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Kerieon Hubbard

Underwood

Comp ll

10/28/2021

Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse is a huge problem today that affect children physically, emotionally, and

sexually. These abuse towards the kids occurs in family household due to them having a history

of child abuse, neglect, drugs situation and just life being overwhelm. A lot of abuse and neglect

come from parental drug problems, parental mental health problems, young parents, child

behavior issues, child with disabilities, and lack of support. Every type of abuse is different

because everybody’s situation is different. The way that an environment is structured could also

lead to a child having an increased risk of being abused such as poverty, low wages, substance

abuse, and racism. There need to be programs and counseling going on in these homes to prevent

this abuse. One author, Hamberg, Lynn D. "Preventing Child Abuse Before It Occurs." child

abuse (2016): 1., argues that it can be ways to stop this abuse before it can happen. “The Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention, very few cases of abuse or neglect are reported in the news,

and many are not even reported to police or social services. According to 2012 data, 1,640

children died in the U.S. from abuse and neglect, and 686,000 children were found to be victims

of maltreatment by child protective services.” It’s a campaign name Pinwheels for Prevention

that gather children to uplift their life and show them how their life should be. It’s a movement to

stop all the abuse from happening before it start. Child abuse is a huge problem that need to have

more attention investigate into. Social workers need to find a different tactic to encourage

parents and others to say something or get involve.

Hamberg, Lynn D. continues to argue that it needs to be programs and policies that allow

the communities to engage into the strategy becoming the parent they need to be. These

programs will allow social workers to have home visits, parent educations, mutual self-help

support, mental health services and substance abuse treatment. “Since 1984, the Butler Child

Advocacy Center has saved and restore the lives of thousands of children and their families.” To

help this situation, it can be ways we can help these families, friends, neighbors, and the

community to include offering to babysit free-of-charge so parents can have a break; arranging a

support group for new mothers; volunteering as helpers to help kids and allow parents quality

time together. Quality times with parents makes the children feel loved and protected by their

parent. They will feel trusted by their parent and be comfortable into telling them anything that is

bothering them. If we can all work together and take simple, ordinary actions that make a

difference in the lives of children and help ease the stress of parenting the rate of the abuse will

decrease.

“More than 1100 cases are being reported every day”, says Garrett, Jared. "How child

abuse affect society." (2010): 1. He argues that people who have been a victim of child abuse is

to be convicted of first-degree murder. Due to them suffering the pain, they are the ones to

commit another crime or harm themselves to relief the pain. He also states, “When a child is

abused, that potential is both poisoned and limited. This future leader becomes a drain on

society; a victim rather than a solution.” The belief in family is demolish in that child mind and

they will fell alone. Most children rather keep the situation quiet and not get the person who did

it in trouble, but children need to have more confidents and less fear. Children need to be

encouraged to tell another adult of what have happen to them. Children need to be taught that it

is okay to speak up if they have been violated in some type of way. From records of child abuse,
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it is a major issue that needs to be addressed from the level of family and on up to local

governments. Child abuse comes from an adult who is not fully capable of functioning either in

or outside of society. They might have been convicted of child abuse and it just keep going from

generation to the next. If it was stopped and confronted when it happen to them, it wouldn’t

continue down generation of the same problem that has been going on.

When children are victims of child abuse; they are either suffering immediate physical

injuries such as cuts, bruises, or broken bones, as well as emotional and psychological problems

that will leave them anxiety. This will also cause them to have post-traumatic stress disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that develops following a traumatic

event characterized by intrusive thoughts about the incident, recurrent distress/anxiety,

flashback, and avoidance of similar situations. Child abuse and neglect are preventable. There

are numerous of factors that may increase or decrease the risk for experiencing child abuse and

neglect. This link tells us ways about how to prevent child abuse and stop the neglecting of

children at: "https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/fastfact.html." (n.d.).

. These are some more ways to prevent it: strengthening financial expensive, social norms,

educational, and prevent future risk that may cause harm to the children. It’s better to keep a lot

of positive energy around family a who had child abuse in their past.

A case of child abuse has been reported by Mavindu, Arthur M. Kemoli and Mildred.

Child abuse: A classic case report with literature review. a case. Kenya, 2012 on a 12-year-old

boy. The young boy was a first-born among three siblings (9-year-old girl, 5-year-old boy), and

that their single parent, mother, had been deceased for 6 years due to HIV-related complications.

The boy had no past medical history and had never consulted a dentist before the present

problem. After his mother passed, he lived with his grandparents and their sons. He had
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asymmetrical face due to the swelling and his skin was overlying the swelling. The boy also had

a big healing scar on the surface of the left foot. As results of the investigations, a diagnosis of

child abuse and neglect was reached, with the boy having suffered traumatic injuries. You would

think by this child staying with a lot of people he wouldn’t been abuse nor neglected. The boy

probably was suffering from his mother loss which will cause emotion distress.

