Effects Of Child Abusement

Child abuse and neglect affects children at every age, gender, race and income level (Prevent Child Abuse Awareness Month). In the state of Tennessee, “any wound, injury, disability, or physical or mental condition which is of a nature as to reasonably indicate that it has been caused by brutality, abuse, or neglect; also includes sexual abuse” constitutes as abuse (Tennessee Child Abuse Laws). In their 2012 article, Gelles and Perlman state, “Victims of child maltreatment are at high risk for a host of adverse short and long-term outcomes, including chronic health problems, mental health issues, developmental delays, poor educational well-being, and future involvement with the criminal justice system” (p. 2). These children have a higher risk of committing crimes, poor school performance and experiencing emotional and sexual problems as well as substance and alcohol abuse problems (About Child Abuse). This is a huge social problem considering that a child is abused or neglected every thirty-five seconds in the United States (Lawal & Alley, 2015). Every hour each day, in each county and community across the state, an allegation of child abuse in Tennessee is reported (Child Abuse Statistics). In 2015, there were 71,216 reported child abuse victims …show more content…
Providing in-home services for high-risk families, particularly with young children and infants, appears to be an effective and useful approach. The goals, over-all, are to provide the parents with information, emotional support, access to other services, and direct instruction on parenting techniques (Howard & Brooks-Gunn,