Children: A History Of Abuse
What is child abuse? These two words can be defined as harm done to innocent children that is difficult to understand the extent of damage one human inflict upon another. According to The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, child abuse and child neglect are the physical and mental injury, sexual abuse, or exploitation, negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child under the age of eighteen, or except in the case of sexual abuse, the age specific by the child protection law of the State by a person who is responsible for the child's welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened. This is just one of many laws that have been enacted to try to give a firm definition of this controversial issue. Within the topic of child abuse is physical and sexual abuse, child neglect, and mental injury. Physical abuse is characterized by inflicting physical injury by punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning or otherwise harming the child. Child neglect is characterized by failure to provide basic needs for the child. Neglect can also be physical, emotional or educational. Sexual abuse includes fondling a child's genitals, intercourse incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, and sexual exploitation by a person responsible for care of a child (Abuse
8). Being a parent is a privilege that many people take for granted. To this day, child abuse has significantly increased throughout the years and continues to grow.
Although having children is considered a blessing, not just any one that's able to have children can be a parent. Raising children takes more than just buying them material objects and spending money on them. It requires them to spend time with them, teaching them right from wrong and to help them prepare them for the future. For example, when a woman has a child at a young age, she may not want to give up her freedom even though she has a child. Leaving the child with someone...
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