Child Abuse

The long term consequence of Child abuse and neglect is the development of severe psychiatric problems in the child and later, if left untreated, the adult. Children who suffer abuse at the hands if any person in whose care or company they are will develop negative emotions such as guilt, anger, fear and a sense of betrayal. They are unable to learn to express or deal with these emotions as they feel they need to suppress them in order to survive. The inability to express these emotions in a healthy manner results in problems with extremely low self esteem, controlling aggression and their ability to learn as their cognitive development is inhibited. They lack trust in people so they are unable to confide in anyone who might be able to help them and on their own they are unable to understand the emotions they are experiencing. Abused children have a greater likelihood of juvenile delinquency than their well treated peers as well as more chance of committing crime in adulthood. As these children grow older there is a possibility that they will exhibit the same traits that their abusers did as they have not learned affirmative emotions, though many abused children do grow up to be well adjusted adults.

Child abuse and neglect occurs in widely varied circumstances in all socioeconomic levels of society. There is an increased possibility of abuse in households where there is substance abuse of either drugs or alcohol or where there is a great deal of stress such as poverty, divorce, sickness or disability and job loss. Abuse and neglect also occurs where there is a lack of parental skill for example in the case of teenage parents or when the cycle of abuse has not been broken. This infers that when there is no counselling for a child who has been abused or neglected there is a high possibility that that child will grow up to become an abuser too. This cycle is prevalent in all sectors of society and it is paramount that it be broken in order to protect children from this preventable harm.

There are varied types of action that can be taken within communities to help combat chid abuse. Ideally child abuse and neglect should be prevented before it can occur. This could be tackled by initiating family support programs and parental education classes. The aim of these would be to educate people in proper care of children, alert them to what constitutes abuse and neglect, and offer counselling where it is needed to attempt to break the abuse cycle. There could also be a system set up whereby people could report child abuse anonymously so that they do so rather than not due to fear of consequences for themselves.

In circumstances where the probability of abuse is high, in that a person or persons match certain criteria prevalent in abusive or neglectful people, it would help to have them visited by social workers who could evaluate the situation and recommend when monitoring is required or when children need to be removed from the environment

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