Child Abuse: A Social Illness

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Firstly, many cases of child abuse occur in homes where marital problems have led to parents going their separate ways and eventually resorting to divorce. The single parents may remarry or have a live-in boyfriend or girlfriend. Having no blood ties with the children, these newcomers to the family may view the children in the household as a burden and as a result, develop feelings of hatred and resentment towards them.

There is also a high incidence of child abuse cases among families affected by poverty. The breadwinner is entrusted with the task of providing for the family but he is unable to do so, he feels inadequate and may resort to forms of escapism such as consuming alcohol and taking drugs. Under the influence of such intoxicants, he may not be in control of his actions and thus, may hurt his children.

Besides poverty and its resultant effects, stress at the workplace can lead to anger and frustration among parents. Parents vent these negative feelings on their children by abusing them. They know that the children are vulnerable and will not be able to retaliate.

Babysitters too have been known to abuse children under their care. Many working parents, especially those from the lower income groups, tend to place their children with babysitters. Often these parents do not investigate the background of the child minders or the live-in relatives who may have questionable behavior patterns. Furthermore, there are times when the children are left in the care of such babysitters for long periods of time. In such situations, the children may be abused without the parents realizing it.

Children can be abused in several ways – physically, mentally and sexually. Physical abuse involves being hit by objects, scalded by hot liquids or burnt with lighted cigarette butts or chained up and deprived of basic necessities. Mental abuse, on the other hand, is difficult to detect as the children are verbally abused and therefore do not show any outward injuries. Such children suffer from low self-esteem and in time grow up to be introverted or troubled individuals. Even worse is the sexual abuse of children who are too young to understand what is being done to them. To them, molest, rape and sodomy are acts that are totally beyond their comprehension and therefore are unable to talk about it to others.

The problem of child abuse can be solved. For one, abusive parents should be given counseling, depending on the severity of the crime. In instances of physical and sexual abuse, the perpetrators should be imprisoned for long periods of time and only released when they have been completely rehabilitated. In the case of poverty-stricken families, steps should be taken to alleviate their financial woes by providing assistance and skills training to the parents. This will enable them to earn a decent living and at the same time be better parents to their children.

All those who wish to earn an income by babysitting should have a license from the local authorities. On their part, the local authorities should investigate the applicants’ background, provide them with training and monitor them for a period of time before issuing the babysitters with licenses. This will certainly reduce the number of child abuse cases by babysitters.

Therefore, it appears that some of the underlying causes of child abuse include breakdown of the family unit, inability to cope with poverty and the existences of unscrupulous babysitters. Whether it is physical, mental or sexual abuse, there are ways to solve the problem, namely by counseling or imprisoning the perpetrators, eradicating poverty and recognizing babysitting as a licensed profession.