The Issues Regarding Child Sexual Abuse

The Issues Regarding Child intimate Ab mathematical functionFor my final year I prevail been assigned to become a dissertation on a topic of my ingest interest. During my irregular year of this course I was at a place custodyt in a Supported Housing organisation. Whilst working on that point I came crossways a lot of s reserver corrupt produces, in particular baby knowledgeable debase and this is where my interest in seeking more than(prenominal) noesis few the subject came more or less. I have chosen to focus on the issues regarding the informal affront of kidren and how this affects their life as electric razorren and as adults. The topic itself is sort of a complex one to define and understand. The issue of braceual abuse began to attract far-flung attention as a affectionate issue in the late 1970s. However, the uttermost of nestling internal abuse has only when been fully recognised oer the last 20 years or so. But exact figures depend on how knowl edgeable abuse is world defined. The term child abuse refers in this dissertation to the physical or emotional mistreatment and betray of children or their intimate exploitation, in circumstances for which the p argonnts understructure be held responsible through acts of commission or omission (cited in Doyle, 2006). The possibility of child sexual activities taking place arouses feelings of disgust and plague it is condemned by society as a violation of what is normal sexual behaviour.I have chosen to structure this dissertation into 6 sections. In the first chapter I will start of by defining and explaining what child sexual abuse is. The second chapter will consist of describing who the perpetrators of child sexual abuse are. I will explore further into their reasons for committing much(prenominal) an discourtesy and if it is linked with their past. Most mountain who have suffered sexual abuse when they were younger do non grow up to abuse. Jones (2002) states that, a s ignificant nonage of those who sexu all in ally abuse children have themselves suffered physical and sexual abuse in their own childishness. The most potent predictors of who is likely to commit the most in force(p) and prolonged sexual abuse are childhood family violence, loss of a distri preciselyer, and family breakdown. Sex offenders are noted for their invisibility. When multitude think of a sex offender they may visualize a stereotypical image of a man filthily dressed, hanging around street corners though in truth the sex offender appears in some(prenominal) forms and in all walks of life. When people hear of a sex offence, they generally associate nitty-gritty strangers to be the ones who carry out the crime, what they dont realise is that sex offending itself interprets many a(prenominal) forms. In some cases the abuser may be diagnosed as having ripe mental health problems. For example, a woman drowns her twin 6 month old daughters. another(prenominal) mother th rows her daughter off a straddle into icy water. A render has sexual intercourse with his 6 month old daughter. These descriptions are a good deal enough to convince most people that only someone who is mentally disturbed or truly psychotic would inflict such grievous harm onto a defenceless child (Gelles Cornell, 1990).The third chapter is based on the victims of child sexual abuse. Children who are sexually treat generally find it harder to talk directly and cl wee virtually their experiences. Although some children disclose, many do not. Many children assume that, if their parents mistreat them, it is because every parent behaves in that way (Doyle, 2006). Children can become attached to abusing parents. They frequently want the abuse to stop merely crave the abusers love. Every child has a right to receive a good standard of foreboding and protection, and parents have a duty to provide this, however, this is not always the case. internal abuse victims may protect their self-image by convincing themselves that there is postcode wrong in sexual relationships mingled with adults and children. Wyre (1986) noted that many men who had raped children had been sexually abused as children and had incorporated their experiences of abuse into their own sexuality. Findings from Trickett and Putnam (1998) show that about a third of sexually abused children who have been sexually abused are at specific risk of underdeveloped sexual problems and sexualised behaviour. For some children, existence inappropriately sexual with other people is the only way they know to love and get close to people. As adolescents, some boys who have been sexually abused show an increased likeliness of exposing their genitals to women, or macrocosm sexually coercive. Some girls become sexually, and often indiscriminately very active. informal promiscuity can get both young boys and girls into social difficulties. In the case of early sexual legal action amongst sexually abuse d girls there is the risk of teenage pregnancy (Trickett and Putnam 1998, cited in Howe 2005).The fourth chapter outlines the long term and short term