Child Abuse: Long term harms
Parents today don’t realize that the harm that they are doing to their children will eventually be passed down from generation to generation; their children are todays abused tomorrow’s abusers. Obviously, parents or guardians will not understand the impact that is caused to their child until they acknowledging there child’s choice in life style. In particular, child abuse is a mistreatment of a child by a parent or guardian, including neglect, beating, and, sexual molestation (Salus). Child abuse has an enormous impact among many families globally because child abuse is a detrimental aspect of a child’s life as well as the developmental stages in a child’s life, which would cause them to have physical, psychological, or behavioral consequences as they grow. Therefore, the maltreatment and neglect in child abuse is a causative factor in youth suicide, crime, homeless, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse as well as unemployment in a victims life span (info,….).
In particular, there are parents, guardians and even caregivers that would imply that an injury resulting from abuse is accidental because they did not intended to hurt the child. For example, some guardians that discipline there children could be abusing them psychologically or even physically (Asseal). Additionally, people would think that the way they discipline a child is perfectly fine because they want them to learn how to do it the proper way (Bissel). The parental or guardian will always try to make the right choice which would be either to let it go or punish the child. To summarize, people will never know how much the discipline or punishment can lead to in the long run. My expository thesis statement is child abuse is an enormous problem among many families globally because child abuse is a detrimental aspect of a child’s life as well as the developmental stages in a child’s life, which would cause them to have physical, psychological, or behavioral consequences as they grow. Indeed, many people say that child abuse should be legal because an injury resulting from physical abuse is not accidental the parent or caregiver may not have intended to hurt the child. However, child abuse shouldn’t be legalize under any certain circumstance because children can end up with physical, psychological or even behavioral consequences.
Initially, child abuse should not be legalized under any circumstance because as children get older they can generate a physical consequence. It is stated that physical abuse is among of the top three largest types of child abuse that affect the children globally. For instance, during 2003 18.9 percent of children were physically abused (Services,…). Likewise, more than one-quarter of children who had been in foster care for longer than 12 months had some lasting or recurring health problem (Bissell). As a result it has been shown, in some cases, to cause important regions of the brain to fail to form or grow properly, resulting in impaired development (Bissell). In some cases the physical effects are temporary; however, the pain and suffering they cause a child should not be discounted (Families,..). The immediate physical effects of abuse can be relatively minor like bruises or cuts or severe where there are broken bones, hemorrhage, or even death (Bissell). If this type of abuse can be prevented it should be prevented because every day three out of ten children die. Studies also state that child abuse would affect a child’s young development and are prone to physical consequences. Whereas, if the child have extremely abusive guardians the child will tends to end up with physical consequences. In summation, if children have physical consequence due the child abuse, we don’t we do more to prevent it?
Next child abuse has different consequences such as psychological which affect a child’s development mentally. Furthermore, research shows that children that are abuse will have one of the psychological consequences. About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological consequence (Salus). To illustrate, as many as 80 percent of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder at age 21 (Salus). In addition, these young adults exhibited many problems, including anxiety, eating disorders, suicide attempts, and posttraumatic stress disorder (service, …). The immediate emotional effects of abuse and neglect isolation, fear, and an inability to trust can translate into lifelong consequences, including low self-esteem, depression, and relationship difficulties (Salus). Depression and withdrawal symptoms were common among children as young as 3 who experienced emotional, physical, or environmental neglect (information,…). Due to abuse the child can have a dramatic impact on a child when they are young which means as they get older they can develop a psychological consequence. Obviously, children who experience rejection or neglect are more likely to develop antisocial traits as they grow up (PerantalRights.org). Children that have a psychological consequence due to child abuse have problems opening up to people. As a result, of child abuse that leads to psychological consequences is this research worth the cost?
For children globally, that have been abused will have behavioral consequences as they grow older. In other words, they will not know how to control the life nor the choices they are making along the way. Due to the abusers, in the long run children that have been abused will more likely appear to have behavioral consequences at a young age and as they get older. Consequently, children who experience child abuse and neglect are 59 percent more likely to be arrested as a juvenile, 28 percent more likely to be arrested as an adult, and 30 percent more likely to commit violent crime (Bissell). In particular, studies have shown that abused and neglected children are at least 25 percent more likely to experience problems such as delinquency, teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, drug use, and mental health problems (Dawkins). Similarly, the possible consequence of child abuse can vary on the circumstance of the child’s form of abuse (Familie,…). According to a National Institute of Justice study, abused and neglected children were 11 times more likely to be arrested for criminal behavior as a juvenile and 3.1 times more likely to be arrested for one of many forms of violent crime (Asseal). Research consistently reflects an increased likelihood that abused and neglected children will smoke cigarettes, abuse alcohol, or take illicit drugs during their lifetime (Claims…). Even though people don’t think that a behavioral consequence is possible due to child abuse it is and it will affect the child in a young stage of their life. Therefore, child abuse should be controlled so that children do not have to go through all these up’s and down with all their wrong choices.
In conclusion, child abuse shouldn’t be legalized under any certain circumstance for the reason that children can end up with physical, psychological or even behavioral consequences. Furthermore, child abuse has a great contribution in many families globally, as a result of child abuse which is be a detrimental aspect in a child’s life as well as in their developmental stages. Since, child abuse occurs at every socioeconomic level, across ethnic and cultural lines, within all religions and at all levels of education. Taking one simple action and reporting child abuse will help prevent a child from being abuse. As well as giving those whom have been abused hope for a brighter future. However, child abuse does not go away, but 90 percent of those who are abused are preventable. For instance, if a parent would stop and just think for a minute about the consequences that may occur to the child in the long run, they would not think of abusing the child. Therefore, there would be just one less child being abused.
