Child Abuse: More Than a Scar
Kimberly Hubacher
November 16, 2007
Child abuse in America is an ongoing problem and something needs to be done. There are approximately one million children abused annually in the United States. (Table 332) Cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every ten seconds, and researchers believe that there’s three times that amount that goes unnoticed. (Child Abuse: Know the Signs and Stop the Violence Against Children.) Something needs to be done for these children who are too weak and too powerless to help themselves.
Children who have been abused are left with more than just physical scars. They have many psychological, emotional, and behavioral problems as well. Their social lives are affected dramatically, and they suffer lifelong effects. (Scarborough) Children tend to be emotionally disturbed years after the abuse, many have IQ scores lower than average, and some have even been classified as mentally retarded. Children who have been abused also show signs of personality and neurological changes. (Oates 119) Sexual abuse has been linked to nightmares, bed wetting, sadness, clinging behavior, and anxiety. Children also showed more aggressive and anti-social behaviors. (Oates 127) Adults who were sexually abused are more prone to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and drug or alcohol problems. (Oates 132-133) Studies show overwhelming evidence of the effects abuse can have on a child, and the way the effects continue into their adult lives. (Oates 135)
Speech is dramatically affected from abuse and neglect. Over one third of physically abused children have language delays. (Oates 119) All aspects of language are affected. Written and oral language is affected. The area that children tend to exhibit the most difficulties with is pragmatics. They tend to be less talkative, and they have fewer conversation skills. Their social skills are affected and they tend to have trouble making friends and carrying on conversations. This affects them all through their lives since so much in the world is centered around good communication. They usually talk in short quick sentences instead of long elaborate conversations. (Scarborough) They may also suffer speaking problems from actual neurological problems. Brain damage directly affects the vocal chords and other muscles used in speaking. (Scarborough) If their brains were affected in the abuse, the muscles used for speaking can be permanently damaged and even paralyzed. Clearly, abuse can have lifelong effects on the children.
Many children tend to act out how they are feeling instead of verbalizing it. They show aggressive and out of control behaviors towards their relationships. Boys tend to be more likely to exhibit these traits. Girls, however, are more likely to hold in anger, fear, and anxiety, leading to depression. Both of these problems can significantly affect how well a child learns. If a child’s education is affected, it could stay with them throughout their lives. (Santrock 201)
Physical abuse is “the mistreatment of a child that causes physical injury, impairment, or endangerment.” (Layman 15) It accounts for about 25 percent of abuse cases. (Moses) Children who have been abused usually show certain signs. They tend to be apathetic and withdrawn, but at the same time, constantly scanning their environment for danger. (Oates 43) Physical abuse can leave all kinds of injuries. Bruises are very common, and are seen in around 90 percent of the cases reported. (Oates 50) Another kind of physical abuse is burns, which are seen in about 10 percent of the cases. Hot water burns are the most common. Some parents will punish their children by dipping parts of their body into boiling water. (Oates 52) Other common kinds of burns seen on children are from cigarettes, irons, and other hot objects. Burns can be very dangerous, and only take a short time to create a serious problem. Water at 150 degrees would only take 1.5 seconds to cause a second degree burn on a child. (Oates 53)
A third kind of physical injury is an abdominal injury. These injuries results from the abuser kicking, hitting, punching, or jumping on the child. These are dangerous, and are many times fatal. Internal bleeding and tearing are common effects of this form of abuse. They do not usually leave any external evidence, making them hard to detect. (Oates 53)
Fractured and broken bones are also commonly seen with physically abused children. Many times, the parents make up elaborate and often unbelievable stories to explain the broken bone. Many times unexplained bruising accompanies the broken bone. Also, parents tend to delay going to the doctor until the break has worsened. Almost all cases of broken bones in infants up to six months of age are from abuse. Infants at that age don’t have the physical ability to put themselves in the position it would require to break a bone. A common fracture seen in child abuse is called a metaphyseal-epiphyeal injury. These fractures are from pulling and yanking on the children’s limbs, causing fragments of bone to become separated from the other sections of bone. Multiple rib fractures are also commonly seen. They are usually from an intense shaking episode or from a direct blow to the chest, from either a kick or a hard punch. (Oates 55-56) Poisoning is also considered a form of physical child abuse. Common household items are often used as punishment by forcing a child to consume large amounts of an unwanted item. (Oates 58) Physical abuse will stay with the child forever. It causes a lifelong effect on the child that will permanently change many aspects of their lives. Physical abuse is more than just scars.
