Child Abuse

Child Abuse

What kind of monster would abuse a child? What sort of demented soul would lift a finger to bring hurt upon a defenseless infant? The world may never find an answer to those questions. Child Abuse is as an act, or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in the death, serious physical or emotional harm of a child. National Child Abuse Statistics state that every year 3.3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States of America involving 6 million children (a report can include multiple children).Child abuse can be categorized into three types of abuse which are sexual, emotional and physical abuse.

The first type of child abuse is sexual abuse; this is defined as the illegal sex act performed against a minor by a parent, guardian, relative, or acquaintance. It is considered a heinous crime because the abuser occupies a position of trust. Sexual abuse takes many forms such as rape; this is sexual intercourse against a person’s will, forcible sodomy; this is anal or oral sex against a person’s will, forcible object penetration; this is penetrating someone’s vagina or anus, or causing that person to penetrate her or himself, against that person’s will and incest; which is sexual intercourse or sexual intrusion between family members. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provided the following statistics on child abuse to the Research Directorate: Between January 2005 and August 2005, "there were one hundred and thirty-five (135) individual child clients ([under] 18 years [of age]), 39% of which were male, and 61% female. There were 34 cases of sexual abuse, 13 of which were cases of incest. On July 18th 2012 it was reported in the Trinidad and Tobago Express newspapers by Margaret Sampson-Browne, head of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service Victim and Witness Support Unit that her unit was investigating a case in which a father raped his 11 year old daughter and as a result the girl became pregnant....