Social Problems – Child Abuse | Free Essay Example

Social Problems – Child Abuse

Child abuse is a common societal problem that has been overlooked for a long time in today’s society. It involves physical abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse of a child by anyone in society, including their parents and caregivers. The problem of child abuse is often perpetuated by social phenomena such as social inequality and social deviance. Even though different countries have come up with solutions to the social problem of child abuse, many children across the globe are still abused. This paper focuses on the impact of social phenomena on child abuse, the functional perspective of child abuse, and possible solutions to this problem.

The Impact of Social Phenomena on Child Abuse

There is a strong correlation between social inequality and the maltreatment of children. It has been found that children born in low-income families are susceptible to child abuse. A study in the United Kingdom found that maltreatment of children is more common in areas with high-income inequality than in areas with less income inequality (Featherstone et al., 2019). This is the same situation in Massachusetts, where the Department of Social Services handles more child abuse cases from low-income areas than high-income areas. Most child abuse cases in Massachusetts involve children of parents who cannot provide adequate medical care, clothing, nutrition, or supervision (Lawson et al., 2020). However, it is important to note that child abuse arising from poverty arises from the inability of parents to access the necessary resources. Besides, substance abuse is common in families living in poverty and could also contribute to child abuse since parents under the influence of drugs are likely to be abusive and neglectful. Therefore, handling income inequality can help reduce the child abuse rate.

Why Child Abuse Continues to Exist and How it Can Be Alleviated Based on the Functionalist Perspective

The functionalist perspective can be used to explain why child abuse still exists and how it can be alleviated. From the functional perspective, the operation of the whole of society results from the contribution of different interrelated elements, each performing its role (Dempsey, 2017). This implies that different elements of varying levels in society can help ensure child protection. From a functional lens, the family is one of the societal elements that can help prevent child abuse. While families are a small societal unit, businesses and corporations play a greater role. However, for functionalists, the family unit plays various roles, such as support, protection, and reproduction. The family is expected to ensure that sexual relationships are socially acceptable and controlled. The family should also provide for its members’ economic needs, such as shelter and food. Child abuse is likely to be alleviated when the family performs all its roles as expected.

Since families form just a small unit in society, they are often overlooked in matters relating to child abuse. Instead, more trust is placed in the guardians of children, such as schools. In addition, society expects businesses and corporations to play a greater role in ensuring child protection. By concentrating more on the bigger units and ignoring smaller units such as families, society significantly contributes to the maltreatment of children. This leads to the continued existence of child abuse in society. Therefore, society needs to place more trust in the family unit to prevent child abuse. Trusting families would mean that even smaller family subunits like parents participate in child protection. Since functionalists require every interrelated system to perform its function, the family’s involvement in child protection would help alleviate child abuse.

Solutions to Child Abuse

Even though current solutions mainly target parents in alleviating child abuse, ensuring social equality is more effective in preventing child abuse. It has been shown that the maltreatment of children can be reduced through an increase in family income. This is based on the fact that incidences of child abuse are higher in families with a low income than in families with a high income. Increasing the resources in these families can prevent child abuse since parents will have more resources to provide for their children. They can offer support, shelter, and nutrition to their children. Moreover, they will be less stressed and avoid abusive relationships with their children.

Involving the media is an effective strategy for preventing child abuse. This can help raise awareness of how child abuse occurs and why it should be avoided. Increased media exposure can educate the community about child abuse and neglect. This can be done by developing a press release, developing public service announcements, securing television and radio coverage, and using social media. A press release is an effective way of gaining publicity, and it can educate the public on what every individual can do to prevent child abuse in society. Campaigns in social media and television and radio coverage can also help ensure information about child abuse reaches a wide variety of people. This ensures that parents, teachers, and others are informed of how to prevent child abuse. Therefore, it is important to involve the media in preventing child abuse.

All in all, child abuse is a serious social problem that needs to be alleviated. It is more common among low-income families than high-income families. From the functional perspective, the family can help prevent child abuse by effectively performing its roles. Society thus has to trust the family more to prevent child abuse. Besides, income mobility can help alleviate child abuse since it would make parents provide the necessary resources to their children. Involving the media is also important in educating the public on how to prevent child abuse.

References

Dempsey, H. L. (2017). A comparison of the social-adaptive perspective and functionalist perspective on guilt and shame. Behavioral Sciences, 7(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/bs7040083

Featherstone, B., Morris, K., Daniel, B., Bywaters, P., Brady, G., Bunting, L., Mason, W., & Mirza, N. (2019). Poverty, inequality, child abuse and neglect: Changing the conversation across the UK in child protection? Elsevier, 97(June), 127–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.06.009

Lawson, M., Piel, M. H., & Simon, M. (2020). Child Maltreatment during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Consequences of Parental Job Loss on Psychological and Physical Abuse Towards Children. Elsevier, 110(August), 104709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104709

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