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Community Problem Report: Child Abuse and Neglect

The University of Texas at El Paso
November 7, 2015
Alejandra Conde

Abstract
Child abuse and neglect has now become a part of several childrens daily life in the
closed doors of the United States houses. Organizations that structure the parents, siblings,
and the legal guardians exist to create a positive impact on the childrens life by changing
the bad situations they are in. The general public overlooks the problems children go
through every day due to the fact that they may not have children, are abusers themselves,
or simply because they once were abused and do not want to know about the subject again.
Children grow up with different factors that affect them throughout their lives, may be
physical or psychological. Abused children may go through life making errors and the
general public think is their fundamental attribution error and not as the series of events that
happened throughout their childhood. A mentor, psychologist, or a professional that works
for children that once were abused may help to enrich the lives of those who were abused.
Abusers that go on abusing children will continue to abuse children even when a higher
authority intersects the situation. The abusers may be affected psychologically to continue
their actions. Higher authorities that may have an effect on the abusers may be a police
officer, psychologist, or a family member. Despite the fact that abused children have a hard
time in situations while growing up they may take their experiences to make the best out of
them to become the best person they can be by creating an organization, helping people that
have been abused or prospering in life.

Keywords: Child abuse, Neglect, Fundamental attribution error,

Introduction
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services abused children face
mental health dysfunctions, dysfunctions in a social setting and face a hard time with
their environment. Mental health dysfunction interrupts the activities the abused child come
up to such as school activities, nap time and interacting with other children. Social
dysfunction in a abuse child is common due to the fact that the children grows up not
knowing how to interact with other individuals because they are afraid other individuals
may explode like their abuser did. Neglect is the higher child abuse we hear about in the
United States and there is an increase every year. On 2013 1,530 kids died in effect of their
parents or legal guardians ignorance and negligence. The parents negligence involved
vents as parents leaving children unattended on hot vehicles, unattended kids on
playground and not giving children the medical help they deserve as well as other types of
negligence that provoked tragic outcomes. Child abuse ranges from physical, psychological
and sexual. These three factors affect the child to create the person they will grow up to
become. Physical abuse is physically hitting, touching, pulling, scratching a child or
anything that will cause the abused child physical harm. Psychological abuse is the calling
of names to the abuse child, ignoring the child to the high extent that makes the abuse child
think he is unwanted, or anything that interferes with the mental health of a child. Sexual
abuse is inappropriate touching child, inducing a child to anything that is sexual or child
pornography. Child abuse and Neglect differ in which they are different types of affects to
toward a child but them similar by both killing lives, dreams, and futures.

Abused Children
Children that are abused face many struggles in their lives from their childhood the
abused children have to accept the events that happen in their lives since they are under the
vigilance of their legal guardians whom may be the abusers in many cases. Physical abuse
scars more than the skin but the soul of the child that is being abused. Marks of black eyes
and belt stripes on the back may come off but the memories will be kept in the childs
thoughts forever. Psychological abuse as well as physical also scars the abused individuals
for life causing confusion in their minds. Sexual abuse may interfere with the abused
childrens future relationships. The outcome actions of the child that has been abuse differ
from person to person some children adopt the events, runaway when they are of age, and
others isolate themselves from society depending on how the abused child may take the
situation the outcomes are infinite. Children that are abused have an increased risk of
becoming abusers themselves. Children that are abused and neglected have trouble
expressing their emotions, face lack of trust, and have mood swings of worthless emotions
that run through their head, this is outcomes of child abuse and reactive attachment
disorder. The troubled time of expressing emotions comes when the child that was abused
has a hard time opening their heart to new people and new experiences due to the lack of
trust they have in people. The lack of trust in abused children is high since the abusers may
have been their care givers or someone whom they felt protected by, for that reason the
abused child now adult has a hard time expressing their emotions and feel worthless as if
they had the fault in the situations that are happening. As adults children that have been
abused may execute domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, lack of parenting skills,

stress and untreated mental illness. In the other hand children that were abused may take the
events as positively as they may to encounter the other side of life.
Abusers and Professional Help
Abusers range from a care giver to a stranger in the

Figure 1. Child abuse

emphasizing how a parent
abuses a Child.

