Child Abuse
Child abuse is an issue that has increased tremendously over the years and throughout the world. It is very important due to the fact child maltreatment causes a child to experience cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems such as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and difficulty in school. Some of these experiences can even lead to the death of a child. Children who are abused or neglected are more likely to repeat the cycle of violence as they get older. Studies show that the total lifetime economic cost due to new child maltreatment cases in a single year is estimated at $124 billion in the U.S. It is also estimated that 702,000 U.S. children were documented victims of maltreatment in 2014.
For my civic engagement blog I chose this issue because it is relevant to me due to the fact I work with children everyday in a classroom setting. I have personally witnessed these behavioral changes among some of the children with the following outcome of child maltreatment. I have chose to interview 3 individuals who work with young children using the few questions that follow:
1) Have you ever witnessed child abuse or behavioral changes in a child due to child maltreatment?
2) How would you handle the issue of child abuse if you knew it was taking place amongst a young individual?
3) How do you think this issue could be prevented?
Christy Hernandez
1) "I have personally never witnessed child abuse but I have witnessed a child who always came to daycare very tired and not very engaging with other children. I did suspect it had to do with the child's family life at home."
2) "If I ever witnessed child abuse I think I would call child services immediately since I do work in a daycare center and thats the first thing we usually are told to do."
3) "I think no matter what there will always be mean people, but the best we can do is observe the children for usual behavior."
1) " Working with children for so many years I can find a million ways children are mistreated! I have seen parents who do not feed their children right and the child comes sick all the time, I've seen parents who discipline their children harshly, all of these things count as child abuse in this day and age."
2) " Although parents do mistreat their children, I do understand they have their own ways of raising their child even though it may not seem like abuse to them. If I ever saw it and knew it was harming the child, I would get the police and child services involved and make sure the parent is fully aware of the issue."
3) I think it is a sense of being a mother and father, if your not ready to take on a huge responsibility DONT HAVE KIDS!"
Lesley Torrero
1) " I have experienced a child being abused before. It was a single mother of 3 that would drop her child off with bruises. The child did not eat much at school and had very bad behavior. He would cry for absolutely no reason possibly just for attention. This child was 8 years old."
2) "After having the child admit to being beaten by his mom, the police and child services were involved. The school and child's daycare are being interviewed about the child's family life and the mother has a court day coming up."
3) " Most of the time we may not notice children who are being abused in any way at home because they hide it so good, but I believe there are programs and classes parents can get involved in to understand the importance and guidelines there are when it comes to disciplining a child."
After doing more research on this topic, I got a greater understanding of civic engagement and how different people in the community come together in different ways under the same issue. After interviewing different people in my community I found it very interesting how everyone had their own story and perspective over child abuse. I knew that the people who worked in schools, education centers, and daycares would have a higher rate in suspecting child neglect. I did not face many challenges looking for people who had similar thoughts on this issue because I work at a child center and know many people who also work with young children. As mentioned before it was not very surprising to hear this feedback because child abuse happens all the time and usually teachers or any supervisor who works with young kids will experience a time where they know a child who gets mistreated. If I were to do my project differently I think I would aim toward people who do not have children or work with them. I would have loved to see how much more different their thoughts on this topic would have been. I do feel this topic was successful and important facts and opinions were stated because this something society should be aware about. I believe that child abuse does affect our communities greatly with the sense that we are how we are raised.
References
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. (2016). Child abuse and neglect: Consequences. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/childmaltreatment/consequences.html
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