Break The Chain Series; Child Abuse 1

Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department for Children and Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Child abuse can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. 

There are four major categories of child abuse: 

• neglect, 
• physical abuse, 
• psychological or emotional abuse, and 
• sexual abuse.

In Western countries, preventing child abuse is considered a high priority, and detailed laws and policies exist to address this issue. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. According to the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, child abuse is "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm".

Physical abuse

Physical abuse involves physical aggression directed at a child by an adult. Most nations with child-abuse laws consider the deliberate infliction of serious injuries, or actions that place the child at obvious risk of serious injury or death, to be illegal. Bruises, scratches, burns, broken bones, lacerations, as well as repeated "mishaps," and rough treatment that could cause physical injury, can be physical abuse. 

Multiple injuries or fractures at different stages of healing can raise suspicion of abuse. Physical abuse can come in many forms, although the distinction between child discipline and abuse is often poorly defined. 

However, the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations has stated that the prohibition of degrading treatment or punishment extends to corporal punishment of children. Since 1979, with Sweden as the first country in the world to prohibit all corporal punishment of children, a total of 46 countries around the world (as of 2015) have outlawed domestic corporal punishment of children.

Cultural norms about what constitutes abuse vary widely: among professionals as well as the wider public, people do not agree on what behaviors constitute abuse. Some professionals claim that cultural norms that sanction physical punishment are one of the causes of child abuse, and have undertaken campaigns to redefine such norms. Psychologist Alice Miller, noted for her books on child abuse, took the view that humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, etc. are all forms of abuse, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away.

Sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual stimulation. Sexual abuse refers to the participation of a child in a sexual act aimed toward the physical gratification or the financial profit of the person committing the act.

Forms of CSA include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities (regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact with a child, physical contact with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact, or using a child to produce child pornography.

Selling the sexual services of children may be viewed and treated as child abuse with services offered to the child rather than simple incarceration.

Effects of child sexual abuse on the victim(s)

• Guilt and self-blame 
• Flashbacks 
• Nightmares 
• Insomnia 
• Fear of things associated with the abuse (including objects, smells, places, doctor's visits, etc.)
• Self-esteem issues 
• Sexual dysfunction 
• Chronic pain 
• Addiction
• Self - injury 
• Suicidal ideation
• Somatic complaints
• Depression
• Post - traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Anxiety
• Mental illnesses including borderline personality disorder
• Dissociative identity disorder
• Propensity to re-victimization in adulthood
• Bulimia nervosa (binge eating)
• Physical injury to the child

In the United States, approximately 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, mothers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbors; strangers account for approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. In over one-third of cases, the perpetrator is also a minor.

Psychological abuse

Emotional abuse is defined as the production of psychological and social defects in the growth of a child as a result of behavior such as loud yelling, coarse and rude attitude, inattention, harsh criticism, and denigration of the child's personality. Other examples include name-calling, ridicule, degradation, destruction of personal belongings, torture or killing of a pet, excessive criticism, inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding communication, and routine labeling or humiliation.

Victims of emotional abuse may react by distancing themselves from the abuser, internalizing the abusive words, or fighting back by insulting the abuser. Emotional abuse can result in abnormal or disrupted attachment development, a tendency for victims to blame themselves (self-blame) for the abuse, learned helplessness, and overly passive behavior.

Neglect

Child neglect is the failure of a parent or other person with responsibility for the child to provide needed food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the degree that the child's health, safety, and well-being are threatened with harm. 

Neglect is also a lack of attention from the people surrounding a child, and the non-provision of the relevant and adequate necessities for the child's survival, which would be a lack in attention, love, and nurture. Some of the observable signs in a neglected child include: 

• the child is frequently absent from school
• begs or steals food or money
• lacks needed medical and dental care
• is consistently dirty
• or lacks sufficient clothing for the weather.

Neglected children may experience delays in physical and psychosocial development, possibly resulting in psychopathology and impaired neuropsychological functions including executive function, attention, processing speed, language, memory and social skills. Researchers investigating maltreated children have repeatedly found that neglected children in foster and adoptive populations manifest different emotional and behavioral reactions to regain lost or secure relationships and are frequently reported to have disorganized attachments and a need to control their environment. 

Such children are not likely to view caregivers as being a source of safety, and instead typically show an increase in aggressive and hyperactive behaviors which may disrupt healthy or secure attachment with their adopted parents. These children have apparently learned to adapt to an abusive and inconsistent caregiver by becoming cautiously self-reliant, and are often described as glib, manipulative and disingenuous in their interactions with others as they move through childhood.

Children who are victims of neglect have a more difficult time forming and maintaining relationships - romantic or platonic, later in life due to the lack of attachment they had in their earlier stages of life.

Effects

Child abuse can result in immediate adverse physical effects but it is also strongly associated with developmental issues and with many chronic physical and psychological effects, including subsequent ill-health, including higher rates of chronic conditions, high-risk health behaviors and shortened lifespan.

Maltreated children may grow up to become maltreating adults. A 1991 source reported that studies indicate that 90 percent of maltreating adults were maltreated as children. Almost 7 million American infants receive child care services, such as day care, and much of that care is poor.

Better not to bring a child to the world, than to do so and then expose to any form of abuse either from the parent(s) or from other sources. Our society, and by extension, the world, would be a better place if we will conscientiously look out for and take care of our children (biological or not). What we sow in these children is what we reap from them as full grown adults.

Credits: Wikipedia, Google images