street may be male or female. The only thing that

differentiates the abuser is the impact they create in the child
that is abused or neglected. Close abusers as parents,
siblings, family members, friends of the family create a
greater impact in the childrens life since they are close to the
child and it is unexpected and hard to explain the events in
the childs head as why the events are occurring. In the
childrens head their parents are supposed to take care of them and not let anything
happened to them and as they abuse the children, they grow up thinking it is something
correct to do since it is their parents that are committing the fatalities and everything is right
about their parents so the abuse may be right in return. There is a greater possibility for the
abuser of the child to be a parent or someone close to the child than anyone else. Abusers
may compensate their actions believing they are executing them due to discipline. Abusers
may believe it is discipline they are indulging in their children but in reality it is too harsh
to be discipline. Abusers argue that the general public and the authority of the United States
such as child services do not have the right to tell them how to discipline their children.
They believe they had the kids so the kids are their property and they may educate them
how they want. Fortunately organizations as Child Protective Services exist and take away
the children of those who do not know how to take care of them. Yet, since abusers range in

a large line abusers may come from the Child Protective Services as well. On June 26, 2014
a Child Protective Service representative went to a home of a mother which her daughter
had been taken away from her to give her the bad news that her daughter had been raped by
a CPS caregiver. Some abusers abuse the child without being aware of their actions for
example a hard working mother that has little to no time for her children and the child
grows up believing they were no good for her mothers time and affection when in reality a
mother had done everything that was in her hands to help her child. Many cases like this
one happened in the United States events are misinterpret and affect the children when they
become adults. Abusers may act in a violent way due to the events of their life such as a
divorce, work problems, financial problems and other catastrophic life events. Professional
help may route peripheral persuasion of a happy life if the abuser may suffer of depression.
Creating goals and aspirations for those who suffer from depression and insecurities help to
lift them up from the bad moods that exist and the resentments they feel from life. Strangers
that abuse children have a higher chance of being reported by the child due to them being
stranger in comparison with a parent who is supposed to be loving and the care giver of the
abused individual. For that reason, abusers that are strangers to the children tend to abuse
the children who are from 0-3 years of age due to the fact that they cannot speak yet or are
unable to stand for themselves at that early age. Abusers need to know the children that are
being abused not only suffer in that instant but for life. Memories are left behind of the
abuse and intersects the events the abused children go through in life. A study done on
November 4, 2015 at 2:15 p.m. on a college freshman in El Paso, TX who was abused by
his father all of his childhood proves the truth that memories and scars are left behind in the
abused child. The adolescents father had an attachment to alcohol and drugs. Domestic
violence was encountered on the times his father was under the influence of alcohol and

drugs. The memories today only help the young individual have grudges on his father and
disregard him as a parent only accounting his mother as his parents. Thankfully the damage
he created on his son was only internal which the worst is but he survived to change the
events and create new memories that will cover the tragic ones. Some abused individuals
do not survive the violence of the events and terminate being fatal. According to the
National Childrens Alliance in 2013 [demonstrate] that an estimate of 1,520 children died
of abuse and neglect in the United States and that number is only increasing today.
Recognize & Prevent
Child abuse and neglect can be recognized and prevented. There are a plethora of
warnings to look for when considering if a child in is under an abusers hands according to
the help guide organization. The earlier in life the incident is caught, the better chance of
recovery and appropriate treatment for the child. The childrens brain is more vulnerable
to change while the brain is still young and is willing to generate new ideas to discard the
memories that have up come to the childrens life. Child abuse and neglect occur in all
types of families and environments even when everything seems to be fine. When children
obscure what is happening in reality is when the abuse has the highest peak of exploitation.
A child is more likely to keep to himself or herself something that they have come to accept
and live with to being correct in the society. Warning signs to look for are if a child does not
seem to be attach to a parent, has unexplained bruises, is always alert as if something
depraved was on its way, frequently late or missing school, or runs away from home along
with many other factors that are to be alert when considering if a child in under abuse. Be
aware that child abuse is more than broken bones and broken noses it is broken dreams and
broken futures. Anyone can make a change in a childs life by creating an organization,

volunteering, or reporting an abuser to a higher authority. Organizations help by creating a

safe house to those who were once abused. Safe houses are a close environment where
people who were abused can feel free and safe to talk about the subject that once may have
squeezed them underground to find their inner self.
Organizations also help to make the community aware of

Figure 2. An abuser having

psychological help to stop abusing
children.

the fatalities their next door neighbor go through. The

general public may step up to become a psychologist and
diagnose an abused person or an abuser to make the world better
and create a better environment. A psychologist may help an abuser
change their minds about abusing children and help them understand
that the situations they are going through may become
better. If the actions of the abuser continue to affect innocent children then the abuser
deserves to go to jail and face the occurrences he or she created.

References
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https://www.psychologytoday.com/conditions/child-abuse
Child Abuse and Neglect. (2014, March 3). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect.htm
Petition: My Story with Child Abuse. (2014, July 17). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/353/842/058/my-story-with-child-abuse/
Child Maltreatment Prevention. (2015, July 24). Retrieved November 3, 2015.
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/
Homepage. (2013, January 6). Retrieved November 3, 2015.
http://www.nationalchildrensalliance.org/
What to Know about Child Abuse. (2012, June 26). Retrieved November 9, 2015.
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-home/Pages/What-to-Knowabout-Child-Abuse.aspx
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Child neglect and emotional abuse: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (2014, November
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Texas Child Protective Services (CPS). (2015). Retrieved November 4, 2015.
https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/child_protection/