Child Abuse and Neglect Essay

Hundreds and thousands of children are abused daily. I get sick to my stomach knowing that these young innocent children don’t know what it feels like to be loved. These parents have to be absolutely insane to purposely harm their children. There are many different types of abuse, such as, physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect. Abusing children can cause serious issues for that child later in life and they will never be the same after they have been abused.

Children who are abused don’t understand what they are doing wrong and why they are being abused. They are constantly walking on eggshells because they don’t know what is going to trigger their parents( Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D, 2019 “Child Abuse and Neglect”) . The angrier the parent is the more intense the physical assault is going to be( Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D, 2019 “Child Abuse and Neglect”) .. Even if the child is trying to be on his/her best behavior the abuser will still find something they are doing wrong and “punish” them. Physically abusing a child can be very intense because the parent might get carried away with the anger inside them and severely injure the child. Physically abusing a child is so cruel and there honestly isn’t a way to prevent every single kid from any sort of abuse. Physical abuse would be considered a parent or caregiver coming in contact with the child and that includes, striking, kicking, punching, pushing, etc. Some signs of abuse in the parent or caregiver would be explaining an injury to their child that doesn’t make sense, displays aggression towards the child, keeps child from school, clubs, and other activities, and they are overly anxious about a child’s behavior. (n.d “What is Child Abuse”)

In some cases you can recognize a child that is abused because there might be bruising all over the body, severe injuries to the face would be a big sign. In other cases there might be little bruising and youre not able to tell because kids get hurt all the time by playing or falling so it’s really hard to judge. The behavioral side of a child who is being abused usually has some aggression towards peers, immaturity, acting out, seems afraid of parents or other adults, gets startled easily or are a little jumpy when quick movements are made toward them. They might have nightmares, insomnia, depression, or anxiety.(n.d “What is Child Abuse”) Physical abuse is one of the many types of abuse children go through on a daily basis. It makes me really sad because with this whole COVID outbreak we have to stay home and for some of these children school was their safe place and it’s where they could escape the physical abuse for a while and now that has been taken away from them.

Although I wish there could only be one type of abuse there unfortunately isn’t, sexual abuse is another type of abuse that is absolutely disgusting. Sexual abuse occurs when an adult uses a child in sexual acts or for sexual purposes. In my opinion I think that this type of abuse is the worst out of all of them, now they are all terrible but this one is just taking things way too far and it’s mind blowing to know that stuff like this happens all the time. Sexual abuse of children include making a child view a sex act, making a child show sexual organs, inapropriate sexual talks, contact absue, child prostitution, child pornography ect. (n.d “What is Child Abuse”) Sexual abuse in a aprent includes unstable adult presense, jealous/possessive parent, parent realies on child fo remotional support etc. (n.d “What is Child Abuse”) Writing about this makes me feel so uncomfortable because it’s just sick to know that some adults really do this, maybe because of a past issue they had or just for their pleasure which is disgusting. Some physical signs of a sexually abused child would be difficulty sitting, walking, bleeding, bruises, swelling, frequent UTI’s or sexually transmitted diseases etc. (n.d “What is Child Abuse”)

Unless a child comes up to you and says the words “this person sexually abused me” it would be really hard to determine if a child has been sexually abused just by looking at them. Some behavioral issues these children might have would be some eating disorders, poor self-image, substance abuse, not wanting to change clothes, nightmares, sexually acting out, sexual behavior knowledge that is advanced or unusual etc. Sexually abusing a child can ruin their whole life because they might grow up and have a fear that someone is going to take advantage of them again.

Sexually abused children are often ashamed of what happened to them and may feel like it’s their fault. The shame of sexual abuse makes it very difficult for them to come forward and get the help they need becasue they worry that people won’t belive them, or they might be anry and break families a part.(Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D, 2019 “Child Abuse and Neglect”) That is not the case at all I know saying to just speak up sounds easy, but if the person who is sexually absuing you finds out it may make things worse. Although I’ve already talked about two different types of abuse, there are many more such as emotional abuse which is so draining and child neglect which makes a child feel like they’re not loved.

Emotional abuse means injuring a child’s self-esteem or emotional well-being. It includes verbal and emotional assault- such as continually belittling a child- as well as isolation, ignoring, or rejecting a child. (n.d Child Abuse- symptoms and causes- Mayo Clinic) Emotional abuse can cause long term effects to people such as mental problems like depression or anxiety. Emotional abuse is more challenging to detect because it’s more subtle. Some signs you can see in a child who is emotionally abused is a sudden change in self confidence, failure to gain weight, voracious appetite, or stealing food (2020 Sussex Publishers LLC “Child Abuse| Psychology Today”).

Words go a long way and there is way to many kids who are verbally and emotionally abused daily. I took the time to read some essays on people who have been abused in any kind of way and it shattered my heart into pieces. The emotion that I saw and felt while I was reading was so raw, some of these children started to get abused when they were five and it didn’t stop until they were teenagers. Child neglect is also a big thing that a lot of these children go through, children need all the love and affection that they could get and some of these parents act like their child isn’t there. Child neglect is when a parent or caregiver does not give the care, supervision, affection, and support needed for a childs well-being (n.d “What is Child Abuse”).Child neglect is also another one that is hard to spot because its very internal. All of these types of abuses are terrible, but there is ways to treat child abuse and many ways to get help, but might not always be the easiest.

Although reaching out for help seems easy it’s really not. If you feel like a child is being abused you should call a local child protective agency, but it may be hard because you don’t want to make the abuse worse by reporting your suspicion (2020 Sussex Publishers LLC “Child Abuse| Psychology Today”) Whenever a child is being abused it should be reported immediately and not delayed because it decreases the child’s chances for full recovery(2020 Sussex Publishers LLC “Child Abuse| Psychology Today”) . If you are abusing your child a mental health professional would be able to help, and going to some therapy and counseling sessions may make things better. It’s very important that you report a child abuse case for each incident that occurs. The more information you provide the better chances for the child to get the help they need.(Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, and Jeanne Segal, Ph.D, 2019 “Child Abuse and Neglect”). Getting treatment for child abuse is difficult in so many ways because the children feel ashamed and guilty for everything, but it is the best way to hopefully get away from the abuse and not have to go through that again.

Parents and caregivers have to be insanely crazy to want to hurt their children, belittle them, and shatter their little hearts. All a kid wants is to feel wanted and to feel loved like every child deserves, it doesn’t matter if you have the worst behaving child in the world there is absolutely no excuse to abuse your child in any way. My heart is heavy for those children who haven’t gotten the help they need or wonder if they are going to ever be loved. Every single type of abuse will have an affect on that child for the rest of their life, no matter if it’s physical, sexual, emotional, neglect, it doesn’t matter it will haunt them for their whole life.

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