Child Abuse

Child Abuse in Dysfunctional Homes

What exactly is child abuse? It can be defined as any act that physically or sexually endangers a child. There are different types of abuse; these include physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect. Physical child abuse is any non-accidental injury to a child. Some may argue that there is no such thing as physical child abuse they believe it is just another form of discipline. Anyone is capable of abusing a child, however studies have shown that a large amount of abusers are parents "Most perpetrators (75%) of child abuse are parents." This can be caused by a number of different reasons including personal and social problems; these individuals then to be raised in a dysfunctional home environments. One may believe that individuals who hurt young children do it to harm the child. Although many cases show he/she harms the child due to the fact that he/she is emotionally unstable, insecure and is seeking ways to feel empowered. Examples of this are when caregivers are overly stressed with everyday life, don't have good social skills, and have young children. This creates one to have less self control or feel the need to abuse children either physically, sexually, or mentally.

When growing-up in a dysfunctional home and with abusive parents, one may lack security when compared to a well-mannered family environment. Unfortunate individuals who are subjected to this maybe themselves become abusive when they have children of their own. Abuse is a learned behavior drawn from others violent attributes. "As many as 70% of parents who abuse their children were abused while growing up" Every individual's up bringing becomes their norm; therefore if one experienced an abusive childhood he/she is more likely to become abusive also.

Many individuals in abusive homes develop violent qualities to protect themselves from he's/she's violent abuser. "Many parents who abuse their children come from homes where they themselves had poor parental models and were beaten or deprived as children." As these individuals grow up and have a family one may repeat the vicious pattern because he/she does not realize what was done to he/she was wrong. As a result of ones experiences, one may have learned to use violence to deal with problems. When living in a dysfunctional and abusive home, there is usually a lack of trust and it may be difficult to turn to others when one is in need; he's/she's solution seems to be a physical one. "Using official records, uncovered 137 families out of population of 200 000 in North Wiltshire where abuse of children had happen in successive generations."

People that grow up in inappropriate social models are people that grow up in homes and learned to have thoughts like "children are property." These individuals treat children like objects instead living creatures because they want to feel in control and neglect the child's feelings and emotions. Individuals believe that because they conceived or gave birth to them they can do whatever they want to them. Parents that think "Where I come from or when I was a kid parents had the right to whip a child to behave." When care-givers have such a negative mindset, it is because he/she has been abused or has seen abuse then one may end up abusing their own. "There is considerable evidence to support the motion that violence breeds violence." An example is an experiment by Darious Maestpleri. He took new born macaque monkeys put half with an abusive mother and half with a non-abusive mother. They found that the monkeys that grew up with a non abusive mother grew up to be non abusive even if the biological mother was. Same results showed with monkeys that grew up with an abusive mother became abusive even if their biological mother was gentle and caring. This experiment proves that violence is a learned behavior not embedded in genes.

There is no one characteristic that describes a child abuser. However, many of have similar traits such as low self esteem, had emotional needs not met by parents, lack of social and emotional contacts outside of family, may have martial problems, are very passive, and does not engage in social activities. People who live in dysfunctional homes usually feel the need to be in charge and in order to gain this power one attempts to over come a weaker individual by abusing young children either sexually, physically or emotionally. Child abuse usually starts with a feeling of weakness or lack of success. "The abuse (most often the father) picks on the victim to make up for a sense of his own powerlessness. Especially with regard to the masculine ideas of our society."

Family violence tends to be directed at the most vulnerable members of the family which usually are the youngest female child because he/she would not or cannot fight back. For that reason the abuser seems more powerful since the victim cannot defend themselves. When the abuser hurts a child it gives them a false sense of power, because the disobedient child has stopped crying but that is due to fear. When one is overly controlling and violent