The Impact of Child Abuse on A Child's Future Life (Research Paper Sample)

The Impact of Child Abuse on A Child’s Future Life
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The Impact of Child Abuse on A Child’s Future Life
Introduction
Primarily, the study endeavors to review the prevalent societal phenomenon of child abuse comprehensively. In essence, the study seeks to bring out child abuse as a major concern among many phenomena today. Further, the paper will revisit acts of child abuse and the various legal implications thereto. Moreover, the paper will delve into analyzing several scholarly articles that address multifaceted issues germane to child abuse. Additionally, the research shall analyze the prevalence of child abuse in the society. Child abuse takes diverse forms, thus, this paper will explain in details the different forms of child abuse that include sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and abandonment among others.
The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect at one time compared the definitions of what constituted child abuse .According to their study, child abuse constituted all acts of sexual abuse, physical ill-treatment, neglect and threats to the survival, and health of the child. The definition given covers a broad spectrum of various acts of abuse. Specifically, the definition of child abuse, according to the writers, is limited to the acts or omissions by parents or caregivers that cause four types of maltreatment to the child. The four acts of maltreatment include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and child neglect.
Additionally, quite a number of risk factors that make children vulnerable to abuse have been highlighted. Age has been identified as a risk factor for child abuse. Age is mostly associated with physical and sexual abuse. In reviews of infants in deaths in countries like Fiji, Germany, and Senegal, the majority of victims were less than two years of age. Chiefly, in China, there is a high prevalence of non-fatal abuse of children aged between three and six years. Sexual abuse, on the other hand, is usually higher in children who have attained puberty age. Additionally, sex is another risk factor in child abuse in most countries. For instance, in most countries, girls are at a higher risk of being sexually abused than the male children. Equally, girls are at a higher risk of infanticide, educational neglect, and forced prostitution than boys. Globally, more than 130 million children do not receive a proper education. Chiefly, more than sixty percent of those children are girls. However, male children are at a higher risk of being physically mistreated in war-torn countries.
Research Questions
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, it is important to identify the research questions that are relevant to this study. The following questions are hereby posed:
1 What is the extent of the impact of child abuse on children in the society?
2 What is the extent of criminal delinquency on children who have been abused?
3 Does this abuse generally affect their day to day activities?
Literature Review
Herrenkohl, T., Cynthia, S., & Emiko, T. (2008). Intersection of Child Abuse and Children's Exposure to Domestic Violence. Criminology .
Children who had been sexually abused or exposed to domestic family violence earlier in their lives had the capacity of developing delinquent and criminal behaviors later on in life. Herenkohl, Cythian and Emiko (2008) link the effects of child abuse to criminal consequences that form later on in the victim’s life. Notably, the author has specifically dwelt on sexual abuse. Further, the author has based her findings on clinical reports from experts. Clinical studies have concluded that other ancillary impacts incidental to such sexual abuse include sexual disturbance, re-victimization, suicide, and post-sexual abuse syndrome CITATION Her08 \l 1033 (Herrenkohl, Cynthia, & Emiko, 2008). In this case, a considerable percentage of juvenile offenders who are arrested are usually found to have been exposed to one or more forms of child abuse including exposure to domestic violence.
Mersky, J., James, T., & Arthur, R. (2012). Unsafe at Any Age Linking Childhood and Adolescent Maltreatment to Delinquency and Crime. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency , 49 (2), 295-318.
Mersky and Reynolds (2012) highlight the linkage between childhood mistreatment and criminal deliquescence during adulthood. They conduct a study where a comparison of the effects of childhood maltreatment and adolescent maltreatment on delinquency and crime has been drawn. The study has delved in exploring both violent and non violent crimes. The study primarily relied on data obtained from the Chicago Longitudinal Study. In essence, the study envisaged an investigation of 1539 unprivileged child subjects. The overall results of the research revealed that the levels of all sorts of crimes including drug, violent and property offenses were high among the adolescent and childhood maltreated victims. There was a higher criminal culpability in the people who had been maltreated in their childhood than the non-maltreated fellows (Mersky, James, & Arthur, 2012). The researchers discovered that childhood maltreatment was perpetrated by the parents or caregivers. The perpetrators viewed such as a measure of preventing criminal activities among the children. The effects of adolescent maltreatment on adult crimes were subtle. Te researchers concluded that maltreatment at any age had the effect of increasing the risk of future offending. They suggest that laying interventional strategies during childhood and adolescent are likely to reduce criminal delinquency.
Finkelhor, D., & Jones, L. (2006). Why Have child Maltreatment and Child Victimization Declined?. Journal of Social Issues, 62(4), 685-716.
Finkelnor and Jones (2006) have highlighted the types of child maltreatment and victimization that occur in societies. The writers identify many forms of child abuse. In particular, they identify sexual abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse as the subsisting acts of child abuse. They opine that child victimization and abuse has declined as much as 40% to 70% from 1993 to 2004. The writers have endeavored to give an explanation underpinning the prevalence of child abuse. They agree that some of the child welfare indicators like teenage pregnancies, teenage suicide and children living in poverty improved during that period.
Kitzmann, K., Noni, G., Aimee, H., & Erin, K. (2003). Child Witnesses to Domestic Violence: a Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology , 71 (2), 339.
Kitzmann and Holt (2003) wrote an article on domestic violence. The article entails a typical mega research conducted to expose the prevalence of inter-parental violence. The mega research encompassed 118 studies of the psychological outcomes of minors exposed to inter-parental violence. The studies showed a major association between exposure and child problems. In essence, children who lived in verbally aggressive homes became victims of domestic violent abuse. Witnesses were equally enjoined in the study. The final result showed that the witnesses’ outcomes were not largely distinct from the children who had been physically abused (Kitzmann, Noni, Aimee, & Erin, 2003). However, many methodological variables were used to moderate the results. Similarly, the conglomeration of studies revealed that there was a greater risk of domestic abuse of children among the preschoolers. Children who had not attained the school going age had a higher chance of being abused as compared to those in schools.
Research Design
Critically, the research is geared towards exploring the fundamental aspects of child abuse. For instance, the research would answer what constitutes child abuse and the various manifestations of child abuse in the society. In answering such a question, the study will take into account various theories present in modern criminology. Further, the research will review the intersection between these theories of criminology and child maltreatment. The research will try to answer the question as to who are responsible for child abuse. Accordingly, parents and caregivers are primarily responsible for child abuse cases. The forms and prevalence of child abuse are significant in this study. In tackling the prevalence of child maltreatment, the risk factors identified above shall be considered. The research would not have proved a point in the absence of offering a long lasting answer to the subsisting problem of child abuse.
The research will majorly rely on collected data from institutions’ websites. Typically, the website is an informative website that deals with child matters all over the world. The website has reports concerning child welfare issues in countries all over the world. This online site has protective service reports and child abuse statistics. In particular, the website bears information on child protection and risk assessment. It goes forth to give statistics on child abuse in various countries. The site is equally linked to the United Nations. However, at some point, the study will take the form of interviewing members of the immediate society. There will be interviewing of specific individuals of the society on their views of child abuse. However, the research will mostly rely on raw data from institutions that deal with child matters and rights. Additionally, information from the institutions’ websites will be important. Other on-line sources shall be equally used. For instance, the child welfare website will be utterly beneficial to the research. The website has comparative information covering many countries in the world. It is important to do a comparative analysis of child abuse experiences in diverse countries. This is fundamental because different countries have di...