Child Abuse

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate April 2001

download word file, 3 pages 0.0

Downloaded 23 times

Child Abuse People tend to think of childhood as a happy time, a time of freedom before having to take on the responsibilities of adulthood. People spend most of their adult lives wishing they could turn back the clocks of time to come back to that happy time where their greatest memories are stored. Unfortunately for many children around the world they do not have this sense of fulfillment during their early years, they instead have harsh feelings toward the people that were supposed to be their caretakers.

Child abuse comes in three forms. One is verbal one is physical such as punching the child and the last is sexual. Often verbal abuse gets the self-esteem of the child down while physical abuse could seriously injure the child. Many times the child had done nothing wrong, but the parents or guardians may be in a bad mood and use the child as a punching bag.

The impact of sexual abuse reaches all levels of a childs emotions. These emotions and the effects are listed below: Confusion: This is usually the initial reaction of the child. They will usually question, "What is going on?" and " Is this right or wrong?". For a young child these types of questions can be an emense burden on their physcological development. Once the abuse begins the victim experience a tremnedous conflict with their emotions. They feel pleasant due to the attention they are recieving from the parent, as well as the sensual pleasure. On the other hand they experience pain, guilt, and anger for what is being done.

The question, "Is this right or wrong?" posses the greatest conflict within the childs mind. The abuse feels so wrong yet the abuser insits it is okay, taking advantage of the childs mistrust and naivety. Below...