Child Abuse

Everyone knows that abusing a child is totally wrong, but it still goes on in secret and is difficult to detect. There are four main types of abuse: physical; emotional, neglect and sexual. It is estimated that at least one child dies every week in England and Wales as a consequence of physical abuse and that babies are particularly vulnerable and are five times more likely to be killed than other ages. When people hear such cases on the news, everyone will be disgusted and be resentful of those who caused it. Look at the case of Baby P for example, the parents are now in jail, the father had boiling water with sugar tossed on his face and their social workers have been given alot of heat as well for not realising that they had been abusing their child.

This is a very, very serious issue. Why do people allow themselves to hurt children? If there are people out there who believe it is fine to abuse children, then they don't deserve to be a carer of one! However, not all abuse is intentional. Some carers could be under the influence of substances such as drugs or alcohol, or they could be momentarily blinded by anger and lose control of themselves. A example of this could come from the movie 'The Shining', long version where the father admits having previously dislocated his son's shoulder by accident while drunk and enraged.

But this doesn't give them an excuse to hurt their children. If carers are having problems raising their kids, they should get help! This is because child abuse can have some serious repercussions on the child's quality of life as they will be more prone to mental disorders and more liekly to abuse their own children.

More information on child abuse can be found on the links provided below:

http://www.nspcc.org.uk/HelpAndAdvice/WhatChildAbuse/whatischildabuse_wda36500.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/parenting/your_kids/safety_abuse.shtml