Verbal Communication Essay Research Paper Child AbuseWhat

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Verbal Communication Essay, Research Paper Child Abuse What is child abuse? It is the physical or emotional abuse of a child by a parent, guardian, or other person. Reports of child abuse, including sexual abuse, beating, and murder, have climbed in the United States and some authorities believe that the number of cases is largely under reported. Child neglect is sometimes included in legal definitions of child abuse to cover instances of malnutrition, desertion, and inadequate care of a child’s safety. When reported, child abuse cases are complicated by inadequate foster care services and a legal system that has trouble accommodating the suggestible nature of children, who are often developmentally unable to distinguish fact from make-believe (Hay, 1996). Many children

suffer at the hands of adults – often their own parents. They are beaten, kicked, thrown into walls, and/or burned with cigarettes. They have their heads held under the water of toilet bowls, are scalded by hot water or they are forced to stand in freezing showers until they pass out. A child could be stuffed into running washing machines or sexually molested, suffer from neglect in the forms of starvation and lack of medical attention, and still go unnoticed by outsiders. In fact, it is estimated that three children die every day in the U.S. alone from one form of child abuse or another. It is a sickening practice that has no set standard of rules to finish off the persisting problem. Different states have different methods and agencies to help prevent abuse in the home, some

work quite well while others bomb – a dangerous gamble when it comes to the life or mental state of a child. I have seen child abuse first hand and up close. I serve on the Advisory Board and Board of Directors for Lutheran Social Services, Foster Care Division of Michigan. It is appalling, immoral and heart wrenching to see how adults can treat children. The wife and myself have fostered many children. They have come out of some very dysfunctional homes. Some of the children we fostered have been sexually molested and badly abuse by their own parents. What makes it so bad is that most of the children think that this is acceptable behavior and would go back to their homes if they could. We had one little boy who would rather eat out of the garbage than sit at the table to eat.

We fostered another family of two boys and two girls. Their father and uncle had sexually abused them all. These children ranged from 7 to 12 years of age. While these children were living with us, we had caught them several times perpetrating each other in a sexual manner. They thought this was normal and acceptable behavior. I also know of a lot of cases where children even die at the hands of their on parents. What has our society become? You find in a lot of case where the perpetrator has been perpetrated. Approximately 1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 16. Dr. William C. Holmes of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine said that when sexually abused boys are not treated, society must later deal with the resulting problems, including crimes, suicide,

drug use, and more sexual abuse . This cycle must be broken. This problem affects everyone. Most child abuse takes place in the home and is started by persons are know to and trusted by the child. Even though it has been widely publicized, abuse in day-care and foster-care settings accounts for only a small number of confirmed cases of child abuse. In 1996, only two percent of all confirmed cases of child abuse occurred in these settings. Child abuse if fifteen times more likely to occur in families where spousal abuse occurs. Children are three times more likely to be abused by their fathers than by their mothers. No differences have been found in the incidence of child abuse in rural versus urban areas. Following are the types of abuse and the percentages of the different