Child abuse is a very common thing in today’s society, although not much is heard about it. The abuse mostly happens in the home where the bruises can be hidden. The emotional and physical scars are hidden behind clothes, makeup and lies. There are four different types of abuse suffered every day by children in all types of environments. The four different types are physical, sexual, emotional and psychological.
The abuse leaves scars with kids for the rest of their lives, physical scars which can be seen, but believe or not, the ones that cause the most pain are the emotional scars, the scars that last forever. There are many ways that physical abuse can happen. It can happen anywhere, whether it is at home or out in public. Physical abuse is basically physical injuring a child with bad intentions. The parents have no official reason to harm the kids. Physical abuse can be the result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, or even shaking them.
Abuse in general is not only morally wrong but also avoided. Physical abused children do not fit any type of stereotype so it can be hard to spot out. Also, abusers come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and sexes. There are many signs of physical abuse. First the location and types of injuries, many times the parent or will deny that they did anything wrong or the child has suffered any injury. There are always those injuries that involve things that a child does, such as falling of their bike or bumping their head. Then, there are those which they cannot be explained.
When parents deny any injuries or claim they do not about them, there’s a big chance that there is abuse going on. Here’s a story on sexual abuse I heard and will never forget. There was a boy who was kidnapped from his yard at the age of 7. For 10 years he was kept as a sex slave and treated as if he was an animal. He was told by the kidnapper, Mitchell, that his parents didn’t want him anymore and had given him to his kidnapper. He was also told that he had been legally adopted and his real parents had moved away. Since he was so young, he actually believed it.
Finally 10 years later, he was told to grab another 5 year old kid when he was walking home from school. Then when he got him in the car, Mitch told the little boy to shut up and that his parents asked him to pick him up from school and take care of him for a while. Finally, the now 17 year old boy realized that Mitch had lied to him all these years and that he too had been stolen. Later that night, the boy, who only could remember his name as “Stephen” was able to sneak away with the new little boy. They got as far as the Police station and the younger boy ran in and told the police.
The police ran out and captured Stephen right away. They believed that Stephen had kidnapped the boy. Finally after hours of questioning Stephen, he told them of his own story of being kidnapped 10 years earlier. Stephen was reunited with his still mourning family. It wasn’t until days later that the truth came out about all of the sexual abuse. Because of the encouragement from the police, Stephen told the judge everything that Mitch did to him. After the trial came, Mitch was convicted and was sentenced to 22 months in prison. When I first heard this story I couldn’t believe it.
I was actually surprised that that child would actually believe him. I feel as if his parents didn’t raise him as well as they should have because any child should know that what was happening wasn’t right. I understand that the boy was young and there wasn’t really much he could do but as a parent I would make sure my child would know right from wrong and never believe strangers without my eye-to-eye approval. It took him a whole 10 years to realize that it was all just a big lie. The times that take place in this word are indescribable. Another form of abuse that people hardly talk about is emotional abuse.
The signs of emotional abuse are difficult to detect. This is mainly because there are no physical marks when a child is experiencing emotional damage. A lot of emotional abuse does not appear to be serious, or dramatic so most people don’t realize they are being emotionally abused. The only way to surely tell is by their actions. Most children suffering from emotional usually have destructive behavior and tend to act out.For example, doing thing like animal cruelty, stealing, starting fires, bullying. These kinds of disorderly and criminal behaviors are common when a child abused emotional.
Also, the child’s grades might drop in a very short period; the student may have a hard time concentrating to bring the grades up because of the abuse. The emotional abuse from a parent affects the child’s emotional growth and their sense of comfort. It consists of harsh verbal abuse, humiliation for anything they do, and being ignored throughout the day, or laughed at in front of other people. This leads to a child having very low self-esteem and leads to a child not being able to socialize in school or public areas. Another form of a child abuse is neglect.
When a person thinks about child neglect, the first thing that may come to mind is a child not being taken care of physically. Kids are neglected when they are not given the right amount of food, clothes, shelter, education, medical care. Those are all our basic and if we don’t receive those, technically you are being neglected. Also not receiving love from a parent and the effects of child neglect definitely changes the way a person views themselves. The way a parent treats their child determines a child’s future. I am very grateful for my mother and the way she treated me growing up.
She is so caring and considerate that I have no choice but to have a bright future. She always treated with and always puts me first before everything and that’s the type of love and affection every child needs. The way a parent treats their child has a lot to do with their view of themselves, meaning that the children self-esteem is affected. When a child is first born and there not able to verbally communicate, they feel attached to a person through the sense of touch. They need love and affection from their parents, that’s how it all starts.
Once they receive that love, they feed off of it and they then know how special and important they are in their parent’s life. A well-known case about this matter is the Casey Anthony case. The reports says, “– Casey Anthony is responsible for the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, according to Florida’s Department of Children and Families. The report—the first to blame Anthony for her daughter’s death—states that the young mother “failed to protect her child from harm either through her actions or lack of actions, which tragically resulted in the child’s untimely death,” the Orlando Sentinel reports.
