CHILD ABUSE.   Term Paper ID:28069 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Argues that parents convicted of child abuse should have children taken from them. Protection of child most important factor.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Argues that parents convicted of child abuse should have children taken from them. Protection of child most important factor. Paper Introduction: Parents who are convicted of child abuse should have their children taken away from them. This is not a matter of punishment but of recognition of the fact that there is a problem society has to address and that the children need to be protected. First, those parents have abrogated their parental responsibilities and shown that they cannot be trusted. Second, the children will benefit by being taken away from an abusive situation and placed into a loving situation. The alternative would be to work to preserve the family group. Attempts to do this are usually made by social workers, who might be brought in at an early stage, before adjudication becomes necessary. In such cases, the case worker develops a plan and implements it: This plan ultimately becomes the case plan that Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. The alternative would be to work to preserve the family group.Attempts to do this are usually made by social workers, who might bebrought in at an early stage, before adjudication becomes necessary. However, protecting the child should be the first goal, and yet thesystem has not been geared to accomplish this task. These dependency court experts also commented that a succession of judges unfamiliar with the family and the child increases the potential that key facts about the case will be overlooked ("Juvenile Courts--Reforms Aim to Better Serve Maltreated Children").The system should be rationalized so that one court handles these variousissues and makes the necessary determination to remove children fromabusive situations. "Massachusetts' New Child Abuse and Neglect Felony Law Repeals Religious Exemption." JAMA (February 16, 1994), 489-49 .May, William F. Different states have adopted different laws, and thisalso makes it difficult to deal with these problems rationally across thenation. Theconcept has been embodied in law with the adoption in 198 of the AdoptionAssistance and Child Welfare Act (Beyer 176). The children are clearly in need of protection now, andremoving them from the abusive home is the first step. Removal of the child is now the most viableoption. Insuch cases, the case worker develops a plan and implements it: This plan ultimately becomes the case plan that outlines treatment services for the child and the family. The law was hailed as an importantvictory for the American Academy of Pediatrics and its continuing effort toprotect children from child abuse and neglect (Skolnick 49 ). Guilt and shame mount andhelp keep the secret secure, and molesters are masters at making use ofthis fact. The victim experiences a sense of betrayal on the part of themolester, an authority figure who is supposed to protect rather than abuse:"The abuser violates the child's right to respect and treatment as a child,to protection from the world, and to counsel in interpreting itsambiguities" (May 14). Margaret Beyer says that preserving the family should be the waychildren are helped, and while she might be right that reasonable effort todo so should be made, this does not identify what "reasonable" means. In the United States, anestimated 1.6 million children are seriously injured or impaired each yearas a result of abuse or neglect, and 1,1 children die as a result ofchild abuse each year. Parents who are convicted of child abuse should have their childrentaken away from them. Directpower blocks are found in the incest secret and incest entrapment.Indirect power blocks are found from the accommodation to the abuse anddeprivation of the essential parental and community resources. In many instances, though,removing the child from the parental home is the best and perhaps only wayof assuring that child's protection. May notes that the literature on incest emphasizes secrecy, anddifferent family members build a wall of secrecy around the issue. "Growing Up in a Violent World: The Impact of Family and Community Violence on Young Children and Their Families." Topics in Early Childhood Special Education 17(15 April 1997)."Juvenile Courts--Reforms Aim to Better Serve Maltreated Children." Government Accounting Office Report (11 Jan 1999).Skolnick, Andrew A. Incest is found to precede or accompany awide array of human troubles, and many of these persist long after theabuser has stopped molesting the victim. Massachusetts was one of the states that adopted a law makingchild neglect and abuse a felony. In a case of this sort, it is betterto err on the side of caution and offer the needed protection by removingchildren from the home once the parent or parents have been convicted ofabusing that child. Various treatment modes have been suggested for helping these victimscope with their problems and with the trauma associated with abuse.Nelson, in keeping with his discussion of the power issue, sees theempowerment of incest survivors as one of the important elements inalleviating the trauma and the long-term damage. It canalso cause a variety of disturbances in behavior, such as overeating,anorexia, prostitution, other forms of sexual dysfunction, alcoholism, drugabuse, sleep disturbance, runaway and suicidal behavior. May analyzes data from therapists and findsthat they