How to Respond to Suspected Child Abuse

Introduction

Child abuse is an issue that continues to shock humanity repeatedly through the passing years. Child abuse can be defined in many ways, but overall it is physical, emotional, or cognitive neglect from a caregiver. This topic is interesting to learn from because it is devastating to know there is cruel out in the world towards children. Children are simply human beings who are on a journey of development like all humans have gone through. In this paper, I will analyze three different sources that give some knowledge about this sensitive topic. Beginning with a website article Child Abuse and Neglect by healthy children.org. Following a magazine article Child Abuse by Psychology Today. Lastly, a peer review article Children’s Reporting About Sexual Versus Physical Abuse: Patterns of Reporting, Avoidance, and Denial by Azade Azad and Lina Leander.

This website is referred more towards a general audience, it does not give any statistics that can show it to be scholarly. It is hard to pinpoint who is the specific target audience is, but it is general. The information given on this website is secondary, it does not show that this information comes from the first hand of someone. This article provides some in-depth information about the topic of child abuse. It gives the overall definition, signs, consequences, getting help, and how to prevent child abuse. In each section, it describes detail information or most important bullet points that the audience needs to know about. At the end of the article Child Abuse and Neglect, there is additional information category in which there are other articles related to the topic that the reader made want to read. The website only happens to have one source linking to a book called Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5, 6th Edition by American Academy of Pediatrician, who also made the website.

There appears no date of when it was created, but there is a date April 13, 2018, or when it was last updated. There are no citations within the text, but the additional resources given two are from January and February 2018. The other is from November 2015 as well as the book that was used as a source according to last updated. Aside from this date, there are no other links, but there are words that are highlighted that link to another new page. For example, in the article, there is the word poverty that when you click on it, it takes you to a new page and gives more detail about the word. The information given about this topic seems to be very up to date, therefore it seems that they do keep up with new information on this current topic. As for their resources, it might be a good idea to update it since it has been since 2015.

Accuracy

This website would be a .org domain which indicates that it is an organization website. This website appears not to be a community website because only those who created the website or have access to editing the website are able to write content in it. Overall, you can find the information provided on another website that is not necessarily a .org domain. For example, in the Child Welfare Information Gateway website they provide about the same information as this website, such as the meaning of child abuse, types, signs, preventions, and a bit more.

Objectivity

The information provided would be fact, there is no opinion at all given, and it does not promote to sell the website out. Most of the facts given are actual information that describes child abuse. Again, there are really no links or direct quotes that show further proof of this information being fats. There are links to certain words within the information that direct the reader to another page with more detail information. This website might have a small amount of bias, the topic is child abuse, the website is meant to contain information specifically for children. Through the website, its emphasis ‘dedicated to the health of all children’. The wording contains in the information does affect the emotional aspect, specifically focusing on sadness, disappointment, surprise, anger, and even pain. For example, they used words like abandonment, they also put a picture of a child that looks like there is no hope left. In this website, there are about three advertisements that I was able to catch because they are at eye level, and they are clear to read. The first one has nothing to do with the website or the topic at all, it is an Ikea. The reason behind it being on this website, according to the advertisement it mentions ‘a proud supporter of healthychildren.org’. The second advertisement is the book mention previously Caring for Your Baby and Young Child: Birth to Age 5. Along with that book, there is a small advertisement that says ‘shop AAP’ which is the American Academy of Pediatricians.

The audience for this article would have to be general since it is found in a magazine called Campus Safety. Normally this article would be read by people if the magazine was picked up or found. This information may appear to be primary, but it is not it is secondary, Dianna Smoot provides other statistics not her own. There is a small brief of background information about the topic. For example, the meaning of child abuse, the types of child abuse along with examples, and how to detect and report it. There are no links at all, but there is content that is related to this article. There is no bibliography, but at the end of the article, there is a sentence stating who Dianna Smoot is and where to contact her.

