Child Abuse

Child abuse has been around for a long time and it is one of the biggest issues that the society had to face in the past and also now. Child abuse refers to the violence, mistreatment, or neglect that a child or adolescent may experience while in care of someone they trust or depend on such as a parent, guardian, sibling and caregiver (Nelson 14). The history of child abuse has been a nightmare of which we have just awoken up. The effect of child abuse is a long history, which dates back to the biblical time. Parents who abuse their children engage in criminal activities or have physical or mental marks. Some children may engage in domestic violence, alcohol and drug addicted. There are many social, political and economic factors that play an important role in child abuse. Abuse has both long-term and short-term consequences. The paper will start from the history of abuse than the political and social context and than the treatment of children and the future outcome of abuse.

"Sally washed the dishes and began to dry them. All of a sudden, she heard the door slam. "Girl!! Where's my food? the voice yelled. Sally began shaking and hunting frantically for the dish. Her seven-year-old fingers dropped the plate and it shattered on the floor. Her father stomped in the kitchen and began to threaten to beat her." Think this story is horrifying and unrealistic. Scenarios like this happen to thousands of children every day. A child's life prior to modern time was uniformly bleak. The further back in history one goes, the lower level of childcare is found. Children, more likely, had been killed, whipped, abandoned, and sexual abused and terrorized by their caretakers. Children were considered private property of fathers, whom had the right to kill them. Children were treated as chicken and cows and had some or no rights. Culture had also played a great role in promoting child abuse. The process of baptism is simply sprinkling infant with water but in the past the infant would be left in ice-cold water for hour, sometimes killing the infants. Children were considered evil and were to only be straighten by using force. Parents considered force an essential way of teaching children how to behave. Children were also considered as a cheap form of labor power and where forced to work in there early stages of childhood. Media played a great role in converting the issue from a private to the public sector. In the 19th century child abuse was considered as a public issue. Child abuse was considered as a social illness that had to be treated. The first case to take in account was Mary Ellen, which got great publicity. Child abuse was first recognized, as a disease that had to be cured or else it would affect the whole society.