SIES (NERUL) COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCE & COMMERCE
FIRST YEAR
B.COM (B&I)
2017-18
TOPIC: - CHILD ABUSE
NAME: - NITU KUMARI RAMBABU YADAV
ROLL NO: - 59
DIVISION: - A
UNDER the guidance of – professor mithun Pllai
1
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank my college for providing me with
the platform to grow and excel. Next, I would like to
sincerely thank the principal of our college for his
immense support she gave.
I would like to thank my foundation course teacher,
Mrs Mithun Pillai for explaining the theory and
helping me throughout the project.
Finally, I would like to express my thanks to my
parents, colleagues and each and every person who had
been supporting and motivating me throughout my
project.
2
INDEX:-
Sr.no:- Contents:- Pg.
no:-
1 INTRODUCTION
2 Types of child abuse
3 Causes of child abuse
4 Effect of child abuse
5 Emotional of child abuse
6 Prevention of child abuse
8 CONCLUSION
9 BIBLIOGRAPHY
3
Introduction
Child abuse is broadly defined in many states as any type
of cruelty inflicted upon a child, including mental abuse,
physical harm, neglect, and sexual abuse or exploitation.
Federal legislation lays the groundwork for states by
identifying a minimum set of acts or behaviours that
define child abuse and neglect. The Child Abuse
Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), (42 U.S.C.A.
§5106g), as amended by the Keeping Children and
Families Safe Act of 2003, defines child abuse and neglect
as, at minimum.
Types
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The World Health Organization distinguishes four types of
child maltreatment: physical abuse; sexual abuse;
emotional and psychological abuse; and neglect.
1. Physical abuse
5
Among professionals and the general public, people often
do not agree on what behaviors constitute physical abuse
of a child ]Physical abuse often does not occur in isolation,
but as part of a constellation of behaviors including
authoritarian control, anxiety-provoking behavior, and a
lack of parental warmth. The WHO defines physical abuse
as:
Intentional use of physical force against the child that
results in – or has a high likelihood of resulting in – harm
for the child's health, survival, development or dignity.
This includes hitting, beating, kicking, shaking, biting,
strangling, scalding, burning, poisoning and suffocating.
Much physical violence against children in the home is
inflicted with the object of punishing.
Corporal punishment involves hitting ('smacking',
'slapping', 'spanking') children, with the hand or with an
implement – whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, etc.
But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or
throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair
or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable
positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for
example, washing children's mouths out with soap or
forcing them to swallow hot spices).
Most nations with child abuse laws deem the deliberate
infliction of serious injuries, or actions that place the child
at obvious risk of serious injury or death, to be illegal
bruises, scratches, burns, broken bones, lacerations, as
well as repeated "mishaps," and rough treatment that
could cause physical injury, can be physical abuse.
Multiple injuries or fractures at different stages of healing
can raise suspicion of abuse.
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Often, physical abuse as a child can lead to physical and
mental difficulties in the future, including re-victimization,
personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder,
dissociative disorders, depression, anxiety, suicidal
ideation, eating disorders, substance abuse, and
aggression. Physical abuse in childhood has also been
linked to homelessness in adulthood.
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2. Sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which
an adult or older adolescent abuses a child for sexual
stimulation. Sexual abuse refers to the participation of a
child in a sexual act aimed toward the physical
gratification or the financial profit of the person
committing the act. Forms of CSA include asking or
pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities
(regardless of the outcome), indecent exposure of the
genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child,
actual sexual contact with a child, physical contact with
the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia
without physical contact, or using a child to produce child
pornography .Selling the sexual services of children may
be viewed and treated as child abuse rather than simple
incarceration.
Effects of child sexual abuse on the victim(s) include guilt
and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, fear of
things associated with the abuse (including objects,
smells, places, doctor's visits, etc.), self-esteem
difficulties, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, addiction,
self-injury, suicidal ideation, somatic complaints,
depression, post-traumatic stress disorder anxiety, other
mental illnesses including borderline personality disorder
and dissociative identity disorder ]propensity to re-
victimization in adulthood, bulimia nervosa, and physical
injury to the child, among other problems. Children who
are the victims are also at an increased risk of sexually
transmitted infections due to their immature immune
systems and a high potential for mucosal tears during
forced sexual contact. Sexual victimization at a young age
has been correlated with several risk factors for
contracting HIV including decreased knowledge of sexual
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topics, increased prevalence of HIV, engagement in risky
sexual practices, condom avoidance, lower knowledge of
safe sex practices, frequent changing of sexual partners,
and more years of sexual activity.
