Child abuse has been and continues to be a major social problem in America and the world as a whole. Child abuse has many facets, including; sexual abuse, emotional mistreatment, failure-to-provide, educational neglect, and drug abusive parents. On a broader spectrum, child abuse falls into two main categories, Physical and Nonphysical Mistreatment (Giovanni). For hundreds of years children have suffered abuse, and that number is growing exponentially. In 1967 there was less than one report of child abuse for every thousand children, in 1985 that number had grown to 31 reports for every thousand children, and today a report of child abuse is made every ten seconds (Waldfogel). Child abuse occurs in every social class, every ethnicity, and every religion (“National”). Children subject to abuse are not the only ones who suffer, child abuse is a community problem and must be dealt with accordingly. Prevention is the only way to slow the rapid increase in child abuse victims, and eventually eliminate it everywhere. Child abuse can be prevented through the trained eyes of school nurses and mandatory checks and when suspected through the installation of cameras in the child’s home as well as educating children about child abuse.
Defining child abuse is difficult, because there are so many different forms of legitimate abuse. Child abuse is not only the physical abuse that can be seen, but also the mental abuse that is not. Regardless of the type of abuse, the difficulty arises from the fine line between parenting and abuse. One point of view is that something as trivial as spanking could be described as abuse, because “abuse is often a spanking that simply went too far” (Justice). For this reason, some parents may disagree that child abuse is a legitimate problem, saying that parenting requires physical contact with a child. Children throughout history have been viewed as property of their parents, and the “parents have the rights to punish their child however they like” (Justin). So parents who chose to punish their children the ‘old fashioned way’ believe that it is parenting, not child abuse, and therefore these parents refuse to believe that child abuse is a major social problem.
Each state defines child abuse slightly differently, however, as a general statement child abuse is “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation” (“What”). According to this definition, abuse is serious harm inflicted upon a child. Every child has been spanked or been slapped on the wrist, but never do these simple punishments leave serious lasting marks. A child may not be able to differentiate between being beaten and being parented, because the child only perceives how one set of parents interact with their child. For a child it is easy to believe that all parents severely spank or beat their children due to the child’s limited point of view (Pelton). For this reason it is often difficult to prove that a child is actually being abused. However, children who are repeatedly hit, and are able to point out the places where they have been hit by showing visible bruises, are obvious abuse victims. As an adult, making the distinction between child abuse and parenting is easy; if the parent is unknowingly inflicting pain upon the child, then it becomes abuse. Spanking is therefore not a facet of child abuse, but simply parenting.
The solution to child abuse begins with prevention, because if the problem can be prevented then it will eventually be phased out. According to the National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, there are two major points that justify the implementation of a prevention program; the realization that the “underlying deficiency of most parents are having serious problems interacting with their children stems from major developmental deficits that occurred when these parents were growing up,” as well as the identification of “crucial periods” in a child’s life which can not be replaced (Helfer). The solution to this horrific problem has multiple facets, much like the definition of child abuse itself. In today’s society, 33.7 million are enrolled in elementary school, which is over one in every four Americans over the age of three (“Education”). Each public school in the United States is equipped with a school nurse who is on-hand not only to care for ill children, but also to perform the dreaded lice checks of every student. It would only seem logical that in addition to these free lice check-ups, there would also be mandatory abuse check-ups. School nurses have a nursing degree and are licensed registered nurses, and according to the National Association of School Nurses they are mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect and must be actively involved in creating a safe environment for children to thrive in. It is expected that upon hire, school nurses are educated and are able to educate others on the signs and symptoms of child abuse and the laws which protect every child (“School”). Nurses must already posses knowledge of child abuse and how to assess it, so there would be no additional training necessary for them, costing the government no money.
During these mandatory check-ups, if a child appears to have suffered abuse a higher course of action will take place. This is the point at which the money that currently funds the Child protective services unit is key. On average, a child protective services worker earns about $40,000 annually and is employed by the government (“Child”). Child protective service agents focus primarily on caring for a family after the abuse has been discovered, however much of their time is spent trying to prove that a child is in fact being abused. Intervention of child protective services has many steps: reporting, screening, and investigation. Often, families are “screened out,” meaning that there is no substantive evidence allowing CPS to continue an investigation (Waldfogel). This process takes time and money, both of which are very valuable in today’s economic crisis. When public schools begin implementing their mandatory checks for child abuse as well as the education about mental abuse, children suffering child abuse will be identified. This act of the public schools will cut down on the need for CPS agents to prove that a child is being abused, and so fewer agents will be necessary.
In the 21st century, money is time and time is precious. Everything must be time and cost efficient, and many people may argue that checking every child in every public school and teaching them about child abuse is not the best use of the schools money or time. Due to major budget increases, school days are getting increasingly shorter, putting a strain on working parents. Any excuse to keep children in the school environment longer should be welcomed, and not condoned. The cost of this program is negligible but the results will be major. In addition to this, students are already subject to a similar type of mandatory check. Schools are a breeding ground for common diseases and illnesses, such as lice, which can spread extremely quickly. As mentioned earlier, these abuse check-ups would be no different than these lice checks, and overall, much more important to the safety of a child. Regarding the education of the children, teaching them about mental abuse, it is not too drastic.
