For a person to have been harmed with child abuse the child must have been subject to the following elements. These elements are.
First, a person responsible for a child's health or safety willfully/ maliciously engaged in causing the child physical, emotional or sexual harm.
Second, causing/procuring/permitting a willful/malicious to be caused to the child by a “friend” within the full knowledge of the adult.
Third, act of harm/ (threatened harm) to the child that causes harm to the child.
Fourth, to the health/safety.
Fifth, to be a child person must under the age of eighteen as any person over 18 is not counted as a child in the eyes of the law and thus the case is treated as assault or rape etc.
Sixth Harm / (Threatened harm) includes, but is not limited to: (non-accidental physical/mental injury), sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, neglect, failure/omission to provide protection from harm/ (threatened harm).
Distinguishing Features
A study found that when a case of child abuse comes up that well over three quarters of the abusers were abused by their parents and that just over 1 quarter of the abusers where mentally challenged as well. This amazing discovery proved that we often follow our parent's way of raising us and pass it onto our children, even if we did not enjoy the way that we were treated.
Also unlike regular abuse, child abuse leaves huge scars on the child. For example: when a 60 year old lady was interviewed about how she was abused when she was young, she did not mention her mother as mum once. Instead she referred to her as her “female parent” or just plainly “her”. Whenever she spoke about it she was close to tears and still had the scars to show what had happened. This distinguishing feature of child abuse just shows how permanent the damage is to a poor innocent child.
Yet another study showed that people who beat up their pets are over three times as likely to harm their children when, and if, they have any. This is believed to be so because if a person can harm something as sweet and innocent as a puppy then surely they will think of nothing of beating up a small, defenceless child.
So child abuse has many distinguishing features and each one is equally horrible and there is no bright side to child abuse, it is always physically and mentally harming the child.
The thing that distinguishes child abuse from others is that the abuse is caused to the child and causes a lifetime of harm.
Big Ideas
Generalizations
When a child is abused it is most common for the abuse to be physical or emotional abuse, sexual abuse is common though it does not happen as frequently as the other two. This generalization has been depicted through many court case studies over the years.
Also generally the child doesn't come forward because the abuse is from a loved one who they ironically trust. Majority of child abuse cases are reported by people such as their teachers who may begin to notice bruises on the arms of the victim or in the case of a sexual abuse victim, the child behaving in a very inappropriate manner.
The signs of abuse that has been noted are:
Signs of physical abuse can include injuries such as bruising and burning. Shaken Baby Syndrome and the lesser known Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy are two other injuries identified. Each of these listed abuse injuries is accompanied by what to look for in the way of injury patterns.
Depression and anxiety can be two of the signs of physical abuse some people can display. As an older child, negative peer involvement can begin to surface. Then, as an adolescent, negative peer involvement can be escalated, and behaviour problems are likely to be at the top of the "signs" list.
According to a study of the signs of physical abuse done by Trocme, Nico & Wolfe (2001, p. 26): Physically abused children were generally reported as having considerable problems in child functioning. The five most often indicated concerns were:
- behavioural problems (39%)
- negative peer involvement (15%)
- depression or anxiety (15%)
- violence to others (11%)
- developmental delay (9%)
Signs of Sexual abuse
- physical trauma such as redness, rashes, and/or bleeding to oral, genital and/or anal areas
- bruises on breasts, buttocks, lower abdomen, thighs, genital and/or rectal areas
- complaints of pain or itching in genital or anal areas
- difficulty walking or sitting
- unusual or offensive body odors
- difficulty in bladder or bowel control
- constipation
- pain or discomfort on urination
- blood in urine
- abnormal dilation of vaginal or rectal openings
- foreign bodies in vaginal, rectal or urethral openings
- sexually transmitted diseases found vaginally, rectally or orally
- yeast or bacterial infections
- frequent sore throats; difficulty swallowing; choking
- ear infections/problems
- sudden weight gain or extreme weight loss
- severe psychosomatic complaints such as stomachaches and headaches
Behavioural signs:
- sexualized behavior that is inappropriate for the child's age
- promiscuous behavior
Theories
The theories that lead to a case of child abuse are many and varied. These include the theory that if your parents abused you, you will abuse your children and that you are three times as likely to hurt your child if you abuse your pet.
Interdisciplinary
The common theme in all of them is that the psychology of the parent is often one of violence and irrational and sometimes dangerous action. IN law parents who are brought forward are often aggressive the same as in literature. It seems that psychology is the central problem of child abuse though it is not alone in blaming for it.
Ideas from our disciplines allowed us to gain a greater understanding throughout the whole topic. In literature the short stories allowed us to understand and analyse what kinds of abuse were taking place and identify similarities between them.
Law allowed us to understand the consequences of child abuse including fines, punishments etc. Law also tied in with psychology allowing us to find out what kinds of things fuelled child abuse as was identified throughout them.
