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Child Abuse

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Child Abuse - A Hidden Epidemic in America

There is a well-known but grossly underreported crime that is occurring daily, not only abroad, but right here in the United States as well. This crime not only affects a person at the time of the event, but for a lifetime. Although there are better attempts being made to further understand its diversity and complexity, the question still lies, is enough being done to control and prevent it from happening. This crime is child exploitation and abuse. Though it seems absurd to most, it is certainly happening worldwide and there is documented evidence that will be explored in this research paper. By examining this documented evidence I will try to determine the roots and causes of this despicable crime and uncover some avenues and characteristics that lead to its continued behavior. I hope to combine my sources to paint a picture of the epidemic of child abuse today and throughout history in America. I hope to examine the risks factors for child abuse and identify ways to educate parents, child care providers, educators and any other persons who may come into contact with our most vulnerable citizens, our children, on how we can prevent child abuse from occurring in the future.
The federal government defines child abuse and neglect, at a minimum, any recent act or failure to act of the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (42 U.S.C. SS5106g[2][1999].
In terms of the maltreatment of children, approximately 56 percent of reported cases involve neglect, 25 percent involve physical abuse, 13 percent involve sexual abuse, 6 percent emotional maltreatment and 13 percent involve other types of maltreatment.
Throughout history, children have been the victims of various forms of serious maltreatment which some archeological evidence suggests the maltreatment of children date back to prehistoric times. Throughout history, the prevailing norms have considered physical punishment to be necessary for maintaining discipline, conveying religious, educational, cultural and moral ideas; pleasing gods, and expelling evil spirits. Additionally, ancient Greeks and Romans included sacrificial killing of children in an effort to strengthen their society by killing retarded and deformed children.
Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States involving more than 6 million children. The United States has one of the worst records of reported instances of child abuse among industrialized nations. As a nation, we are losing on average between four and seven children everyday to child abuse and neglect. This trend has to stop. In our modern society, the impact of child maltreatment on individuals, families and society is devastating. Many serious long-term effects have been linked to child maltreatment, including mental retardation, intellectual and intelligence handicaps, poor interpersonal relationships and behavioral problems to include extreme temper tantrums, hostility and overt violence. Between 1000 and 4000 children die in the United States each year as a result of child abuse.
Throughout history, attitudes toward children and childrearing methods and ideologies have changed drastically. Of course individually every parent has a different view and expectations of their children and what they believe a “good” or “bad” kid is and how to handle these situations as they arise, but as this first reference will show, what we believe to be child abuse today was the norm of society back centuries ago.
Referencing The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse, by author Christiane Sanderson, she indicates child abuse is broken down into four categories: physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect. In her book she refers to a man by the name of Lloyd deMause who has written countless articles on child abuse. Some of his research and data dates back to the fourth century. As he shows how parenting styles have changed He explains the fourth century parenting as the infanticide mode. He explains, in this era children were born to meet the needs of the parents and any defective children would be considered the reason for parents bad luck. Horribly, because of this attitude many unwanted children were “disposed of”. DeMause explains between the fourth and the thirteenth century children were seen as evil and were often beaten and kept distant from their parents. Some were even sold into slavery. This era he coined as the abandonment mode. By the fourteenth to the seventeenth century parents became more emotionally attached to their children but yet still feared them to be on the brink of evil. The parenting style at this time was to mold children by restraining them and beating them. DeMause called these times the ambivalence mode. By the eighteenth century, children were viewed as less threatening and less evil. This DeMause called this the intrusion mode. The parenting style for this era was to conquer the childs mind. Parents would try to break the will of the child by being threatening using guilt and punishment to accomplish this. The nineteenth to the mid twentieth century was the socialisation mode. In this era parents taught manners, guided their children, corrected bad public behavior while trying to conform more toward others expectations. Despite this emerging new philosophy the beatings still continued; however, by this era children were being seen as less and less evil. In modern times we are in what DeMause referred to as the helping mode. Parents now attempt to understand the needs of their child and try to realize the child may know what is best for him or her. Punishment is deemphasized as it is believed the child will grow up to be “authentic, gentle, cheerful,resourceful, creative and unafraid of authority.” (Sanderson,2005). Throughout these eras, parents were abusing their children for the good of society without any knowledge or understanding that these acts would in time be considered child abuse. Beyond this, there are types of mental disorders that will cause people to take child abuse to a whole new level. There are individuals on this earth and live amongst us within everyday society that will intentionally hurt children for the power, monetary gain or purely for self-gratification. Pedophilia refers to a disorder involving sexual arousal toward a prepubescent child. (Hersen and Beidel, 2012). This is clinically defined as a paraphilic disorder if these thoughts are “recurrent