Timeliness

This article was created on May 05, 2015, but there is no last updated date anywhere on the website. There are some citations within the text but no direct links to another page. Dianna Smoot cited the national survey of adolescence 2007 to provide some percentages about child abuse. Since this article was created in 2015 then the cited information would not be up to date according to the article. With that said this article would not be useful as a source since it is almost 3 years old. For the topic of child abuse, a lot of change and new updates can occur in a short period of time.

Accuracy

This magazine is a commercial one, and it is also a community website. Not only can you subscribe to get additional articles, but one can also advertise their products or services by contacting a sales representative. The information in this magazine article can be found in another source. It gives some basic information such as what are the types of child abuse.

Objectivity

The information in this article would be considered facts, there is no sign of Dianna Smoot giving her opinion. The article does not contain direct links to the facts provided. However, there are two words that link to another article that gives a bit more detail based on the word. There is a small bias because the magazine is mainly directed to personnel who dedicate to the safety of humans only. The words and phrases to play with my emotional state, in a way where I feel bad for not doing anything about this issue. As you read the paper it sounds as if you’re a child being grounded. There is a great of advertisements in this magazine, most of them consisting about safety, or the benefits you’ll receive if you joined and subscribe to campus safety magazine. The URL of this magazine is .com domain, which can suggest that it is not much of a reliable source of material although it is the most common domain use.

The publisher of this journal is psychiatry, psychology & law and it is an academic journal type. Their focused is to publish information research that is related to law, forensic psychiatry, or associated with a relaxed manner. This publisher is a peer review type of source. As for the authors, qualification was undetermined because no information found on their biography.

There was not enough information on who the author Azade Azad is. The only known story is that at the time he attended Stockholm University in Sweden. He was part of the department of psychology. Lina Leander is the other author of this journal, unfortunately like Azade Azad there is not much information about her. The only located information is that she either attended or is part of Stockholm University in Sweden and the psychology department there.

The publisher is a highly qualified journal that has been established since the 1970’s. This journal is on a website called TaylorandFrancisonline.com. According to the journal information they do not give warranty that the information is fully accurate. There are 35, 228 libraries that resulting in having content of psychiatry, psychology & law publishers.

The audience appears to be the general audience and it is a secondary source. There is in-depth information about child abuse, either sexual or physical reporting. There is general information about the only child abuse itself. Their focused refers to reports that are made or failed to be made about child abuse. The list of references is about one page long or about 24 references, and they do relate to the topic of child abuse reports again not child abuse alone.

The publication date of the book is 2015 and the citation varies in date. Some range in the 1990’s and others in the 2000’s, but the closest to the publications date is some citations from 2010. If it is referred to the idea of child abuse reports the information should be a few years more than 2015 up to date. There is not much evidence about what other scholars’ evaluation towards this article are. It appears to be supported by Swedish Crime Victim Compensation since there is an acknowledgment at the end of the article. Some of the information can be found in another source such as retrospective on children. Detail information in this article will not be found in another source since it is a primary source. The research gathering information was conducted from scratch ideas.

Objectivity

The article does show a fair and balanced view of the topic. There are no links in this journal article, but there is a lot of citations provided. Neither of the authors does show any obvious bias in the article. Personally, this article did not play much with my emotions although it still did make me feel surprised about how children have a difficult time reporting abused. Since it is a scholarly journal article there are no types of advertisements that may make this article bias.

Conclusion

Child abuse is a tremendously important and serious topic that affects every individual in one way or another. Before considering acting for this issue, one needs to inform themselves with basic information on child abuse. Following basic information, more accurate research should be done to furthermore understanding of this topic. One strategy along with obtaining knowledge of child abuse is to critique from where the information obtains coming from. Such as what was done in this paper with three different sources. By doing this not only is child abuse no longer a strange subject, but an action can be done about this delicate issue.

Reference

1. Azad, A., & Leander, L. (2015). Children’s Reporting About Sexual Versus Physical Abuse: Patterns of Reporting, Avoidance, and Denial. Psychiatry, Psychology, & Law, 22(6), 890-902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2015.1016392
2. Child Abuse and Neglect Retrieved from
3. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/What-to-Know-about-Child-Abuse.aspx
4. Smoot, D. (2015, 5 May). How to respond to suspected child abuse

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