Social Welfare- Child Abuse

Social Welfare- Child Abuse

Introduction

Child abuse has been part of human society for some quite some time. Yes, opinions do vary with respect to what can be labeled as abuse, but this is primarily based on culture that has remained for hundreds of years. Take for example the United States, where even scolding a child too harshly can be labeled as verbal abuse, and cause the individual to answer for their alleged crime in the court of law. Comparatively, in an Indian household, if a parent scolds their child, the parent is considered to be quite modern and understanding. This is because many do not feel any harm from beating a child. It is a part of their culture. Children get beat; they get up and continue with their day. If a western child were beat, he would dial the respective authorities and complain, simply because they have been taught not too stand for such behavior from anyone. The Indian children are not.

Today we know better and a lot has changed. Child abuse is taken very seriously throughout most of the world. Children are being taught their rights as individuals and human beings, reminded that they do not have to suffer verbal assault, physical beatings or any form of sexual harassment. They truly do deserve better. To make one understand the severity of the situation, to what extent child abuse damages an individual, one should keep in mind that approximately 20% of women and 5 to 10% of men report having experienced sexual abuse during their childhood. 25 to 50% of children reported being physically abused (Connolly and Read, 2003).

Abuse during childhood can sometimes lead to life altering physical and mental health conditions. Furthermore, the mindset, in relation to child abuse, can greatly affect a nation's growth as can be seen in the numerous countries that are repeatedly blamed for exploiting children in the form of child labor, refusal to educate and the refusal to provide protection (Berson and Berson, 1999). All is not lost however; there are means to cure the mental ailment that results in beating and abusing a child. This can be found in numerous programs, catered towards. The effective prevention programs are those that support parents and teach them to be good parents; that abuse is not the way to deliver their message (O'Neill et al, 2010). The support of children and families in the long term can reduce the risk of recurrence of maltreatment and minimize their consequences. The purpose of this paper is to discuss what exactly child abuse is, what are the consequences, how the big the problem actually is and how the abuse can affect varying aspects of society in different ways. The paper also takes a look into the history of child abuse in context to social structures and how it became recognized as a social problem.

Thesis

“Child abuse is a problem that has plagued society for several hundred years. Unfortunately, it was not till quite recently that ...