The leading cause of death in child abuse cases is from head trauma. Direct blows to the head, dropping, throwing, or shaking a child can cause extreme damage to the brain and even death. Shaken Baby Syndrome is defined as an inflicted head trauma. It results from an infant being shaken vigorously. It usually occurs between three and eight months of age, although it has been seen in cases with children as old as four years of age. When the infant is shaken, their head rolls back and forth uncontrollably due to their poor control of their neck muscles. It causes the brain to be pinched between the skull, rupturing veins and blood vessels. There is also bleeding of the brain, which causes permanent brain damage to the infant. The swelling of the brain after the trauma is also very dangerous, as it causes the brain to be compressed against the walls of the skull. Effects from this trauma, even if they are not immediate, will haunt these children all through their lives. Learning disabilities and behavioral problems are both caused by Shaken Baby Syndrome. There are also significant speech disorders due to the brain damage. Blindness, hearing loss, attention and memory problems, paralysis, and overall delays have all been linked to this head trauma. (Palusci) These infants are helpless and innocent, and their caretakers are selfishly taking their frustrations out on them.
The hardest kind of abuse to recognize and detect is emotional abuse. It leaves behind no physical signs of the abuse. (Oates 98) Its effects, however, can be even more damaging than those of physical abuse. There are many types of emotional abuse. The first, rejecting, is when the caregiver abandons the child, refusing to show the child any attention or acknowledges the child’s worth and needs. The second kind, terrorizing, results from the child being threatened with extreme forms of punishment. The child is expected to achieve unobtainable goals and is punished severely when they fail. The child’s view on the world changes, as they begin to believe that the world is a hostile and dangerous place. A third kind of emotional abuse is when the child is ignored. This occurs when the caregiver is psychologically unavailable to the child. They are busy doing things for themselves and do not tend to the child’s needs. When children are ignored, their brains aren’t stimulated, causing intellectual and emotional growth problems in the future. The fourth kind of emotional abuse is when the caregiver isolates the child from the rest of the world. The child is unable to make friends and experience normal opportunities. They also have delayed social skills. The child begins to feel alone, which increases their chances for emotional problems down the road. The fifth and last form of emotional abuse is corrupting abuse. The child gets a warped view on values and the social aspect of the world. They think anger is the norm, and tend to be drawn to drug abuse in their adult years. (Oates 100-101)
Neglect is also a form of emotional abuse. It is often confused with poverty, however, they are very different. Neglect is when a parent knows better, has the means, but chooses to wrongly ignore the well being of their child. If a child’s parents cannot afford adequate clothing or shelter that is by no means neglect. There are many forms of neglect. (Oates 105)
The first kind is medical neglect. This occurs when parents refuse treatment for their child for unjustified reasons. Some parents claim that they do not want treatment for religious reasons, and others claim that they think it is dangerous. When it is a life and death situation, the court can usually override the parent’s decision and provide the child with the proper care. Medical neglect also occurs when parents refuse to give their child crucial medications. Some parents even refuse current treatments, believing that unproved, unorthodox treatments will be more beneficial to their child. Courts usually intervene in these occasions when the current treatments promise a reasonable chance for a cure. (Oates 106) These parents clearly do not have the child’s well being at the top of their priorities.
