Statistics show child abuse leads to future violence
Statistics have proven that child abuse in young children can lead to violent behavior as they get older.
Fourth Estate, A Student Publication of the University of Wisconsin USA, By Adam Wolfgram,
Opinion Writer, 21 February 2012
Statistics have proven that child abuse in young children can lead to violent behavior as they get older.
There is a fine line between discipline and abuse in regards to corporal punishment. Many parents use spankings as a way to teach their children how to behave, but when does this old, disciplinary tactic become abuse? Can there be life-altering implications on the victims mind?
It is a common belief among psychologists that parents shouldn't spank as a disciplinary action.
Parents use spanking to teach their children the difference between right and wrong. When people spank their children there are two results: teaching them the actions preceding the spanking were wrong, or that problems are best handled with violence.
In a Tulane University study, health researcher Catherine Taylor found children who are more frequently spanked at age 3 are likely to show more aggressive behavior at age 5.
The study involved nearly 2,500 mothers and 46 percent of them reported they had not used corporal punishment in the last month, 27 percent of mothers said they used spankings once or twice in the past month and 26.5 percent said they spanked their children more than twice in the past month.
The study also took note of which mothers had more risk factors for aggressive disciplinary actions. These factors included stress, depression and drug abuse. The study showed mothers with morwe risk factors were more apt to spanking their children.
This aggressive behavior in children by age 5 was shown in acts such as screaming, arguing and bullying others.
"There are ways to discipline children effectively that do not involve hitting them and that can actually lower their risk for being more aggressive," Taylor said. "So the good news is, parents don't have to rely on spanking to get the results they want."
Along with Taylor, the American Academy of Pediatrics is one of many medical organizations opposed to corporal punishment. Studies done by professional researchers, though, have not completely put a stop to corporal punishment in homes and even schools.
In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled it legal for schools to spank or paddle students for discipline in areas where local law enforcement does not outlaw it. An example of one of these places is Mississippi.
In 2009, there were 57,953 reports of corporal punishment in 110 of the state's 152 school districts. It was a drop from the previous year, but still an alarming number of reports nonetheless.
The study done at Tulane is just one in a long line of studies dating back decades. It is also one in a long line that has determined exposure to corporal punishment a significant risk factor in children developing psychological disorders as they grow older.
Spanking as punishment should be outlawed. It has been known for years there are more effective ways of disciplining. There is a difference between discipline and punishment, a difference that more parents, and even school officials, should become more aware of. Children at a young age are without a doubt influenced by their experiences while they are young. Learning by example is an important part of being a young child, and learning that hitting or violence is the way to solve problems can only end badly.
Spanking results in children's fear of certain behaviors, and makes them afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes are how children learn what is right and wrong, and there are more effective, less harmful ways of disciplining a child than hitting him or her.
TV Show about Parental Alienation
W5 investigates: Children on the frontlines of divorce
November 7, 2009
The world of divorce is scary for any child. But when a divorce becomes especially toxic, children can become the target of an unrelenting crusade by one parent to destroy the child's relationship with the other. Experts call it parental alienation.
Affair led to mother murdering her own kids
Days after buying another woman Valentine's Day flowers, a Sydney father came home to find a trail of blood leading him to the bodies of his two young children lying next to their mother, a court has been told.
Australian Associated Press
Aug 24 2009
The woman had given the couple's three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son rat poison and an unidentified pink liquid before smothering them and killing them, court papers said.
She then tried to take her own life, the NSW Supreme Court was told.
Doctors agree the mother, from Canley Heights in Sydney's west, was suffering from "major depression" when she poisoned her children on February 19 last year.
She has pleaded not guilty to the two murders by reason of mental illness.
As her judge-alone trial began, the mother's lawyer told Justice Clifton Hoeben his client didn't think life was worth living after learning about her husband's affair.
American Psychological Association
Dating Violence Statistics in the United States
Nearly one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys say they have been raped or experienced some other form of abusive violence on a date, according to a study released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
Teen depression on the increase
More and More teens are becoming depressed. The numbers of young people suffering from depression in the last 10 years has risen worryingly, an expert says.
BBC, UK, August 3, 2004
Government statistics suggest one in eight adolescents now has depression.
Unless doctors recognise the problem, Read More ..uld slip through the net, says Professor Tim Kendall of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health.
Guidelines on treating childhood depression will be published next year. Professor Kendall says a lot Read More ..eds to be done to treat the illness.
Woman convicted of killing 3 kids after custody battle
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, USA, August 26, 2008
HELSINKI, Finland - A court in Finland has convicted a woman of murdering her three young children and has given her a life sentence.
The Espoo District Court says Thai-born Yu-Hsiu Fu was found guilty of strangling her 8-year-old twin daughters and 1-year-old son in her home.
She tried to kill herself afterward.
The verdict on Tuesday says the 41-year-old woman was found to be of sound mind at the time of the murders.
Court papers show the murders were preceded by a bitter custody battle with her Finnish husband who was living separately from her at the time of the murders.
A life sentence in Finland mean convicts usually serve at least 11 years in prison.
New Brunswick woman ruled responsible in burning of baby's body
ST. STEPHEN, N.B. - A New Brunswick judge says a woman who burned and dismembered her newborn son is criminally responsible for her actions.
Becky Sue Morrow earlier pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to a dead body and disposing of a newborn with the intent of concealing a delivery.
Judge David Walker ruled Friday that the 27-year-old woman may have been suffering from a mental disorder when she delivered the baby but that that was not the case when the baby's body was burned and its remains hidden.
It is not known if the baby was alive at the time of birth.
At a hearing last month, the court heard contrasting reports from the two psychiatrists. One said Ms. Morrow was in a "disassociated" mental state when the crime occurred. The other said she clearly planned her actions and understood the consequences.