Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Among Vulnerable Children and Families in the U.S.A (Essay Sample)

SOCIAL POLICY ASSIGNMENT
SOCIAL WELFARE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE (CSA) AMONG VULNERABLE CHILDREN AND FAMILIES IN USA
USE OF PARENTAL CARE POLICY PROGRAM
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INTRODUCTION
As part of child protection, the US government has worked around and has implemented a child’s act. The act is aimed at protecting children as they are seen to be vulnerable as well as exposed to high risk of harassment. Their innocence can be betrayed by perpetrators whom they trust or even strangers (Baril and Tourigny, 2009). One of the major policy implemented has been the parental care policy. Research and human rights organisations have called for a state attention towards CSA as it is a widespread problem. A lot of children are exposed to the risk of rape before their 13th birthday (DeLisi, 2010). Government agencies have not been able to have proper statistics on the problem as most cases are not reported. With those reported having no legal course of action due to high rates of corruption.
Families in refugee camps as well as those under high poverty level are more vulnerable to abuse. Research has also shown that poor families especially those headed by females are at more risk (DeLisi, 2010). However, due to capitalism and development of US towards global image and integration, the topic has remained under studied. Therefore, resulting to scanty information on the topic. Most people have also not been able to understand the concept as it has been related to rape cases only from strangers. The truth be told, there are a lot of unreported cases of abuse from people the children trust (Dube et.al, 2005). A lot of favour exchanges with own body have been happening. According to WHO the exchanges of favours with child abuse is part of CSA which has not been covered much in literature. According to the centre of disease control, CSA includes “any completed or attempted (non-completed) sexual act, sexual contact with, or exploitation (i.e., noncontact sexual interaction) of a child by a caregiver”. Therefore, CSA is wider than anybody would think, since most literature and government reports have been on complete sexual abuse. In addition, most analysis has been on abuse to girl (Fergusson et.al, 2008). The reality is that girls, boys, people with disability, and women are exposed to CSA. This has led to initiation of the parental care policy which has home base, community, and family based intervention. The current analysis will thus look at CSA from a broader picture and assess policies like PCP that have been put n place to deal with the problem.