Department investigators verified three accusations classed as “maltreatments” of Caylee: death, failure to protect, and threatened harm. But investigators could not verify allegations of two more “maltreatments”—asphyxiation and physical injury—because medical examiners were unable to confirm the cause of Caylee’s death, which Anthony said was due to accidental drowning. Anthony was cleared of murder and aggravated child abuse charges last month, and the sheriff’s office will not be taking any additional action against her as a result of the report. ”
I honestly believe that she is at fault for her daughter’s death. I have never heard a story like this, and it is heartbreaking. How could a mother hurt their own child? How could someone not report their child missing after a day? Caylee two years old was missing for nearly a month before reported missing by her grandmother Cindy Anthony. Her mother Casey Anderson was last to see her and claims that Caylee is okay and is with her nanny Zenaida Gonzales, in which this lady doesn’t exist. Casey has acted in such a bizarre manner that it is hard to not believe that she is guilty.
The evidence in this case clearly points to Casey Anthony. She is emotionless in regards to the loss of her daughter which is not normal when a parent has lost a child. There is no grieving for baby Caylee, just a tremendous amount of anger towards her family. The most disturbing part in this tragic case is Casey Anthony lies and actions. Throughout the month Caylee had been missing she behaved in a manner that is apathetic. She was living her life as though her daughter was at the nanny’s, with no cares in the world but for herself. Family and friends wants to believe that Casey is innocent but the ongoing lies, vidence, lack of emotions, and actions are leading them to believe differently.
I believe with no doubt that Casey Anderson knows where Caylee is, whether she is alive or not only has she known. The lies in this case make it obvious that Casey is covering up the truth on what really happened to Caylee. Most people get child abuse and child discipline confused often. To me discipline is basically helping a child to learn how to act when they are in public and around other people; for example whether it be at school, their grandparents house, or when being babysat a child should always act as if their parents are there.
I feel like discipline should be based on the fact that you are trying to focus on the positive aspects and self-esteem of the developing child. I believe that parents should be able to spank their child in order to discipline them. When a parent spanks their kids it teaches the child not to repeat the same behavior again. Also, when a parent spanks a child, it shows the child ways in which they should act inside and outside the home. Some people use the phrase “that child doesn’t have any home-training”.
Clearly when they say that, they’re saying that child hasn’t been taught at home how to act while they’re in public. In order, for them to be taught that, I believe the parent should be able to spank them. Some may argue that sometimes spanking your child frequently can lead to physical and child abuse. However, I believe that once a parent hit their child a couple of times, the child should eventually learn from it and the parent shouldn’t have to hit them on a regular basis. For example, when I was younger, I remember when I use to smack my teeth at my mother.
In order to show me that it was rude and disrespectful, she had to spank me on more than one occasion. However, I understood that it was wrong and no longer did it anymore. Some people believe that there should be other ways to teach children discipline such as time-outs or punishments. I really do believe that in that case, it depends on the child. Maybe some will learn their lesson after something they really enjoy doing is put on hold. But others won’t. Some children need to be hit in order for them to really get a full understanding on what they were doing was wrong.
I don’t think putting children in timeout is an effective way of discipline because it doesn’t really do much to the child besides putting them alone. I have two cousins that I spent most of my life around. Their names are Dean and Juliana which is his younger sister. Their mother is very strict and blunt. She wasn’t the type to except any bad behavior and even the slightest thing she would consider as misbehavior. If her rules were not followed when and how she told them to do it, it was not a pretty scene. Anyone from the outside looking in would easily misinterpret the treatment of her children as child abuse.
She would verbally criticize and belittle them if her standard weren’t met and I’ve witness it multiple times and I have had to watch their expressions after which really bothered me being the big cousin. There were times when I didn’t even want to go over their house if she was home just to avoid that situation. Despite the negativity of the verbal abuse, she had purpose behind her actions. Dean and Juliana are very mature, respectable, responsible and outgoing people and I strongly believe this is due the discipline placed on them by their mom.
I can almost guarantee that one day they will both appreciate the strictness of their mom because it shaped them into the wonderful people that they are now and they will thank her. There are times when I wish my mother was a little bit stricter with me but I also appreciate the way my mother raised me. I am happy with the fact that took this class this semester, it really made me appreciate my life a lot more than I did coming in. The stories and cases that we discussed in class were just sad and unbelievable. As a child, I would not know how to deal with the abuse that received their harmless children we spoke about.
As I mentioned earlier, my mother treated me with all the love in the world and granted me with a very good childhood; a childhood that any child would ask for and I grateful. Before this class, did not realize how grateful I should be, but the margin surely increased after hearing the first story in class. I am also happy with the teacher that was selected to teach the class. The atmosphere of our class was always good and she really made it easy for me to open up and express myself in my reflection paper. I have not felt comfortable enough to do that since I have been at Anna Maria.
There’s nothing better than an understanding teacher that you can relate with and one that is very expecting to all information. Our teacher fit that that description accurately and very appreciative of the course. I would recommend students to take this class because it changed my life and know it could change theirs.
Literature
- http://www. examiner. com/article/possible-sighting-of-casey-anthony-has-many-asking-if-she-fears-for-her-life
- http://www. americanhumane. org/children/stop-child-abuse/? gclid=CNKVzPahqbQCFQ-f4AodBS0ApA
- http://www. preventchildabuse. org/index. shtml
- http://www. webmd. com/parenting/guide/discipline-tactics
