THE IMPACT OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT ON THE SOCIETY
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
concepts of child abuse and child neglect are forms of maltreatment on the
child that impedes child survival, development and participation. Children are
seen as assets to parents and government because they are human resources that
any society can boast of, therefore, parents and government invest in them in
order to obtain better tomorrow. This can be achieved however, if their early
child socialization is devoid of harmful cultural practices that crippled their
chances of survival, development and participation. Ejikeme (1987) defines
child abuse as a problem arising from the intention of an adult to carry out an
act that is inimical or detrimental to the physical, intellectual, language,
emotional, moral and social development of a child; while child neglect which
involves some degree of deprivation refers to an intentional failure of an
adult to perform physical, cognitive, moral and social development of a child.
However, it is imperative to note in this premise that what constitute child
maltreatment in one society may not be considered same in another society, this
is because of cultural differences an belief, practices. From the above, it
will be important to trace the fact that there might be different factors that
caused child abuse and
neglect since the application of cultural ideology is not universal;
that is, it changes across societies. However, different forms of child
maltreatment exist like: child trafficking, street begging, street hawking,
child discrimination or child preference, early marriage, prostitution, child
labour, use of virgin girl-child for ritual/sacrifice etc. despite tangible
evidences or empirical indicators of child abuse and
neglect, it is difficult to measure.
This is
so because it is recognized as a major social problem that occurs in all levels
of social class, race, religion and ethnic groups. It is important to note that
the practice of child abuse and neglect is
supported by government indirectly when the individual is seen as a product of
the society.
Poor
socio-economic status of parents trace its roots through unemployment and
destitution as government does not address social inequality, unemployment and
poverty amongst its citizens, instead people in position work towards
actualizing their selfish ends and those who cannot meet the society values
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