In the United States, approximately 15% to 25% of women
and 5% to 15% of men were sexually abused when they
were children. Most sexual abuse offenders are
acquainted with their victims; approximately 30% are
relatives of the child, most often brothers, sisters, fathers,
mothers, uncles or cousins; around 60% are other
acquaintances such as friends of the family, babysitters,
or neighbours; strangers are the offenders in
approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. In over
one-third of cases, the perpetrator is also a minor.
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3. Psychological abuse
There are multiple definitions of child psychological
abuse:-
In 2013, the American Psychological Association
(APA) added Child Psychological Abuse to the DSM-5,
describing it as "no accidental verbal or symbolic acts
by a child's parent or caregiver that result, or have
reasonable potential to result, in significant
psychological harm to the child’.
In 1995, APSAC defined it as: spurning, terrorizing,
isolating, exploiting, corrupting, denying emotional
responsiveness, or neglect" or "A repeated pattern of
caregiver behavior or extreme incident(s) that convey
to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved,
unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting
another's needs.
In the United States, states laws vary, but most have
laws against "mental injury"
Some have defined it as the production of
psychological and social defects in the growth of a
child as a result of behavior such as loud yelling,
coarse and rude attitude, inattention, harsh criticism,
and denigration of the child's personality.
Other examples include name-calling, ridicule,
degradation, destruction of personal belongings,
torture or killing of a pet, excessive criticism,
inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding
communication, and routine labelling or humiliation.
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In 2014, the APA stated that:
"Childhood psychological abuse is as harmful as sexual
or physical abuse.”
"Nearly 3 million U.S. children experience some form of
[psychological] maltreatment annually’.
Psychological maltreatment is "the most challenging
and prevalent form of child abuse and neglect."
"Given the prevalence of childhood psychological abuse
and the severity of harm to young victims, it should be
at the forefront of mental health and social service
training"
In 2015, additional research confirmed these 2014
statements of the APA. Victims of emotional abuse may
react by distancing themselves from the abuser,
internalizing the abusive words, or fighting back by
insulting the abuser. Emotional abuse can result in
abnormal or disrupted attachment development, a
tendency for victims to blame themselves (self-blame) for
the abuse, learned helplessness, and overly passive
behaviour.
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4. Neglect
Child neglect is the failure of a parent or other person with
responsibility for the child, to provide needed food,
clothing, shelter, medical care, or supervision to the
degree that the child's health, safety or well-being may be
threatened with harm. Neglect is also a lack of attention
from the people surrounding a child, and the non-provision
of the relevant and adequate necessities for the child's
survival, which would be a lacking in attention, love, and
nurture.
Some observable signs of child neglect include: the child
is frequently absent from school, begs or steals food or
money, lacks needed medical and dental care, is
consistently dirty, or lacks sufficient clothing for the
weather.
The 2010 Child Maltreatment Report (NCANDS), a yearly
United States federal government report based on data
supplied by state Child Protective Services (CPS)
Agencies in the U.S., states, "as in prior years, neglect
was the most common form of maltreatment".
Neglectful acts can be divided into six sub-categories:
Supervisory neglect:
.characterized by the absence of a parent or guardian
which can lead to physical harm, sexual abuse or
criminal behavior;
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Physical neglect: characterized by the failure to
provide the basic physical necessities, such as a safe
and clean home.
Medical neglect: characterized by the lack of
providing medical care;
Emotional neglect: characterized by a lack of
nurturane, encouragement and support.
Educational neglect: characterized by the caregivers
lack to provide an education and additional resources
to actively participate in the school system;
Abandonment: when the parent or guardian leaves a
child alone for a long period of time without a
babysitter.
Neglected children may experience delays in physical and
psychosocial development, possibly resulting in
psychopathology and impaired neuropsychological
functions including executive function, attention,
processing speed, language, memory and social skills.
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Causes of child abuse
Child abuse is a complex phenomenon with multiple
causes. No single factor can be identified as to why
some adults behave violently toward children.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the
International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse
and Neglect (ISPCAN) identify multiple factors at the
level of the individual, their relationships, their local
community, and their society at large, that combine
to influence the occurrence of child maltreatment.
At the individual level, such factors include age, sex, and
personal history, while at the level of society; factors
contributing to child maltreatment include cultural norms
encouraging harsh physical punishment of children,
economic inequality, and the lack of social safety nets.
