Child Abuse

9 Pages 2145 Words

s 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
with. By the age of eighteen one in three girls will have been
sexually molested and one in six boys will have been molested in that
same time frame. (WWW site). Although, throughout this paper we shall
discuss not only the effects of sexual abuse but abuse in all its
forms. These include Physical Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Mental Abuse and
Neglect. We will also Touch upon the basic question of this report,
and that is, “How has child abuse changed over the last 100 years and
what effects has this had on the family??This brings us to our first
research area, change.
It is clear that families are undergoing a number of important
structural changes: families are smaller than in the past, with fewer
children and sometimes with only one parent; parents have children at
a later age; more couples live together without the bonds of matrimony
which was accepted as a sacred bond so few years in human history.
The source of this degradation of such a basic unit of society is
unknown throughout all areas of research which I canvassed in my
quest. It is a question that one person needs to answer for himself
and solve for himself. Something a young child is not capable of
doing.
Physical abuse has many forms. It may involve the hitting or
kicking of a child with the fists or the feet, or with another object;
such as belts, shovels, changes, ropes, electric cords, leather
straps, canes, baseba...