Child Abuse Prevention and Foster Care Essay example

“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care

Child abuse is an issue within society that effects the lives of not only the victims but also the lives of many people in the social order. Child abuse is any mistreatment or neglect of a child that results in non-accidental injury or harm and which cannot be logically explained. There are several forms of abuse and neglect and many state governments have developed their own legal description of what constitutes child maltreatment for the purposes of removing a child and prosecuting a criminal charge. Child abuse consists of different forms of harm including physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect.

As many as 75 percent of foster kids are abused while in the foster care system. (Promise2Kids) Foster children, taken from inattentive relatives and put in custody of the state, suffer once again in foster care system that was supposed to keep them safe. While being abused by their foster parents, many children are too afraid to tell anyone. Without any trusted adults to speak out for them or listen, they are forced to bear abuse for over periods of time.

In the United States there are over a half a million children in the foster care system. (AFCARS Report, 2015) The foster care system is a temporary arrangement for children whose parents are not able to care for them. (adopt.org) Foster care can be arranged through the courts or a social service agency. The goal for a child in the foster care system is usually reunification with the birth family, but may be changed to adoption when this is seen as in the child's best interest.

One of the ways foster care is inhibited is that the separation of the child from their parents and placement in a foster home can be traumatic for the child. In some instances where the child is not safe in their home, the first choice may be to remove the child and place them in foster care. Both the parents and child have a hard time accepting the situation. This separation causes conflicts and resistance from the child (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 316). Other myriad adjustments, such as lifestyle change, new school, new friends and neighbors, and at times a new culture, also inhibit the effectiveness of foster care placement. Foster care can create an environment of

Foster care is care for children outside the home that substitutes for parental care. The child may be placed with a family, relatives or strangers, in a group home (where up to a dozen foster children live under the continuous supervision of a parental figure), or in an institution (McDonald). No matter the form of placement, this type of upheaval in a young child’s life is bound to cause the need for many adjustments. Aside from having to adjust to a different family, peers, schooling and possibly a new culture, foster care can have a lasting effect on the child’s developmental growth, affecting the mental, social, behavioral and emotional aspects of their lives. These dimensions are impacted even more so in children placed in foster

In 2006, an estimated 905,000 children were victims of child abuse or neglect. Statistically, the amount of children that suffer from such abuse is 1 in 10. Younger children are the most vulnerable to the maltreatment that is performed by their parents or guardians. Over 25% of abused children are under the age of 3 and 45% are under the age of 5. The rate of child mortality is higher for boys than girls and 85% of fatalities are caucasian children (Child Abuse Facts 1).

There were also 12 deaths that could not be classified. This is a grand total of 849 deaths caused by child abuse and neglect in 1998. The rate of child abuse and neglect fatalities reported by NCANDS has been rising over the last several years from 1.84 per 100,000 children in 2000 to 1.96 in 2001 and 1.98 in 2002. The 2001 report also showed that children ranging from age 0-1 year were accounted for 40.9 percent of all fatalities. 84.5 percent of maltreatment-related fatality cases were age six and under. 35.6 percent of child fatalities resulted from neglect alone, 26.3 percent from physical abuse alone, and 21.9 percent from both neglect and physical abuse. 82.8 percent of these child fatalities were the result of maltreatment by one or both parents. Mothers acting alone accounted 32.4 percent of child abuse and neglect related fatalities. The children ranging from zero to age three are the most frequent victims of child fatalities. Along with the 2001 NCANDS data, in 2002 children younger than 1 year accounted for 41 percent of fatalities, while children younger than 4 years accounted for 76 percent of fatalities. This population of children is the most vulnerable for many reasons, including their dependency, small size, and inability to

The well- being of the child/children is the most important issues faced especially when conditions are not favorable for the health of the child and well-being of children. Many of our children are taken away from their families for varies reasons. These children have been forced to live in homes that are different in many areas, they have been accustomed to. With many of the children coming from different cultures when placed in homes that represent a cultural difference this can create barriers for all individuals. Poverty and homelessness has become one of the biggest issues facing children and their parental parents when the only outcome is the removal of the child/children. Foster care is usually the only solution for this growing

It 's difficult to comprehend that an adult, often a parent or caregiver, would intentionally hurt an infant or child. Yet nearly a million children are abused in the United States. Unfortunately that excludes children who 's incidents of child abuse are unreported and undetected. Child abuse can be defined differently from state to state, but commonly presents in the form of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect and abandonment. The focus of this review is physical abuse, which is defined as non-accidental physical injury, from bruising to fractures to the most serious cases of abuse ending in death (Sink, Hyman, Matheny, Georgopoulos & Kleinman, 2010).

More than 20,000 American children has thought to have been killed by their own family members over the past ten years. One of the worst records among industrialized nations that is losing on average almost five children everyday due to child abuse is the United States. The most recent report 2015 Child Maltreatment Report from The Children’s Bureau was published in January 2017. This document has stated that the number of child abuse cases has increased to 4 million from 3.6 million. 7.2 million children were involved in child abuse reports. The different kinds of child abuse are; neglect, physical, and verbal abuse.

Foster care, according to John DeGarmo, “Foster care is a form of placement for children who are in need of being placed in a home or environment outside of their home of origin” (17). It is important to note that foster care is not a correctional facility, rather an impermanent fix for children who have been mistreated. Foster Care is a socially positive way to reduce the number of abused, neglected, abandoned, and/or homeless children.

In 2015, The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report containing the following statistics: In 2013, approximately 3.9 million children in the United States were reported to have been abused or mistreated. 52 states reported a total of 678,932 child victims of abuse and neglect. Victims between the ages of birth to 1-year-old had the highest rate of victimization at 23.1 per 1,000 children of the same age in the national population. Neglect was the most prevalent form of child abuse, with 79.5% of child victims being made to suffer it. Physical abuse was the second most common form (18.0%). In 2013, a nationally estimated 1,520 children died from abuse and neglect. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015).

Child abuse is the mistreatment of a child or children with violence or cruelty, mainly when it happens repeatedly and regularly. Child abuse has been occurring all around the world to many children, but many child abuse cases are kept hidden. In America the percentage of child abuse remains unknown, however, it occurs to be one of the major social issues. Child abuse should be pushed to the forefront of social issues in America because of its effects on children who themselves may grow up to be abusers, be possible drug or alcohol users and even suffer from a shortened lifespan. Some places of the world has not realize the dangerous effect of child abuse.

“A systematic study of child abuse in the U.S. began in 1962 due to repeated bone fractures in children” (“Child”). At home, some parents and guardians used beatings as means of disciplining children (“Abuse”). Children didn’t have any legal rights and parents generally were free the raise their children as they saw fit, even if that meant physically abusing or neglecting the welfare of their children (“Abuse”). The child Abuse Treatment Act started in 1974 due to investigations of different types of child abuse such as, parent, sexual and even medical neglect (“Child”).