The next step in preventing child abuse is through education. Often children hide their wounds with normal school clothing, but in the presence of a trusted school nurse, these wounds could be made known. This would prevent the child from having to physically say that he or she is being abused, and often times the child does not realize that he/she is even being abused. Of course there are the instances where a child has fallen off a bike, tripped and fell, or even been sucker punched by a rambunctious friend or sibling. Most of the time the difference between these common childhood scrapes and abuse is strikingly obvious, especially to a nurse trained to observe signs and symptoms of abuse. Physical abuse is not the only type of abuse that children suffer, but unfortunately it is the only type that can be observed in an isolated environment. Children are often mentally abused, and usually unable to understand that they are victims of abuse due to their small perspectives (Pelton). In order to combat this form of abuse, each child would be educated on what mental abuse actually is. This way, they will have the knowledge to decipher between abuse and merely being reprehended. This course in mental abuse will be taught by the school nurses, who possess the skills to educate others on the affects of child abuse.
Children are exposed at a young age to ‘sex-ed’, a lecture discussing the ins and outs of puberty and sex. Educating children on child abuse will be taught in a similar fashion, with a focus on the child’s view of abuse. This will help children to understand what abuse is, and how to differentiate abuse from being reprehended. This education is simply more classroom hours for the students, and it will not cost much to implement because the nurses already possess the skills to educate the children. There is no way to argue that checking students for abuse and educating them on what abuse is is not a valuable use of the public schools systems’ time. Not only are students being monitored for signs of abuse, educated on what mental abuse actually is, but in suspect cases cameras are being installed so that evidence can be collected and used against the abusive parent.
The problem with actually condemning an abusive parent, is that there is usually no substantial evidence of the abuse that can be used against them. Despite the efforts of child protective services (CPS), there is still no way to actually prove that a child is being abused. The CPS agents waste valuable time trying to decipher whether they can gather enough evidence to make a stand against the parents. With this solution, the profits that would be made during these time wasting hours will be used to install cameras in the homes of the children who are suspected of being abused. In this way, abuse can either be prevented via fear of getting caught, or via hard evidence of abuse. Either way, the programs that are implemented currently to help children who have been abused can be more directly targeted to the children that actually are being abused, and not the ambiguous case via the use of cameras.
The huge issue that arises with the proposal is infringement of privacy. The cameras that will be installed in people’s homes could be seen as a major breach of privacy, and that is a valid point. The right of privacy will be disregarded, and the household will be monitored for as long as it takes to prove or disprove that child abuse is taking place. However, child abuse is a crime. Criminals lose their right to privacy when they commit a crime. Nobody complains that people who are on house arrest are tracked every moment of their sentence, or that people who are in jails are monitored extremely closely. Parents who abuse their children do not deserve the right the privacy, and therefore it is justifiable to record their homes. If there happens to be cameras installed in a home in which abuse is not taking place, then the camera’s will be removed as soon as the household is deemed “safe”.
The cover story in Time magazine at one point was the case of Elisa Izquierdo, a six-year-old girl who died from the abuse she suffered from her mother. Her case had been reported multiple times, yet could never be acted upon due to lack of substantial evidence. In the conclusion of the case, one sentence stuck out, “somehow nobody managed to stop it.”(Waldfogel). Elisa, and so many other abused children, could have been saved had this proposal been implemented sooner. This proposal suggests that with the trained eyes of nurses, check-ups, education and installation of cameras child abuse can be prevented No child should have to suffer abuse, and often children cannot or do not say anything about it and it goes unnoticed. The only social cost of implementing this solution is the infringement of privacy, which is completely justifiable in the name of the safety of children. The abused children will not be the only ones who will be helped by this solution, parents will also be set at ease. Parents often fear reprehending their children because they do not want to seem like abusive parents. This solution makes sure that children who are actually being abused and helped and the parents who are actually abusing their children are punished appropriately. Perhaps people have been too frightened to implement something as drastic as this solution in the past, however, child abuse is still rising in the world and something needs to be done to stop it. Someone needs to stop it.
"Child, Family, and School Social Workers." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
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Giovannoni, Jeanne M., and Rosina M. Becerra. Defining Child Abuse. New York: Free, 1979. Print.
Helfer, Ray E. Child Abuse. Chicago: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, 1978. Print.
Justice, Blair, and Rita Justice. "Primary Prevention of Child Abuse." The Abusing Family. New York: Human Sciences, 1976. 229-68. Print.
"National Child Abuse Statistics | Childhelp." Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse | Childhelp. Childhelp. Web. 13 Nov. 2011.
Pelton, Leroy H. The Social Context of Child Abuse and Neglect. New York, NY: Human Sciences, 1981. Print.
Waldfogel, Jane. The Future of Child Protection: How to Break the Cycle of Abuse and Neglect. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998. Print.
“What Is Child Abuse and Neglect?” Child Welfare Information Gateway. Web. 17 Nov. 2011.
Bibliography
Gray, Ellen, and Joan DiLeonardi. Evaluating Child Abuse Prevention Programs. [Chicago, Ill.]: National Committee for Prevention of Child Abuse, 1982. Print.
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