Abuse: Pervasive and Controversial

Abuse: Pervasive and Controversial

Abuse can be described as pervasive and controversial. Around the world today there are people being abused in all types of ways. Abuse affects everyone no matter if you are the victim, the abuser or even the bystander. There are many types of abuse but the reasoning for committing it is always the same; the need to feel powerful. Thankfully in 1984 there was an amendment made that stated the laws that could protect the victims of abuse. This amendment caused all the states to take responsibility of reporting and document their yearly abuse rates and sending it to the government. The following will cover;

Mean while, in the world today eight to twelve million women are abused. Also two million children are abused and neglected. "An average of nearly four children die every day as a result of child abuse or neglect. (www.pediatrics.about.com/od/childabuse/a/05_abuse_stats.htm)" The majority of the abusers are the victim's close family members. There are many injuries that happen, but most of the injuries are caused by physical abuse. Many people believe that family violence is private and none of their business, but as a duty to our community it is our responsibility to take charge to help someone that is being abused.

With this in mind, many years earlier there was a time when abuse wasn't considered illegal. Believe it or not there used to be m any reports of male police officers that saw women being abused and at the near ends of dyeing but they acted as if they didn't see anything. They did this because before women were considered worthless and the men had more power so government officials just ignored this problem. Thankfully in 1984 there was an amendment passed that stated that each state had its own responsibility of controlling and recording the abuse rates and sending it to the government. Each state also had to provide an abuse shelter for runaway victims of abuse, but the problem with shelters was that they needed money.

In addition, we may not pay attention to this, but there is a big controversy between what is considered physical abuse and discipline among parents and caregivers. Discipline is when someone is punished for doing something wrong and the consequence is fair to the crime. On the other hand if someone constantly strikes your child with great force, use fear to control them, have unpredictability to when you might set off on them, or constantly lashing out in anger without a reason that is physical abuse.

In comparison, there are many reasons why people commit physical abuse. Sometimes it is because the guardian may have unreal expectations of how their child should act. For example: a toddler won't be able to sit still for long periods of time and a new born baby won't sleep through the night without making a sound. Those are unreal expectations. If you set up goals and appropriate expectation then there might be less stress towards others,

Many guardians may suffer from lots of stress because they aren't having enough sleep so their patience is short. So when their baby cries they get frustrated and they might get so angry that they end up yelling or shaking the baby. When you shake a baby it could cause "Shaken Baby Syndrome". This can lead to brain damage, other injuries mental or physical, or in the worst cases even death to the baby. In turn people argue that a pregnant women drinking alcohol is a form of abuse because it can cause birth defects or a miscarriage.

The main reasons why there are abusers is because there are people who crave and enjoy power and being the "king or queen" of the house is an easy way to feel powerful. They may think that hurting their family in cruel ways is the only way they