over at least 6 months, and the individual must either have experienced consequent distress or interpersonal difficulty, or have acted on the urges. Moreover, the individual must be at least 16 years of age and at least 5 years older than the prepubescent target of arousal (Hersen and Beidel, 2012). The term pedophile and child molester often go hand in hand however; there is a difference. A person who is a pedophile is diagnosed with a mental disorder as previously stated; whereas a child molester may not have recurring thoughts but has engaged in sexual activity with a prepubescent or pubescent child. This means a pedophlile may not also be a child molester and a child molester may not be a pedophile. A pedophile can be aroused by a boy or a girl but the arousal is more frequent with girl victims. Many convicted child molesters were abused as children themselves but contrary to popular belief, not the majority. It is believed by some researchers that child molesters do not have empathy toward their victims. Because of this child molesters do not have the normal restrictions one may have to prevent offending. Yet another form of child mistreatment that is equally mean but it is done for many different reasons. This is the trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. The reasons for child sex exploitation can be diverse. People do it for monetary gain, captive situations, to mentally disturbed individuals and in a world of technological advances it has made this crime even easier to commit and it dangerously on the rise. It is considered a human rights issue that deprives children of human dignity and personal freedoms. Disgustingly, in some countries, sex trafficking of minors is considered a necessity as it contributes to the economic growth of the country. The dignity of children is sacrificed for an estimated 5 billion dollars in profit from the exploitation of children. A study was conducted of people that have reported sexual victimization. It was found that 85% reported abuse in their childhood before the age of 13 and 18% reported being victimized through childhood into adolescence. Unfortunately this crime is not always prosecuted properly by authorities as it shows its face in a more discreet manner such as prostitution. If a minor is confronted by law enforcement many times they are treated as a criminal rather than investigating further to find the root of the problem may be child sex trafficking. “Global estimates suggest 98% of all victims of forced commercial sexual exploitation are female, with 40-50% estimated to be minors (Reid, 2012). This week I will be researching more in depth about the sex trade and tourism industry that is occurring worldwide along with some references that divulge more information about child pornography. I will also be discussing steps being taken to prevent and combat child exploitation.
It is known that the sex industry contributes largely to the gross national product of many underdeveloped countries. Because the exploitation of children is such a taboo topic, it is hard to accurately track the amount of children being abused; however there is one agency that does their best to bring awareness to the staggering numbers these abused and exploited children worldwide and takes action to combat it, the International Labor Organization or the ILO.
“The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice” (ILO, 1996-2014).
According to the ILO website, this organization's main goal was to get collaboration and agreements with many nations by creating harmony with these nations through the adoption of universal humane labor practices. The ILO are responsible for developing the labor laws that are still adhered to today. Some of the goals outlined by the ILO were to: establish set work hours, establish a fair minimum wage, protection for workers from disease and injury on the job, the protection of children, young people, and women on the job, establish international labor standards by establishing a fair value to work performed, and introduce technical and vocational education. In its infancy there were nine countries that agreed on these standards and chose to adopt the ILO ideologies. As of 2014 there are now 185 countries on the program (ILO, 2014). This is great accomplishment by the agency and a great representation of countries that are willing to abide by these humane labour practices. By doing so, these countries have taken great steps in an attempt to control and combat child labor, but unfortunately not all countries are participating and therefore the exploitation of children is still a problem worldwide. According to statistics listed on the ILO website,
“Asia and the Pacific still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million or 9.3% of child population), but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labour (59 million, over 21%).”
“Agriculture remains by far the most important sector where child labourers can be found(98 million, or 59%), but the problems are not negligible in services (54 million) and industry (12 million) – mostly in the informal economy.”
One particular Asian country that is listed as a hotspot for child exploitation is Thailand. According to a Harvard International review article dated 2004 it was estimated that in Thailand the child sex industry is responsible for 14 to 16 percent of the gross national product for the country. Back in 2001 an individual study was conducted in a slum in Thailand where it was discovered that every family living there had at least one child working in the sex industry ranging in age from 4 to 15 years old. This is a staggering statistic. As I previously stated, it is extremely hard to get an accurate count as to the amount of children being forced into these types of horrendous labor conditions. Because this practice is such an underground and taboo activity but yet common standards in some counties that most incidents of child abuse and mistreatment go unreported. Unfortunately without good statistics about child mistreatment by law enforcement, lawmakers are reluctant to change any existing policies or make new laws regarding child labor.
