Child abuse (Child Abuse)

Member Name: adam171275

Product:	Child Abuse
Date:	27/05/09 (91 review reads)
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Child abuse is very common in this country and worldwide and shockingly more common than we think. I was shocked when I did a little research on line at a few facts on child abuse. Here are some below:


Every ten days in England and Wales 1 child is killed at the hands of their parents.

More than a third of rape cases reported to the police are committed against children under 16.

6 percent of children receive emotional maltreatment at home and 6 percent receive absence of care during childhood.

To read more in depth shocking facts a bout child abuse you can go to the NSPCC website.

Child abuse can come in many forms; it can be physical, emotional or sexual abuse or even all three.

There are a few child abuse cases which have been in the media of late and really stick in my mind, the first being the sad case of Baby P (Peter) who died at the hands of his mother, step dad and lodger. He was only 17 months old when he was found dead in his blood splattered cot. The abuse that poor Peter encountered was horrific and to be honest the most upsetting thing I have ever read. During the big media interest in this case many were dead set on blaming social services. The fact was that Peter was on the at risk register and was visited by social services more than 60 times prior to his death. He was also seen by various medical staff with different injuries which were deemed non accidental. The main point here is yes social services and various medical staff did fail Peter but can we really hold them responsible for the actions of others? We know from what has been reported in the media that Peter's mother was very devious and tricked social services on many occasions. Many abusers are very clever in hiding abuse inflicted and grooming children to believe them and not to tell of the abuse that is happening to them. We can argue that being a social worker, health visitor or medical staff it is their job to protect children and be aware of what to look out for in abuse. The fact that a social worker visited Peter a few days before his death; he had chocolate smothered over his face to hide the injuries. His mother had done this purposely; surely she should have asked her to wipe his face, so she could physically see there was nothing to hide. The family was known to social services so why were the children not protected? I can never understand why any child is left to be at risk from the care they are in. I have previously read that it is very costly to place a child in care so working with and helping the family is a cheaper option. This just made me seethe with anger. Surely a child's safety is paramount to the cost. I thought its all about protecting children, the cost shouldn't be an issue, and if MP's can claim thousands for second homes we obviously have our priorities all wrong. Social services were so adamant to help the mother and keep Peter in the family home it lead to his death. I do feel that the whole children's services and protecting children needs to be looked at and improved dramatically before more tragic cases like this happen.


I think that we immediately think that child abuse involves more lower class families, but does it really? I come to the case of the missing little girl Madeline McCann. She went missing whilst on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz. Her parents are of middle class background, Gerry being a cardiologist and Kate a GP. They are both practising Catholics. Madeline and her younger twin siblings were left alone in their holiday apartment whilst the parents dined at a restaurant 130 yards away with friends. Surely this is some form of child abuse? How many of you would do this? My wife and I have asked ourselves this on many occasions and the answer is always the same, we just simply wouldn't. My heart does go out to the McCann's and poor missing Madeline but they shouldn't have left the children alone. They were interviewed by social services when back in the UK but no charges were made. The point I am trying to make here is that if they were lower class would this have been the case? Would they have been charged with neglect? We assume that if they are of a good religious background then they are naturally good parents.


Child abuse is in many different forms which some we probably wouldn't really class as abuse but it is. My wife works in a local shop in the evenings and she often says that she has very young children (under 8) coming in the shop at 9O'clock is this child abuse? In my opinion it is as children of that age should not be out at that time of night without supervision. Where we live we often see children outside playing after 9O'clock and both my wife and I feel that this is wrong, who is watching and looking after them? Child abuse can also be emotional abuse. This could be putting your child down constantly or using bad language towards them. How many of you have seen a mother or father shouting at their children in the supermarket and often using swear words? Lots I would imagine. We have to remember that children need attention, praise, consistency love and encouragement. If you don't give these to your child you can be affecting their emotional needs. We have to remember to that none of us are the perfect parent and we can often have days where we maybe shout at our children. We all have periods when we loose it after all parenting can be difficult at times. If you were doing this every day it is then that it would be a problem, I am not saying its ok to shout at your kids but we have to put it in perspective. I recently read a case where a mother lashed out at her son in a moment of madness and hit him with a hairbrush. He was later taken into care due to her actions; to me this is total rubbish and a complete waste of time. When I was younger I had a good smack a few times with a wooden spoon or something does this mean I should have been in care? This is extreme, there is this case where social services in my opinion did too much and then you can look at the case of Baby P where they did too little, there needs to be balance. I know from speaking to my friends that probably 90 percent of them would say that when growing up they had a smack from time to time when they were naughty like me. Was this wrong? In my opinion I can honestly say no, as long as it isn't hard, a little smack on the bottom never did me any harm. I can honestly say that I really can't remember the smacks I had as being painful and don't look at my parents and think they abused me. I f you are smacked regularly and to the point where it is marking the child severely then I would class this as child abuse. I have never smacked my children as I don't feel it solves anything, if I did I would worry that social services would knock at my door. A few years ago my little girl fell downstairs so we took her to casualty as we were worried. Whilst there we did feel like criminals and it felt like they were assessing us to see if we had done it. We were genuinely making sure she was ok. You can see this from their point of view as they are doing their job and don't really know us as parents so we could have inflicted her injuries. I know though from being a parent that my wife was worried for days as she thought we would get a knock at the door!



Child abuse is more common than we think unfortunately, and comes in many forms; here below are a few signs to look out for:

Physically bruised or injured
Often dirty, hungry and inadequately dressed
Shouted at frequently and put down
Seems afraid of carers
Left without medication or unsafe situations
Shows signs of sexual behaviour which is inappropriate for their age
Is in a household with alcohol and drug abuse
In a home with domestic violence

Further information can be obtained from the NSPCC website and childline is also available as a free phone number which gives help and advice to children.

Summary: more common than you think and comes in various forms