effects child sexual abuse has on victims. I will describe the extent an abused childs developmental stage is impaired. The more forceful and violent the abuse, the more the individual is likely to suffer trauma. The most crucial period of a childs life is when assumptions about the world, others and the self are being formed. Unlike adults, childrens lives are affected and traumatised during this period. informant These posttraumatic reactions can easily collide with a childs social and psychological maturation, which leads to a potentially typical dysfunctional development. The amount of toll caused to the victims is unpredictable. Survivors of sexual abuse are often described as having a number of emotional, cognitive, and social difficulties. The child perceives the self as unworthy of being loved or protected. This leads to low self-esteem.Chapter 5 illustrates a case believe in relation to my second year work placement at a prevailed housing organisation intended for individuals who are merely released from prison. Whilst working there, my main interests were within the YOT team. During my first few days I read a particular clients file, who was part of the Program X scheme. I found his file very interesting as there were earnest issues of child sexual abuse associated with his life, which later led to extreme effect and suicide attempts.Last but not least, the next stage is to go out how these issues can be addressed and if victims find a way to incline the nightmares associated with the abuse. Do they ever live a normal life again? This can prove difficult at times as many abuse sub infants inappropriately assume responsibility for what was done to them as children and are often believed to have provoked it in some way, REFERENCE some deny that abuse ever occurred in the first place, and under estimate their private rights to self-determination and safety. There are many agencies and organisations that provide help and support to individuals suffering from child sexual abuse. Getting help through therapy allows the survivor to find closure.Finally, I will end the dissertation with concluding comments regarding the issues discussed passim the dissertation.Chapter 1 What is Child Sexual Abuse?Sexual violence and childhood sexual abuse are two of the most serious and damage crimes in our society. for victims, these crimes represent a violation which can have a significant and ongoing consequences for health and wellbeing. REFERENCE Many patients who have been abused do not talk about sexual issues with their health care providers. REFERENCE They often feel disconnected from their bodies and health needs. REFERENCESexual abuse is defined in the Department of Health 1999 guidelines asInvolving, forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is certain of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative (e.g. rape or buggery) and non-penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or watching sexual activities or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways. (Department of Health 1999 6, cited in Corby, 2006).The above definition states that the sexual abuse of a child does not necessarily need to involve physical contact. It provides examples of such non-contact abuse but does not mention intra-familial abuse or anything about the age of the perpetrator. Another definition used isAny child below the age of assume may be deemed to have been sexually abused when a sexually mature person has, by design or by neglect of their usual societal or specific responsibilities in relation to the child, tenanted or permitted the engagement of that child in any activity of a sexual nature which is intended to lead to the sexual gratification of the sexually mature person. This definition pertains whether or not it involves genital contact or physical contact, and whether or not there is discernible harmful conclusion in the short-term. (Glaser and Frosh 1988 5)The issue of defining sexual abuse in consecrate is both problematical and complex. In some cases, there are overlaps and connections between the different forms of abuse. For example, a child might be sexually and physically abused, neglected and physically abused and so on. Very young children as well as older ones are affected by sexual abuse and now it is a crime thought far more common than it was previously. Sexual abuse is harmful at all stages but Corby (2000) suggests it is considered to have greater effects, where the abuse is carried out by a father figure if it is accompanied by threat, force or violence where the sexual act involves penetration where the abuse has continued for some time and lastly where the family responds negatively regarding the abuse (Howe, 2005).HistoryThere is little evidence about sexual abuse of children in antiquity and medieval times. Growing up in Rome or Greece frequently involved being sexually abused by older men (de Mause 1976 43). In Scotland 1757, incest was given the remainder penalty (Corby, 2006). By contrast, in England during the twentieth century, incest became a legal offence. . By