, this could be attributed not necessarily to more incidents, but to more incidents being reported. However, it is not feasible to assume that serious injuries would have gone unreported.
One study also reports that "41 per cent of children who died between 1994 and 1996 had prior or current contact with the child welfare system." (CWLA, 1997) This figure suggests that knowing that a child is at risk of child abuse does not prevent the occurrence of it, at least not in all cases. It is also suggested that greater research into the risk factors would allow child welfare agencies to be better equipped to detect risk factors earlier and provide intervention services more effectively. (Carter, 2000)
Various factors can be seen as contributors to child abuse, but it is difficult to say which is the actual cause. For example, is poverty the cause, or is the frustration of unemployment the cause. Regardless of which is the real contributor the fact is that children living in poverty are more likely to be victims of abuse. This is the reason why it is important to ensure child abuse prevention strategies reach this target group.
The second criteria is that prevention activities that reach the target group are effective. Especially with less funding available for prevention, the prevention activities need to get results. Research into the area is one way that strategies can be effectively targeted both to most effected groups and to the factors within those groups that are the real cause of problems. For example if unemployment is really the cause, then increasing welfare payments would not be an effective strategy, increasing employment rates would be. The more research provides real information the more prevention strategies can be effectively developed.
With child abuse often having a spiral effect in promoting the same sorts of conditions that contributed to the abuse in the first place, prevention becomes much more important than correction. It would seem that the current system is suitable for recognizing child abuse situations but not effective in preventing them.
In all of the data there was little focus on why poverty or other factors caused an increased occurrence in child abuse. The research has determined which groups are more likely to be victims of child abuse. The next step is for the research to determine how to prevent child abuse.
For example, it was noted earlier that "41 per cent of children who died between 1994 and 1996 had prior or current contact with the child welfare system." (CWLA, 1997) We know that 59 per cent of these children...
The second includes verbal and emotional assaults including persistent patterns of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating, and other nonphysical, but clearly hostile or rejecting behaviors, such as repeated threats of beatings, sexual assault, and abandonment. The third, residual, category includes other forms of emotional abuse such as attempted sexual or physical assaults; throwing something at a child but missing; withholding shelter, sleep, or other necessities as punishment, and economic exploitation (p.11). According
The victim is often put into situations where they are physically deprived of the things they need to make appropriate decisions. For instance they may be deprived of sleep or food so that they can be more easily manipulated. Mental abuse may also involve teasing or name calling. In many cases the perpetrator is very aware of the victim's weaknesses and uses them to humiliate or subjugate the victim. Sexual
Child Abuse in Literature Child Maltreatment Child maltreatment entails all types of neglect and abuse of a child below eighteen years by caregivers, parents or any other person (Crosson-Tower, 2006). Child abuse encompasses all forms of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect or child exploitation that causes potential or actual harm to a child's well-being, dignity and development (Smith & Fong, 2004). According to Scannapieco & Connell-Carrick (2005), child maltreatment is
Child Abuse "Although it is extremely important when interviewing children about alleged abuse to determine whether the abuse was single or repeated… we have little information about how children judge the frequency of events… [and] overall children were very accurate at judging the frequency of a single event, but much less so for repeated events." (Sharman, et al., 2011). Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) reports that in the year 2010
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