report that some of the victims manage to do well in spite of thescars, but many others do not. The plan describes what actions are required of all the parties involved to correct the conditions that caused the maltreatment and, in some cases, the placement outside the home, as well as the time frames for accomplishing them. Law enforcement has not done a good job of addressingthis issue: Few laws govern how parents may discipline their children. The incidence of child abuse is high. Thesecret begins as an invitational matter and becomes a forbidden game,though as the child interacts with others and learns that this is notnormal behavior, guilt and shame are increased. Preserving the family may be an admirable purpose, but it is moreimportant to assure that the children are safe before such efforts arepursued. In addition, the plan must address a child's health and education needs, including arrangements for any specialized treatment by health care providers. Works CitedBeyer, Margaret. In a survey of attitudes across the United States about corporal punishment for children, 85 percent of the respondents believed that children could benefit from "a good spanking" occasionally (Groves). Thesecret involved has an appeal to children and makes the problem worse. Incest is a particular type of child abuse involving close bloodrelations, and many studies of molestation will include data on incest as aparticular subheading. The experience, says May, can eroticize thevictims and distort their perceptions of themselves and others. They donot know the difference between sexual and nonsexual touch, and theythemselves make sexual advances. This is not a matter of punishment but ofrecognition of the fact that there is a problem society has to address andthat the children need to be protected. He reports on a projectof empowerment for female victims of incest and describes the specificsteps involved, with the practitioner involved acting as facilitator. Incest produces anxiety,depression, flashback terrors, guilt, shame, humiliation, pain, suffering,anger, fear, confusion, and a sense of isolation in the victim. Second, the children will benefit by being taken away from anabusive situation and placed into a loving situation. The causes of child abuse and neglect are complex, and a case plan can involve referrals to an array of individuals, including caseworkers from other units in the child welfare agency, such as adoption or foster care specialists; private service providers, such as mental health and counseling professionals on contract with CPS to provide treatment services; other public agencies that can assist with nonhealth services, such as housing; and organizations providing transportation or other support services ("Child Protective Services--Complex Challenges Require New Strategies").Once a case of child abuse reaches the courts and leads to a conviction,though, it should be assumed that other efforts to correct the problem havebeen tried and have failed. In order to reunitethe family after this, parents should undergo therapy, be monitored, gothrough legal proceedings to prove their worth, and be on probation for alengthy period of time to assure that they will not backslide. For example, one expert noted that in some cases a series of judges makes sequential decisions about the child--that is, one judge removes the child from the home, another oversees efforts to reunify the family, another handles permanency planning, and yet another terminates parental rights. In many states, it is a felony to assault one's wife but not to abuse one's children. Bender (ed.), 175-183. For one thing,authority is too divided: The frequent rotation of judges can contribute to decisions that are not based on a thorough knowledge of the individual child and family and can result in unnecessary delays in reaching decisions about permanent homes, according to experts in the dependency court process. Theempowerment strategies used are based on the dual premises that theinadequate functioning of the incest victim results from direct andindirect power blocks in the family and community social structure. The victimscontinue to suffer in later life from such problems as frigidity, sometimespromiscuous behavior, sometimes unwittingly encouraging incestuous behaviorin their own families. May discusses the victims of child abuse andconcentrates in his analysis on abuse by fathers and stepfathers "notbecause such abuse predominates but because it structurally exposes theabuse of power, intimacy, and trust" (May 9). First, those parents haveabrogated their parental responsibilities and shown that they cannot betrusted. "The Molested" Hastings Center Report (May-June 1991), 9- 17."Child Protective Services--Complex Challenges Require New Strategies." Government Accounting Office Report (21 July 1997). After a conviction for child abuse, it should be assumed that thesituation has proceeded too far for such preservation efforts to beparamount. One third of all victims of child abuse are youngerthan 1 year of age. "Family Preservation Programs Help Children." In Child Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints, David L. One study showed that over 75 percent of sexoffenders in prison had suffered sexual abuse as children and 8 percent oftheir wives had suffered sexual abuse as children. May also notes that inmolestation cases in general, in 75 or 8 percent of the cases the childknew and trusted the molester. Greenhaven Press, 1999.Groves, Betsy McAlister. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.