“Child abuse is largely a multi-generational problem. Hurtful patterns and behaviors are

learned by parents as children and passed on to their children, and then on to their children’s

children, serving as a catalyst for a vicious cycle of abuse.”, states Richard Alexander. "CHILD

ABUSE AND NEGLECT." (2019). If child abuse was first corrupted in a family; it should have

been handled right, then and there. That’s why it’s always a pattern of trauma that is always

happening in families. Families either hid the situations or they do nothing about them. “Abuse

and neglect affect children of all ages, across all cultural groups and in every part of the country.

The major issues facing families of abused and neglected children such as: drug/alcohol

problems, mental health issues, unemployment and other financial hardships, parental

involvement with law enforcement and domestic violence (physical abuse of spouse/fighting).”

This is when social workers need to enforce themselves into supporting the children needs. This

is also when family counseling needs to be going on in these homes to eliminate the problem and

better the family decision. The lack of secure attachment relationships of their family will

discourage a child’s ability to develop feelings of love. Neglected children tend to be passive and

socially withdrawn in their interactions with peers, which create a problem to how they supposed

to interact with them. While abused children tend to imitate the more aggressive behavior of the

abusive caregiver to respond with a bad behavior at school, which cause them to get in trouble. A

neglectful mother may not feed her baby properly, which can slow brain development, or an
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emotionally abusive father may damage his child’s ability to form trusting relationships. Abused

or neglected children can see the world as a dangerous place, which can sense their mind of self-

worthy and their ability to cope with the environments as they grow up. Depression will start in a

child life early, because of the abuse and neglect. Depression can play a huge role in children

life, because that’s when they will think they are lonely and suicide thoughts will start to roll in

their minds. Children shouldn’t have to go through these problems or situations that their parents

put them through. Children’s childhood should be a memory of joy and the fun times they have

had, and not the trauma that will give them trouble as they get older. Children should be able to

enjoy life, instead of putting them in danger and making them feel hopeless in life.

Diaz, M. J. "Journal of child & Adolescent Trauma." (2021): 425-432. This article

conducted a quantitative study on a school-based program. The Child help Speak Up Be Safe

(CHSUBS) program is being used to prevent child abuse. It is open to students, parents, and

teachers. While, it was used to report abuse, it also was used to educate those on how to

intervene and help. The study was taken place at schools to ger better results. Students and

parents need to be educated more about child abuse and they should feel comfortable when they

do speak out.

All these authors argued to how to prevent child abuse. These authors gave readers

information to help children that have been abuse and get involve more into this abuse to help

that child. They all talked about how emotional and physical damage plays a huge role in these

kids’ life that will leave them traumatized. Most of those abuse victims’ resort to drugs later in

life. It is often said that a little physical punishment is important to make a child learn how to

respect elders. Respect is something that is earned. If adults are loving and caring to a child, the

child will respect them. If the children think they is alone and cannot protect themselves; they are
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alone, because the law is on their side. The report by Mavindu, Arthur M. Kemoli and Mildred.

Child abuse: A classic case report with literature review. a case. Kenya gave audience detail of

how a little boy was neglected and abuse by not proper hygiene and emotional stress. Richard

Alexander. "CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT." (2019), informed us to stop child abuse from

happening in one generation to the next. Jared Garrett informed us that it’s 1100 cases that being

investigated into every day. People who have been a victim of child abuse is to be convicted of

first-degree murder. These children should have sought help, or their family should have so it

can stop the trauma or harm. Hamberg, Lynn D. inform us that it needs to be programs and

policies that allow the communities to engage into the strategy becoming the parent they need to

be.

Social workers need to be the ones that set up these programs to help these families.

Social workers need to set up counseling for these families in distress to stop this abuse. Child

abuses need to have a lot more attentions and families need to be encouraged into getting help.

Programs need to be persuaded throughout communities and displayed on billboard or

televisions. The cycle of abuse can be eliminated if we start from the beginning. Also, we could

be saving a family’s future or someone’s future by intervening. Child neglect is heavily

overlooked, and it happens more than child abuse. People rather neglect their children due to

them not having the funds or because they were once a victim of neglect. This link tells us ways

about how to prevent child abuse and stop the neglecting of children at:

"https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/fastfact.html." (n.d.). Due to the

families not having the funds, it should be programs to help them out. Also, families don’t need

to abuse these programs that are here to help them out. The Pinwheels for Prevention movement

is a program that help families that need help in abuse. This is a program that won’t mind getting
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involve helping these family. It needs to be a lot more of these programs to support the need of

these families. Psychologists are heavily involved in the development of prevention programs for

child abuse and neglect. Prevention programs raise awareness among the public, service

providers, and policymakers about the issues that involved in child abuse.