WHO and ISPCAN state that understanding the
complex interplay of various risk factors is vital for
dealing with the problem of child maltreatment. The
American psychoanalyst Elisabeth Young-Brunel
maintains that harm to children is justified and made
acceptable by widely held beliefs in children's
inherent subservience to adults; resulting in a largely
unacknowledged prejudice against children she
terms childism. She contends that such prejudice,
while not the immediate cause of child
maltreatment, must be investigated in order to
understand the motivations behind a given act of
abuse, as well as to shed light on societal failures to
support children's needs and development in general.
14
Parents who physically abuse their spouses are more
likely than others to physically abuse their children.
However, it is impossible to know whether marital
strife is a cause of child abuse, or if both the marital
strife and the abuse are caused by tendencies in the
abuser. Sometimes, parents set expectations for
their child that are clearly beyond the child's
capability.
When parents' expectations are far beyond what is
appropriate to the child (e.g., preschool children who
are expected to be totally responsible for self-care or
provision of nurturance to parents) the resulting
frustration caused by the child's non-compliance is
believed to function as a contributory if not
necessary cause of child abuse.
Most acts of physical violence against children are
undertaken with the intent to punish. In the United
States, interviews with parents reveal that as many
as two thirds of documented instances of physical
abuse begin as acts of corporal punishment meant to
correct a child's behavior, while a large-scale
Canadian study found that three quarters of
substantiated cases of physical abuse of children
have occurred within the context of physical
punishment Other studies have shown that children
and infants who are spanked by parents are several
times more likely to be severely assaulted by their
parents or suffer an injury requiring medical
attention.
Studies indicate that such abusive treatment often
involves parents attributing conflict to their child's
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willfulness or rejection, as well as "coercive family
dynamics and conditioned emotional responses".
Factors involved in the escalation of ordinary
physical punishment by parents into confirmed child
abuse may be the punishing parent's inability to
control their anger or judge their own strength, and
the parent being unaware of the child's physical
vulnerabilities.
Some professionals argue that cultural norms that
sanction physical punishment are one of the causes
of child abuse, and have undertaken campaigns to
redefine such norms. Children resulting from
unintended pregnancies are more likely to be abused
or neglected. In addition, unintended pregnancies
are more likely than intended pregnancies to be
associated with abusive relationships, and there is
an increased risk of physical violence during
pregnancy.
They also result in poorer maternal mental health,
and lower mother-child relationship quality.
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Effects of child abuse
Child abuse can result in immediate adverse physical
effects but it is also strongly associated with
developmental problems and with many chronic physical
and psychological effects, including subsequent ill-health,
including higher rates of chronic conditions, high-risk
health behaviors and shortened lifespan .
Maltreated children may grow up to be maltreating adults.
A 1991 source reported that studies indicate that 90
percent of maltreating adults were maltreated as children.
Almost 7 million American infants receive child care
services, such as day care, and much of that care is poor.
17
Emotional
Child abuse can cause a range of emotional effects.
Children who are constantly ignored, shamed, terrorized or
humiliated suffer at least as much, if not more, than if they
are physically assaulted.
According to the Joy Heart Foundation, many Childhood
Development studies show that the brain development of
the child is greatly influenced and responds to the
experiences with families, caregivers, and the community.
Abused children can grow up experiencing insecurities,
low self-esteem, and lack of development. Many abused
children experience ongoing difficulties with trust, social
withdrawal, trouble in school, and forming relationships.
The effects of abused children can also differ when it
comes to babies and young children. Babies and pre-
school children who are being emotionally abused or
neglected may be overly affectionate towards strangers or
people they haven’t known for very long.
They can lack confidence or become anxious, appear to
not have a close relationship with their parent, exhibit
aggressive behavior or act nasty towards other children
and animals.
Older children may use foul language or act in a
markedly different way to other children at the same age,
struggle to control strong emotions, seem isolated from
their parents, lack social skills or have few, if any, friends.
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Prevention: - of child abuse
A support-group structure is needed to reinforce parenting
skills and closely monitor the child's well-being. Visiting
home nurse or social-worker visits are also required to
observe and evaluate the progress of the child and the
caretaking situation.
The support-group structure and visiting home nurse or
social-worker visits are not mutually exclusive. Many
studies have demonstrated that the two measures must
be coupled together for the best possible outcome.
Children's school programs regarding "good touch … bad
touch" can provide children with a forum in which to role-
play and learn to avoid potentially harmful scenarios.
Pediatricians can help identify children at risk of
maltreatment and intervene with the aid of a social
worker or provide access to treatment that addresses
potential risk factors such as maternal depression.
Videoconferencing has also been used to diagnose child
abuse in remote emergency departments and clinics
unintended conception increases the risk of subsequent
child abuse, and large family size increases the risk of
child neglect.
