The Four Forms Of Child Abuse

Home is supposed to be a safe place, a sanctuary, somewhere a child can relax, but what if that house, that place the child rests their head, is racketed with scream filled arguments between parents, thoughts of worthlessness and death, and fear of the next beating? This, unfortunately, happens to many children throughout the United States. Children go through these problems every day and many of them have no safe way to cope. These children might find comfort in unsafe activities, like drugs and risky behavior, but they don’t have to. I think about these kids every day, I use to be one, but I have been given help and pulled myself out of the darkness these children can find themselves in and when I grow up, I hope I can do help others that …show more content…
It makes me tear up to have to say, but over 6.6 million children are involved in some form of child abuse every year and of those 6.6 million, 1,580 children die due to the abuse (“Abuse Statistics”). Most people when asked about abuse think it’s a violent act, but it could be so much more. The four main forms of child abuse are physical abuse, mental abuse, child neglect, and sexual abuse, each with its own challenge, but each sharing the fact that it emotionally scars the child. Physical abuse is the most common form of abuse and can be intentional or nonintentional. This could be seen as deliberately attacking a child out of anger or punishing a child in a way that is not appropriate for their size or age. The three main characteristics for physical abuse are the unpredictability of the abuse, the fact that anger influences the attack, and the fact that the attacker controls the victim using fear. The second form in mental abuse, is any form of mental manipulation that has negative effects. This can be in forms like verbal abuse, restricting physical access of the child to the parents, and letting the child watch scarring scenes of abuse to others. The third form of abuse, child neglect, is a black sheep when it comes to abuse. Instead of physically harming or verbally belittling, the abuser does not provide for the child, giving up food, clothes and even hygiene. Finally, the last form of abuse is sexual abuse. This form of abuse is the hardest to spot due to the guilt factor associated with the act. Children feel shameful of letting it happen so they usually will not bring it up. These abuse cases are also not always physical, but can be simply putting a child in a sexually explicit situation. All four of these forms of abuse share a few horrible side effects that can affect the child for the rest of their life that range from developing trust