Child Abuse
Imagine for one moment that you are not yourself any longer. Visualize instead that you are a young girl; old enough to know right from wrong yet still young enough to be terrified by the dark shadows in your room. It is a cool autumn night and your parents have opted to attend a party, which you are not allowed at. "It will be fine?, they say. Although you already know what is to come. Your uncle comes over to watch you for the evening, and your parents are so pleased by the fact that they do not have to find a sitter. As soon as he arrives, your mother kisses you on the cheek and scurries out the door to join your father already waiting in the car outside. The nightmare begins. His slimy hands casually slide an ebony cartridge into the VCR as he smiles at you seductively. You can feel his eyes worming their gaze through your clothes every time that he looks at you. You feel dirty and violated every time you think about what he does to you when you are alone. He walks over to the couch and sits down next to you. His hand slithers it way onto your knee and you cringe in revulsion. "Don't be afraid, I won't hurt you?, he chides. Your mind feels panicky as you feel his touch in more intimate places and you scream involuntarily. His
Many experts think that terrible pressures on today's family are partly to blame for the excess of abuse in today's families. (Dolan p.9) Physical abuse is termed sexual abuse when it involves the display or touching of genitalia or anything which is not a comfortable part of a normal person to person contact. This brings us to our next form of Child abuse, that of Sexual or exploitive abuse.Sexual abuse is described as those activities by an older person for his or her sexual gratification without consideration for What you have just experienced is one type of abuse that occurs millions of times every year across America. Estimates of abuse range wildly depending on the source of ones information. From one to two million children per year are victims of child abuse. (Dolan p.3) All sources agree on the simple truth that not nearly all cases of child abuse are reported or even estimated. Man cases go unreported, less than 50% by current estimates. (Dolan p.3) The amount of child abuse is staggering to think about, let alone deal Mental Abuse of a child can involve several different activities. These can involved the common verbal forms, i.e. yelling, neglect, constant insults, etc. They also involve certain forms of mental torture and neglect. Mental abuse is one of the most damaging forms of abuse, because unlike rape or other forms of sexual or physical abuse, mental abuse will be with you all of your life. I would offer this analogy to shed light what I am trying to communicate here. Physical and sexual abuse are like roadblocks in the road of life. They are there for a while, but you get over them eventually. Mental abuse, on the other hand, catalyzes the disillusion of the view of the street. If someone is always insulting you, always telling you that you are no good: then with time, your mind becomes accustomed to it, and begins to believe it. This especially is a damaging consequence for young children and infants, who are as dependent upon mental support as they are for their physiological needs. It is an utter violation of such a relationship. Mental abuse not only affects the child, and the family, but society as a whole. In one of my interviews I received the following response to the question; What do you feel is the greatest misconception about abuse in today's society? "We still don't understand how much real damage it does, not only to the child but to society as a whole. Most people never fully recover from child abuse. Our society has never recovered from child abuse...?(Kimball E-mail) This brings us to our final area of discussion on the subject of child abuse, that of neglect. Neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment. "The statistics are staggering. A recent Study prepared by the American Humane Association states that, nationwide, neglect consistently has accounted for the greatest number of maltreatment reports; in 1988 alone it represented sixty three percent of the approximately two million cases of reported incidents of the three predominant forms of child maltreatment: physical
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Approximate Word count = 2054
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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