A second kind of neglect is safety neglect. This occurs when a caregiver does not provide adequate supervision for the child. An example of this is a true story about a mother who left her 3 year old at home alone for two hours while she was out drinking with friends. Her child tried to make a fort with a blanket by draping it over an electric heater and a chair. The blanket caught on fire, causing extreme burns that disfigured the child’s whole body. (Oates 107) It is essential to a child’s well being to carefully monitor them and their surroundings.
The third kind of neglect is educational neglect. Children may be forced to stay home from school to work or babysit. Parents may make up stories to excuse their child from school. Parents are selfishly delaying their child’s cognitive abilities. Once the child is behind in school, it will be more difficult for them to work at the same level of their same age peers. The parent is permanently damaging that child’s educational abilities by selfishly forcing their children into jobs and chores that are not the child’s responsibility. (Oates 107)
The last type of neglect is emotional neglect. Just like emotional abuse, this is the hardest to detect. Children who suffer from this often keep to themselves and are simply labeled “shy.” These children also have delays in language and motor development. Emotionally neglected infants often grow up and many times show signs of persistent head banging and they may rock their bodies back and forth for no apparent reason. As they grow up, they usually show little to no interest in toys. They tend to be loners, making it difficult for them to connect with anyone and make friends. This affects them all throughout their lives. (Oates 108)
Sexual harassment is a bigger problem is schools than many people like to believe. In a recent survey, they found that 83 percent of girls, and 60 percent of boys had been sexually assaulted. (Santrock 175) Although the number of reported sexual assault cases has gone down slightly since 1990 from around 120,000 to 80,000, it is still a major problem. (Table 332)
A drastic change in behavior is usually an initial sign that a child has been sexually abused. (Oates 70) Although these behaviors alone cannot conclude that a child has been sexually abused, they can be a good sign that some investigating needs to be done. There are also physical signs that sexual abuse has occurred. Rips and tears of the genital and anal area are common with more serious attacks. Pregnancy is another medical complication of sexual abuse. This is seen in pubertal girls, especially when no contraceptive was used during the assault. Sexually transmitted diseases are another physical indicator of the abuse. Children can contract a number of serious disease including; gonorrhea, Chlamydia, herpes simplex, human papilloma virus, syphilis, and HIV. Clearly, sexually abused children have to face much more than just the memories. They may face diseases that could stay with them the rest of their lives. (Oates 86-87)
We need to not only focus on treating the children who have been abused, but also focus on preventing it from happening in the first place. Some organizations aim at educating and counseling new parents on the difficulties of parenthood, and how to properly deal with them. (Child Abuse: Know the Signs and Stop the Violence Against Children.) When treating and counseling a child, it is also very important to counsel and treat the parents and family also. The family may need help dealing with the trauma from the abuse, and dealing with the underlying problems that caused the abuse in the first place. (Oates 137) Other programs aim at abuse that has already occurred. An example of this would be the use of a therapeutic preschool for children who have been either sexually or physically abused. Although it cannot undo the past, it works to ensure a safer future for all children who have suffered from abuse. Public school personnel admit to only reporting half the cases known to them. (Layman 21) Although abuse has already occurred, school personnel could benefit the child greatly by reporting the abuse.
(Oates 141) A third kind of prevention program works toward ensuring the safety of “at risk” children. Certain programs work to identify potentially dangerous parents during pregnancy, and to aid them with counseling. They also work to have better supervision of children who have a higher risk for abuse. For example, children with special needs tend to have a higher risk for sexual abuse; therefore, they are under regular supervision. (Oates 142) Abuse can carry from generation to generation. Children who are abused have a higher risk for being abusers. (Oates 139) We need to stop it now, before other generations pay for our mistakes.
Works Cited
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Oates, R. Kim. The Spectrum of Child Abuse. 8. New York: Brunner/Mazel Inc., 1996.
Palusci MD, MS, Vincent J.. "Shaken Baby/Shaken Impact Syndrome." Kids Health For Parents.
August 2004. Nemours Foundation. 17 Oct 2007 http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/medical/brain/shaken.html
Santrock, John W. Educational Phycology. Third. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008.
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