Here in the USA, one way cities can attempt to combat and control child exploitation is by code enforcement. In a book written by Meredith L. Dank titled “The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children” Dank reports that the sex industry of New York has been highly regulated over the past 20 years and has drastically reduced the amount of sexually explicit locations throughout the city. It is well known these types of establishments are a haven for child exploitation. New York city has limited their existence by enforcing strict zoning laws such as; all businesses in the sex industry had to be at least 500 feet apart from each other and at least 500 feet away from churches, schools and residential districts. This pushed a lot of those businesses out of the city into the boroughs. One major operation took place in 2002 ordered by mayor Bloomberg called “Operation Clean Sweep”. This was an operation that targeted repeat offenders particularly prostitutes, and imposing harsher punishments for their crime. On the surface it seemed it worked, but ultimately it just took a different avenue for the clients to continue their practice. This was a street level enforcement action conducted locally but technological advances have taken child exploitation to a new venue, the internet. By committing sex crimes over the internet it took the face off the crime, in a sense, hiding it from public view. This new avenue for offenders has now taken the crimes far beyond state and county lines, this is now a worldwide epidemic. Now local and international law enforcement officials are now faced with a new type of animal to attack. The internet was introduced publicly in the 1990’s, but little was known by law enforcement about how to control child exploitation in cyberspace. It has taken a while, up into the last few years, for law enforcement officials to really find ways to combat it. Many law enforcement agencies now have dedicated detectives working solely on computer crimes. They pose as children on the internet in chat rooms and wait for a predator to arrive. And they do, in groves!
Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC did a series on internet child predators starting in 2004. According to nbcnews.com, he did 12 investigations that lasted between two and four days in various states in the United States. He would have a decoy pose as a young boy or girl on the internet and see how many men or women would arrange to meet up with them. When they would arrive he would confront them and question them as to why they would meet a known minor for sex? He would present to them all of the disgustingly sexually explicit things these men would write to these decoys on the internet before they met that day. Some of the men would have with them condoms, alcohol, weapons up to including types of whips and chains for sexual bondage activity. The series was quite disturbing to see just how many men would arrive and the things they would say to the decoys. In total, from 2004 to 2007 and just over 30 days total recording time, just about 300 men arrived for a meeting with the decoys. It is quite amazing, as dateline is a well known, and popular TV series watched regularly by the entire country. One would think that the word would get out to the child predator community that this is going on and the numbers would taper off. At least we as a society would like to believe this is a small group of sick individuals. However, the question must arise as to how many predators are out there because when the show first aired in 2004 Hansen had 18 visitors and as the show continued to air throughout the next three years the numbers increased to as high as 50 men in one sitting in 2006. Law enforcement always accompanied him and as soon as the predator left the house they were taken into custody by local law enforcement and charged with various sex crimes. All of this action aired on national TV. In the beginning Chris Hansen himself could not believe this TV series would bring much activity.
“In the beginning, I had no idea what to expect. I remember the first day of the first investigation. I had heard about Perverted Justice. I’d heard about their work in the chat rooms posing as a 12, 13 or 14-year-old kids. But I honestly wondered if anybody would show up” (nbcnews.com, 2014).
Another agency willing to help in the fight against child exploitation is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The agency was created following a case of a 6 year old boy named Adam Walsh who went missing in 1981 from a Florida shopping mall. The child was found a time later and had been brutally murdered.
At that time the FBI database could enter everything that went missing into a national database including everything from cars, guns, even horses, but not children! The agency grew by the efforts of that young boys parents, John and Revé Walsh. In their efforts to locate their son, they found a lack of coordination by law enforcement agencies in the arena of finding missing persons. They established the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children in Florida. This agency would act as a liaison to bring together other victimized families on a national level that also had missing children. As this movement grew it eventually got enough national attention to bring change to Congress. In 1982 they enacted the Missing Childrens Act. This allowed for the FBI’s National Crime Information Database to impute missing children. In 1984, president Ronald Reagan officially opened the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In 1990 they merged efforts with the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children in Florida. Today the center offers a variety of services ranging from missing children, child sex exploitation, child safety and prevention, law enforcement training, along with victim and family support services.
“Today, with better public awareness, training, laws and technology, the recovery rate of missing children has jumped from 62 percent in 1990 to more than 97 percent today” (NCMEC, 2014).
In an effort to assist directly with child sex exploitation the NCMEC established the CyberTipline. This effort has brought over 2.5 million reports of suspected child exploitation into the hands of law enforcement agencies nationwide. The center has also analyzed more than 115 million images and videos related to child pornography (NCMEC, 2014). Shown in this research there are surely growing efforts both nationally and globally through openly broadcasted awareness and new non-profit organizations opening their doors to help fight child exploitation. If these agencies work together and couple their efforts with law enforcement to establish better policing efforts designed to better protect our young people then we as a humane race can hopefully put a stop to this despicable and heinous crime wave that is robbing our children of the innocence they deserve!

