Child Abuse | Teen Ink

Child Abuse

April 10, 2015
By Anonymous

Our world is full of issues. Many of the issues are big and some are small, but issues will be issues. So to begin, I’m going to ask a question. Have you ever seen a child with his or her arms covered in bruises or scratches? If you have, then you probably feel bad for him or her and think “Poor child, he or she must be pretty clumsy.” But what you think is a clumsy child might actually be a child with abusive parents who beat, starve, and/or torture the small human. This is why I believe we need to put a stop to child abuse. We should put an end to child abuse because child abuse can lead to psychological trauma, self esteem issues, and even death.

The first reason why I believe  we should put an end to child abuse is because child abuse leads to psychological trauma. People who are survivors of child abuse are most likely to live their teenage years and adulthood psychologically traumatized by their past of being abused. Many victims of child abuse might not even make it to adulthood or to be a teenager because some parents are so harsh and abusive that they reach the point of taking their child’s life or the child committing suicide. According to the article “Emotional and Psychological Trauma,” there are many events in a child’s life that can lead to emotional or psychological trauma. The text says, “An event will most likely lead to emotional or psychological trauma if: it happened unexpectedly, you were unprepared for it, you felt powerless to prevent it, it happened repeatedly, someone was intentionally cruel, or it happened in childhood.”(www.helpguide.org) All of the criteria on this list are the same things that can and will happen during child abuse. If a child is being beaten at home by his 20 or 30 year old parent, of course that child won’t expect it. The child will also feel unprepared for it, powerless or that he was too weak to prevent or stop it from happening. If the parent is constantly being beaten at home, the abuser is intentionally cruel, repeatedly doing this, and doing it at a very delicate stage of a person’s life which is when children take in what they are used to, it doesn’t matter if they are used to something good or if it’s something bad, and they see that as normal.

The second reason of why I believe we should find a way to prevent and stop child abuse is because it can lead to rough teenage years and adulthood filled self esteem issues. Child abuse is not always through physical contact. Just like what our parents told us when we were kids, “Words can hurt.” Parents can tell kids things that are just as painful to them as getting beat with a stick. Things that parents say like “I should have never given birth to you” or “If only that birth control hadn’t failed, I wouldn’t be sitting here looking at you” are the worst thing any parent can say to their child. Those words will fill their child’s life with depression, suicidal thoughts, and with feelings that not even they can explain. According to Mee Young Jeong, author of the online article, ”Child Abuse Affects Self-Esteem,” child abuse has a major impact on adults’ self esteem. The text says , “Adult survivors of unresolved cases of child abuse frequently report tolerating abusive adult relationships as a consequence of childhood experiences and as a result of very low self-esteem and feeling worthless or hopeless.”(www.citelighter.org) This quote shows how adults tolerate abuse because of self esteem issues and the feeling of being worthless. These adults are tolerant to this stuff because they see it as normal, that’s the type of environment they grew up in. The self esteem issues and feeling of being worthless can also link back to child abuse because words can also traumatize a child.

The last and final reason of why I believe we should find a way to stop and prevent child abuse is because child abuse will most likely end up in death. There is also a particular statistic that I found online on an article titled, “Child Abuse Statistics.” The text says, “More than 70% of the children who died as a result of child abuse or neglect were two years of age or  younger.” (www.childhelp.org) Two years old or younger. So if a parent doesn’t want a child, they’re going to beat him or her. First of all, that is illogical thinking and stupid and second of all, if a parent is going to beat a child that is two years old, then that parent is nothing more than a disgusting beast that deserves to rot in the deepest pit of hell. If a parent doesn’t like or want his or her child, why don’t they give it up for adoption instead of beating it to death because that child could become what that couldn’t or what that wanted them to. That child could have been a successful adult but those chances are gone thanks to the abusive parent or parents.

Have you ever seen a child with his or her arms covered in bruises or scratches? If you have, then you probably feel bad for him or her and think “Poor child, he or she must be pretty clumsy.” But what you think is a clumsy child might actually be a child with abusive parents who beat, starve, and/or torture the small human. The reasons that you just read above are the three main reasons why I believe that we should find a way to prevent and stop child abuse once and for all. We should stop and prevent child abuse because child abuse can cause emotional and psychological trauma, child abuse can lead to self esteem issues, and child abuse most likely will lead to death. There have been many cases from all over the world where a parent will keep a child locked in a room and make him or her starve. There was also a case where a small child died from being beaten and starved. While examining the corpse, they found pinch marks, bruises, scratches, and signs that she was raped by her uncle. The child wasn’t even 5 yet and her family members decided it would be okay to constantly beat this child and let her uncle abuse her. Parents like the ones in this case are the reason why there are many shootings in schools because victims of abuse feel horrible, constantly being troubled by their past. “Why should they have what I never had the chance to have?” “Why should they be happy when I know I will never be the same again?” They constantly think. This is why I believe we should try to investigate and find a way to stop and prevent child abuse.



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