by Christine Hutson

Created on: April 15, 2009

The abuse of children is a plague. It has few positive side effects. Many children who went through abuse suffer loss of self esteem as well as an inability to function in a productive way. Almost anyone in a child's life can be an abuser. That alone increases parental fear and stress. Programs have been developed to help parents protect their children; however there is no guarantee that a child will not be abused at some point in his or her life. Many children do not tell because they have been conditioned to be people pleasers from an early age. The ideal victim is a child too young, or too shy, to be believed in court. Often children have been sexually abused but their cases are thrown out because the word of a young child is not accepted without physical evidence or the testimony of other witnesses. This begins to turn children away from the belief that the law will protect them. It can lead to scoff law behaviors.

Abuse can range from verbal, no one likes being called "stupid, useless, bad, or ugly", to life threatening physical injuries. While physical injuries are easier to prove verbal abuse creates a mental and emotional price in lost productivity, education, and social values. If a child does not believe he can succeed there is no reason to try to be successful. Drug and alcohol abuse is a negative attempt to feel good and leads to other problems. Child abuse seems to be more of a gateway to mental and emotional problems than marijuana ever was.
Life after child abuse is not all negative or hopeless. The few positive side effects come into the picture when therapy and education work and families are able to restore a sense of happiness, balance, and responsibility within themselves. There is a financial cost to services that become necessary after abuse. That may be a "drain on society" but it is less costly in human terms than ignoring the problem. Adults, who believe in themselves, even after having suffered abuse, are more likely to succeed than adults who grew up retaining all the negative values taught by the experience. Healing is possible and should be the goal when a child has been abused and reported it.
Prevention is the best fix for child abuse. Education for parents in more effective ways of disciplining and protecting children would benefit everyone. Stronger laws and more uniform enforcement would also help stop the disease.
I believe that the most negative effect on society is the fact that it still goes on and that we have not been able to make more progress in stopping a situation that has created more victims than terrorism has in this country.

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