References
Reid, J. A. (2012). A Girl's Path to Prostitution: Linking Caregiver Adversity to Child Susceptibility. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Sanderson, C. (2005). The Seduction of Children: Empowering Parents and Teachers to Protect Children from Child Sexual Abuse. London: Jessica Kingsley. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Schwartz-Kenney, B. M., McCauley, M., & Epstein, M. A. (Eds.). (2001). Child Abuse: A Global View. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Taylor, M., & Quayle, E. (2003). Child Pornography: An Internet Crime. Hove, England: Brunner-Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Tzeng, O. C., Jackson, J. W., & Karlson, H. C. (1991). Theories of Child Abuse and Neglect: Differential Perspectives, Summaries, and Evaluations. Westport, CT: Praeger. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Dank, M. L. (2011). The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children. El Paso, TX: LFB Scholarly. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
Zouev, A. (Ed.). (1999). Generation in Jeopardy: Children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Retrieved from http://www.questia.com
About the ILO. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2014.
Dateline NBC - To Catch A Predator With Chris Hansen - Breaking News, Headlines & Top Stories - msnbc.com- msnbc.com. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2014.
Child Sex Trafficking. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2014.

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...Child Abuse and Neglect 29 30 Dimensions and Critical Issues of Child Maltreatment in the African American Community: Causation, Consequences, and Prospects Presenter: Respondent: Joyce N. Thomas, R.N., M.P.H. Robert Pierce, Ph.D. Introduction African Americans, the largest minority population in the United States, suffer disproportionately from preventable diseases and deaths—(Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Minority Health, 1994). This statement from the Office of Minority Health not only captures the tragic problem of health related issues of African Americans, it also applies to the social welfare problems of these children and their families. Each year over 2,000 children die at the hands of their parents or caretakers (U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, 1995). Abuse and neglect in the home are considered one of the leading causes of death for children four years of age and younger and the largest number of child abuse fatalities is due to severe head trauma. Homicide statistics are only part of the grim reality, with near–fatal abuse and neglect accounting for more than 18,000 permanently disabled children, and approximately 142,000 serious injuries (Baladerian, 1991). Findings from the report, A Nation’s Shame: Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States, indicate that African Americans are overrepresented in both fatalities and near–fatal injuries (U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, 1995). Research shows that...

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Child Abuse

...Child abuse among school-aged children is a very common form of violence in the United States. The two most common type of child abuse in school-aged are: Neglect: the most common type of child abuse; it is a pattern of failing to provide for a child’s basic needs, whether it may be adequate food, clothing, hygiene, or supervision. Neglect is one of the most difficult types of child abuse to find, especially because older children may not exhibit outward signs of neglect. They become used to their environment, sometimes having to step up and become the adult. (www.helpguide.org) A nurse should assess for bad hygiene, ill-fitting clothes, body odor, and untreated injuries or medical problems. Nurses should asses school attendance and home behavior at home, if possible (www.wild-iris.org) Warning signs of neglect in the school-aged child include ill-fitting clothes, bad hygiene, untreated illnesses and physical injuries. The neglected child is frequently left alone or allowed to play in dangerous areas. The child is frequently tardy or absent from school. Physical abuse is another common type of abuse in school-aged children. Physical abuse is one of the easier types of abuse to find because it is easy to visualize the marks left behind, but it is the hardest to differentiate between abuse & discipline. Obviously if there are broken bones or patterned bruises, that would lead one to suspect abuse. (www.helpguide.org) A child can exhibit contusions, lacerations, burns...

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Child Abuse

...03/07/2013 Child Neglection Child neglection in the United States is a big occurring crime today. Most do not see child neglection as a big deal, but to the kids it takes a mental and physical tole on them. The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System defines neglection as a type of maltreatment that refers to the failure by the caregiver or parent to provide the needed, age-appropriate care for their children. They also say that unlike physical and sexual abuse, neglect has some what more of an effect on that child. It also states that unfortunately child neglect receives less attention from family doctors, medical researchers, and school educators. They say it is because neglection is difficult to identify unless the child is showing major signs. The American Humane Society states there are three types of child neglect; physical, educational, and emotion/psychological. Physical neglect generally involves the parent not providing the child or children with their basic needs like adequate food, clothing and some a sustainable form of shelter. Physical Neglects also includes child abandonment, no supervision, and rejection towards the child. This type of neglect can take a big impact on a child’s development. Educational neglect involves the failure of the parent to enroll their child of mandatory age in school or provide the correct home schooling. This can lead to the child failing to obtain...

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Child Abuse

...CHILD ABUSE Definition: Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional mistreatment of children. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child. Most child abuse occurs in a child's home, with a smaller amount occurring in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological/emotional abuse and child sexual abuse. Different jurisdictions have developed their own definitions of what constitutes child abuse for the purposes of removing a child from his/her family and/or prosecuting a criminal charge. According to the Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, child abuse is "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm". Causes Child abuse is a complex phenomenon with multiple causes. Understanding the causes of abuse is crucial to addressing the problem of child abuse. Parents who physically abuse their spouses are more likely than others to physically abuse their children. However...

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