Thus, a comprehensive study for the National Academy of
Sciences concluded that affordable contraceptive
services should form the basis for child abuse prevention.
"The starting point for effective child abuse programming
is pregnancy planning," according to an analysis for US
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. April has been
designated Child Abuse Prevention Month in the United
States since 1983.
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U.S. President Barack Obama continued that tradition by
declaring April 2009 Child Abuse Prevention Month. One
way the Federal government of the United States provides
funding for child-abuse prevention is through Community-
Based Grants for the Prevention of Child Abuse and
Neglect (CBCAP).
Resources for child-protection services are sometimes
limited. According to Hosin (2007), "a considerable
number of traumatized abused children do not gain access
to protective child-protection strategies."
Briere (1992) argues that only when "lower-level violence"
of children[ ceases to be culturally tolerated will there be
changes in the victimization and police protection of
children.
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Treatment:-
A number of treatments are available to victims of child
abuse.
However, children who experience childhood trauma do
not heal from abuse easily.
There are focused cognitive behavioral therapy, first
developed to treat sexually abused children, is now used
for victims of any kind of trauma.
It targets trauma-related symptoms in children including
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), clinical depression
and anxiety. It also includes a component for non-
offending parents.
Several studies have found that sexually abused children
undergoing TF-CBT improved more than children
undergoing certain other therapies.
Data on the effects of TF-CBT for children who
experienced only non-sexual abuse was not available as of
2006. The purpose of dealing with the thoughts and
feelings associated with the trauma is to deal with
nightmares, flashbacks and other intrusive experiences
that might be spontaneously brought on by any number of
discriminative stimuli in the environment or in the
individual’s brain.
This would aid the individual in becoming less fearful of
specific stimuli that would arouse debilitating fear, anger,
sadness or other negative emotion.
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In other words, the individual would have some control or
mastery over those emotions. Abuse-focused cognitive
behavioral therapy was designed for children who have
experienced physical abuse.
It targets externalizing behaviours and strengthens
prosocial behaviors. Offending parents are included in the
treatment, to improve parenting skills/practices.
It is supported by one randomized study.
Rational Cognitive Emotive Behavior Therapy consists of
ten distinct but interdependent steps.
22
They are:-
1) Determining and normalizing thinking and behaving,
2) Evaluating language,
3) Shifting attention away from problem talk
4) Describing times when the attachment problem isn't
happening,
5) Focusing on how family members "successfully" solve
problematic attachment behaviour;
6) Acknowledging "unpleasant emotions" (i.e., angry, sad,
scared) underlying negative interactional patterns,
7) Identifying antecedents (controlling conditions) and
associated negative cognitive emotive connections in
behavior (reciprocal role of thought and emotion in
behavioral causation).
8) Encouraging previously abused children to experience
or "own" negative thoughts and associated aversive
emotional feelings.
9) Modelling and rewarding positive behavior change
(with themselves and in relationships).
10) Encouraging and rewarding thinking and behaving
differently. Parent–child interaction therapy was designed
to improve the child-parent relationship following the
experience of domestic violence. It targets trauma-related
symptoms in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, including
PTSD, aggression, defiance, and anxiety.
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It is supported by two studies of one sample.
Other forms of treatment include group therapy, play
therapy, and art therapy. Each of these types of treatment
can be used to better assist the client, depending on the
form of abuse they have experienced. Play therapy and art
therapy are ways to get children more comfortable with
therapy by working on something that they enjoy
(coloring, drawing, painting, etc.).
The design of a child's artwork can be a symbolic
representation of what they are feeling, relationships with
friends or family, and more. Being able to discuss and
analyze a child's artwork can allow a professional to get a
better insight of the child.
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Assessment:-
A key part of child abuse work is assessment.
A particular challenge arises where child protection
professionals are assessing families where neglect is
occurring. Professionals conducting assessments of
families where neglect is taking place are said to
sometimes make the following errors: Failure to ask the
right types of question, including
Whether neglect is occurring;
Why neglect is occurring;
What the situation is like for the child;
Whether improvements in the family are likely to
be sustained;
What needs to be done to ensure the long-term
safety of the child?
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CONCLUSION
Positive effect when this kind of issue is being
exposed to the society.
People become more sensitive about this issue and
more become more concern towards of any kinds out
there.
Child abuse effect not only to the victim but also to
the society and environment.
The responsible organization or individual and society
take note about it and improve this lacking part.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:-
Foundation course book.
Websites:-
www.google.com
www.wikipedia.com
www.icbse.com
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