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Introduction: Child Abuse and Society's Response
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17720 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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6 / 1990 |
324 Words |
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The harsh reality of child abuse or neglect is always appalling, whether we actually see the abuse or read about it in the newspapers. Few of us know what to do when abuse occurs; generally we do nothing, or we only try to separate ourselves emotionally from the incident as quickly as possible. To the best of our knowledge, 2-3 percent of the children in the United State are abused each year - out of a total sixty million children, this means 1.2 to 1.8 million abused children.
A child needs to learn to develop and maintain close personal relationships, but when abuse does occur, the child's ability to relate to society and become a productive adult is seriously jeopardized. Childhood represents a delicate trajectory on the path from birth (possibly even from conception) to young adulthood. This trajectory is defined in great detail in our culture. Professionals refer to it as the "normal growth and development” of childhood - a process that is influenced by the events and people in a child's life. When these influences are adversarial, the path to productive adulthood in stunted or perverted.
The articles that follow demonstrate that many people do know what our children have gone through and are going through. They will also reveal that these are discouraging times for those who work with children and families. In many respects we were much better off several years ago than we are today. Although more is known about what can be done to treat, as well as prevent, the adverse outcomes of abuse, there are significantly fewer professionals available to provide this help in 1990 than there were in the late 1970s.
The authors of this series on
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