the beginning of the Second World War, under the 1908 Incest constitute the number of prosecutions for incest stepwise increased reaching 100 a year (Corby, 2006). The definition of incest in the Sexual Offences crop of 1956 is as followsIt is an offence for a man to have sexual intercourse with a woman whom he knows to be his grand-daughter, daughter, sister or mother.it is an offence for a woman of the age of sixteen or over to permit a man whom she knows to be her grandfather, father, brother or son to have sexual intercourse with her by her consent (Smith Hogan, 1983 419, cited in Howitt, 1992).In 1937 the state of Michigan enacted a sexual psychopath legislation. In the same period of the 1930s there is also evidence that the everyday became more filled about sexual offences. REFERENCE By 1960 there were some 27 states and the District of Columbia with a version of a sexually dangerous person law. From the late 1930s onwards to the early 1960s there was emphasis on the treatment of offenders through unwilled civil commitment procedures rather than punishment after conviction. Reasons for jurisdictions over such offenders varied among 27 states. Beginning in the late 1950s and proceed for nearly two decades, there was a panic over sex crimes, sexual deviance and sexual behaviour generally. By the late mid-eighties almost half of the states with sexually dangerous persons legislation had revoked the statutes. In 1994 a provision entitled the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act was included in the omnibus 1994 crime bill. In 1997, the Wetterling Act1was amend to allow for community notification, which permitted law enforcement personnel to disclose registry training to neighbourhood residents about sex offenders who live in close proximity. REFERENCEThe NSPCC began to tackle child sexual abuse within the family, which was previously disregard as an issue. The NSPCC did not bring sexual abuse to public attention, in the same way as it had publicised physical abuse and neglect, in spite of its awareness and recognition. This response reflected a general attitude to the issue, which was one of not wanting to know, a conspiracy of silence. Many parents keep their childs abuse a secret even if they know of it. By contrast, however, child prostitution true far more public attention.In the summer of 1987, papers reported a child sexual abuse scandal in Cleveland. It emerged that 121 children had been brought into c are over a period of six months on place of safety orders on the recommendation of two paediatricians who had diagnosed them as having been anally abused. Up to this time, for child protection agencies in Britain, the issue of child sexual abuse had been a relatively churl concern. Child sexual abuse was beginning to find its way onto the authoritative child protection agenda by 1987, although the response to such abuse throughout Britain was patchy and variable. The Cleveland report had an impact on the passage of the 1989 Children Act through Parliament. Findings from the Cleveland inquiry report confirmed that, child sexual abuse was a more widespread phenomenon than had previously been thought to be the case. Similarly, in 1991 in Clwyd, residential social workers in two childrens homes were prosecuted for serious sexual offences against children in their care. As a result, Clwyd County Council set up its own nonsymbiotic inquiry which commenced in 1996 and reported in 2000. Its findings were that there was evidence of widespread physical and sexual abuse of girls and boys in Clwyd during this period (Corby, 2006).Concerns about the use of child pornography have risen since the 1990s. Sadly, only a divide of the sexual abuse of children is ever reported. Silverman and Wilson (2002) reported that in 1995 the Obscene Publications unit of measurement of Greater Manchester Police seized about a dozen images of child pornography during the whole year, but in 1999 the unit recovered 41,000 images and by 2001 so many images were being recovered that they had to stop counting. REFERENCEPublic concern over the sexual abuse of children is a relatively recent phenomenon. It is only recently that the general public in Britain has begun to realise that, far from being an extremely rare phenomenon, the sexual abuse of children is much more widespread. As in the USA, a number of tragic cases in the 1990s in England and Wales have attracted widespread publicity, pro voked public outcry and provided a legislative and organisational change. In Britain, media interest in sexual offenders released from prison and allowed to live anonymously in the community created an outbreak in public anxiety sideline the abduction and murder, of seven year old Sara Payne in July 2000 in Sussex. Here newspaper accounts criticised the probation service for failing to prevent Sarah Paynes death. REFERENCE. Since then, Britains local newspapers have been concerned about the risks to children from sex offenders living in the community. It is seen from all this that sexual abuse of children occurs at all levels of society.