Child Abuse...... is it allowed?

Essay by silkwormUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, April 2004

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Maltreatment of children is not a new phenomenon. It dates back far into history, as far as the colonial times and even back to biblical times. During the recent years child maltreatment has had an increase in the publics eye. Although some countries outlawed corporal punishment, in America, parents spank their children because society accepts the practice as justifiable behavior for adults. In the 1994 USA Today / CNN Gallup Poll, 67 percent of American adults agreed with this statement " It is sometimes necessary to discipline a child with a good hard spanking". When a parent spanks their children, it means that they are not dealing with the matter in a way where it would bring upon a more permanent change. Spanking loses its effectiveness over time and parents have to hit harder and harder raising the danger of physical injury. So what began as a desire to discipline a child can get out of control and escalate into infliction of physical pain that simply must be identified as child abuse.

There are other forms of child abuse other than physical abuse. Different forms of abuse includes emoitional maltreament, sexual abuse, and neglect. Out of the four forms of abuse neglect is the most common, fifty-five percent of abuse is catorgized as neglect. The second most common form of abuse is physical abuse, whitch is twenty-seven percent of abuse, and the most harmful of the four. Sexual abuse is the third most common abuse at sixteen percent. The least common form of abuse is emoitional maltreatment which is only eight percent of abuse. Statistics show that physical abuse is most likely to occur in a household where the father is the only authority figure.

Households where the biological parents are married and the family has always been...