Senior Thesis Paper

As you read this, one little girl is crying out in pain, one little boy is begging not to be touched anymore. Many children live through everyday being abused sexually, physically, and emotionally. More than two million cases of neglect and physical abuse are reported annually ("Child Abuse" 92). There are a lot of ways to put an end to this; it just takes some work and time. First of all there are the children who are emotionally abused. The question is what is emotional abuse? Emotional abuse is when the child is hurt emotionally causing changes in behavior and low self-esteem. "For example, the parents may use extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as confinement of a child in a dark closet, and less severe acts, such as habitual scapegoating, belittling, or rejecting treatment" ("Child Abuse" 66). Children who suffer from this type of abuse grow up being called bad things and never really knowing what love is. Emotional abuse, in my opinion, is a terrible type of abuse that a child could go through. Although it may not seem too harsh, it causes many social problems for the child. "These social problems include, fear of meeting people, shyness, withdrawing from classmates, and an introverted personality" (Doak). Secondly, there is physical abuse. Physical abuse is when the child has "physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child. The parent or caretaker may not have intended to hurt the child; rather, the injury may have resulted from over-discipline or physical punishment" (Child abuse: current). "There is no point in physical abuse for discipline; all it does is make the child more violent and blurs their sense between right and wrong" (Doak). In 1974 the federal government enacted the child abuse and treatment act. "The law defined child abuse as the physical and mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child under the age of 18" (child abuse: current). "Until the 1900s, much of what is now thought to be child abuse was not considered illegal or immoral" (child abuse: current). Child abuse is something that is too frequent. As a community we should have community outreach programs to help families in need and relieve stress from struggling families. We as a community should teach people about the negative effects of child abuse because it is a serious crime and should not be treated lightly, at all.

All children have many experiences before they became truly mature. A child can face lot of dangerous things from the environment surrounding them which might seriously affect their whole life. "In 2005, among 3.6 million investigations by Child Protective Services agencies in the U.S, an estimated 899,000 children were confirmed to be victims of child abuse" (Child help). There are typically four types of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, sexual