What Causes Child Abuse?

Posted on July 10, 2013 · Posted in Blog

What Causes Child Abuse?Child abuse is defined as the “physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or neglect of a child by a parent, guardian, or other adult”.  It wasn’t until the mid to late-1800s that children were even granted protection by law from abuse, and more than a century later before it became recognized as a major problem in society.  Children all over the world had been considered “property” of the parents, who were given the right to treat the child as they saw fit.  Children have been exploited, abused, neglected, and even murdered by parents and other adults for centuries, and there are many reasons that children are subjected to assorted types of abuse.

Neglect

One form of abuse that many people don’t consider is neglect; however, there are thousands of children each year who die from neglect because the parent makes little to no effort to care for the child.  Sometimes these are because the parents are alcoholics or drug abusers and are more concerned with getting money to support their addiction than taking care of their child.  Children from homes in which one or both parents are addicts in some form are three times more likely to suffer from abuse than children in an addition-free home.  In an alarming number of cases, these children are the product of teenage pregnancies where the teen has little to no support system at home and minimal skills when it comes to caring for a child.

Physical Abuse

One of the most common forms of child abuse stems from physical abuse.  This includes beating, throwing, choking, kicking, shaking, punching, burning, and using something else to hit the child.    There are several reasons that abusers feel the need to abuse these children:

  • History of child abuse from their own parents – they have overwhelming ranges of fear, anger, depression, and even paranoia as a feeling of impending doom, and their loss of control results in the same physical abuse they suffered during their own childhood.
  • Insufficient parenting skills – these abusers have never had examples of good parenting skills because their parents died or left them at an early age, or they are simply very young themselves, i.e. teenage parents.
  • Alcohol or drug abuse – these abusers operate in a different world because they are often under the influence of alcohol or drugs and they frequently lose control as a result of frustration, anger, or other emotional issues.
  • Untreated Mental Illness – many abusers have their own mental illness that has never been identified, let alone treated.  They have little self-control, periods of uncontrolled rage, and the children suffer the consequences.
  • Challenging children – a lot of child abuse, including shaking, punching, and beatings, are from parents who have a very challenging child.  Whether the child is challenging due to a handicap or because they are simply very strong willed, it can be incredibly frustrating to the parent where they snap and begin abusing the child.   It’s not the children’s fault because parents are oftentimes too immature or uneducated to handle these more challenging children.

Child Sexual Abuse

There are many reasons that children are sexually abused.  One ongoing problem is child pornography, and child sex trafficking that is a problem around the world.  However, the adult who views the child pornography, or “purchases” a child from a sex trafficker, oftentimes are struggling with meeting their own sexual needs from another adult, and prefer children.  In many cases, it’s about the abuser having complete control over the child.  Many of these sexual abusers were sexually abused by an adult when they were children – oftentimes a family member, neighbor, teacher, or clergy member.  For some abusers, many researchers believe their brains are simply wired wrong and they have a proclivity towards children, and they are often drawn to impoverished and more vulnerable children.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is probably the most difficult form of abuse to detect because there are rarely physical marks on the child, no bruises or broken bones are seen in emotionally abused children.  Generally emotional abusers mistreat the children because they were treated in the same manner when they were growing up; therefore, it’s a generational issue.  For many parents who emotionally abuse their children, it’s due to stress, oftentimes drug or alcohol abuse, immaturity, or inadequate education.  And there are still parents who emotionally abuse their children because they fail to live up to the parent’s expectations due to imperfect grades, failure to make a sports team, or achieve goals parents set.

Multitude of Reasons

Child abuse results from a multitude of reasons and create lifelong issues for the child that can continue onto future generations if it’s not stopped.Natural memory enhancer