Essay About Cases Of Child Abuse And Young Girl

Child Abusse
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Imagine for one moment that you are not yourself any longer. Visualize
instead that you are a young girl; old enough to know right from wrong yet still
young enough to be terrified by the dark shadows in your room. It is a cool
autumn night and your parents have opted to attend a party which you are not
allowed at. “It will be fine,” they say. Although you already know what is to
come. Your uncle comes over to watch you for the evening, and your parents are
so pleased by the fact that they do not have to find a sitter. As soon as he
arrives, your mother kisses you on the cheek and scurries out the door to join
your father already waiting in the car outside. The nightmare begins. His
slimy hands casually slide an ebony cartridge into the VCR as he smiles at you
seductively. You can feel his eyes worming their gaze through your clothes
every time that he looks at you. You feel dirty and violated every time you
think about what he does to you when you are alone. He walks over to the couch
and sits down next to you. His hand slithers it way onto your knee and you
cringe in revulsion. “Dont be afraid, I wont hurt you,” he chides. Your mind
feels panicky as you feel his touch in more intimate places and you scream
involuntarily. His grip tightens as he places his hand over your mouth. “Well
have to do this the hard way!” comes his intense whisper. You flail your arms
at him, but it doesnt help. His writhing massive body is on top of yours, and
you feel so powerless. Eventually, you sink into a sobbing heap and simply wait
for his passions to stop. You wait for the nightmare to end. When he is done,
you limp to the laundry room and try fruitlessly to get the blood stains out of
your clothes. It is all your fault Abuse: The violation or defilement of;
What you have just experienced is one type of abuse that occurs millions
of times every year across America. Estimates 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, baseball bats,
sticks, broom handles, or assorted large objects. Other forms of abuse include
the pouring of scalding water or coffee on a childs body, holding a childs
head under the water of a toilet bowl, stuffed into running washing machines,
throwing a child against a wall, shaking a child with extreme force or placing
parts of a childs anatomy on hot or burning objects to cause pain. (Authors
note: Sometimes in extreme cases the shaking of a child with such extreme force
as an aggressive abuser possesses can cause severe brain damage as the brain is
crushed from repeated impact against the skull. This type of injury is
especially damaging in babies and small children.) Some experts say the For
every reported case of physical abuse over 100 are not reported. (Dolan p.7)
Nobody knows precisely how many children die each year from physical abuse at
the hands of adults. The National committee for the