DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A COMPUTERIZED CHILD ABUSE DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Concept of Child Abuse and Neglect
Child abuse can be defined as causing or permitting any harmful or offensive contact on a Childs body; and any communication or transaction of any kind, which humiliates, shames, or frightens the child. Some child development experts go a bit further, and define child abuse as any act or omission, .which fails to nurture or in the upbringing of the children (Brown and Salzinger, 2010).
Brown and Salzinger, 2010) also defined child abuse and neglect as: "at minimum, any recent act or fare to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death serious physical ' emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk or serious harm". In addition the oxford-advanced learner's dictionary of contemporary English defines it as the crime of harming a child in a physical, sexual or emotional away.
It should be noted that any child of any sex, race, religion and socioeconomic background could fall victim to child abuse and neglect (Chaffin, 2011).
Types of Child Abuse and Neglect
Child abuse and neglect consists of any acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or the threat of harm to a child (0–18 years of age) even if the harm is unintentional (Gilbert et al., 2009). The five main types of child maltreatment are: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional maltreatment, neglect, and witnessing domestic violence.
Evidence suggests that different types of abuse and neglect rarely occur in isolation and children who experience repeated maltreatment often experience multiple forms of abuse (Cancian and Caspar, 2008).
EMOTIONAL ABUSE: it is also seen as verbal a use mental abuse, and psychosocial maltreatment. It includes acts or the failure to act by parents or caretakers that have consent or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive emotional, or mental disorders. '
This can include parents/caretakers using extreme end/oy boxcar forms of punishments, such as confinement in a closet or dork room or being tied to a chair for long periods - of time or threatening or terrorizing a child less severe acts, acts, but no less damaging ore belittling or rejecting treatment, using derogatory terms to describe the child, habitual scapegoat or blaming (Corso and Mercy, 2008).
SEXUAL ABUSE: the inappropriate sexual behavior with a child. It includes fondling a child's genitals, making the child fondle the adult's genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, soloing, exhibitionism and sexual exploitation. To consider, child abuse, these acts have to be committed by a person responsible for the care of a child (e.g. a baby-sitter, a parent, or a daycare provider) or related to the child. It a stranger commits these acts it would be conditioned sexual assault and handled solely by the police and criminal courts (Gilbert and Janson, 2009).
NEGLECT: the failure to provide for the child's basic needs neglect can be physical, educational, or emotional. Physical neglect can include not providing adequate food or clothing appropriate medical core, supervision, or proper weather .protection (haut or cots). It may include abandonment. Educational neglect includes. Failure to provide appropriate scooting or special educational needs, allowing excessive truancies. Psychological neglect includes the lack of any emotional support and love, never attending to the child, spousal abuse, clung and alcohol abuse including allowing the child to participate in drug and alcohol use physical abuse: the inflicting of physical inpruy upon a child (Gillham, 2010). This may include, brining, hitting, punching, shaking, kicking, beating, or otherwise harming a child. The parent or caretaker may not have intended to hurry the child; the injury is not an accident. It may, however, been the result of over-discipline or physical punishment that is inappropriate to the child's age (Gornick and Meyers, 2015).
Incidences of Child Abuse and Neglect
i) Child trafficking
'ii) Hawking on the street.
iii) Begging in the street
iv) Children living under the bridge
v) Children deprived of standard education
vi) Exposing children to sexual harassments
vii) Preventing child from proper medication
viii) Child abduction
These and many more are incidences of child abuse in Nigeria
Factors affecting the contributing to Child Abuse and Neglect
Children and young people are affected by abuse and neglect in various ways. Outcomes of abuse may range from mild symptoms to debilitating and life-threatening conditions (Jones and McCurdy, 2012). Factors that may affect the way in which abuse and neglect affects children and adolescents include:
? the age and developmental status of the child when abuse occurred;
? the severity of maltreatment;
? the frequency and duration of maltreatment;
? the relationship between the child and the perpetrator; and
? the type(s) of abuse/neglect.
So many factors have in one-way cloth other brought about or increased the rate of child abuse Nigeria. These causes may be as a result of certain activities and parental actions which has gone beyond control and has effected the Nigerian child some of this factor include: -
POVERTY: this factor has been seen to be one of the major causes of child abuse in Nigeria. Its responsible for the increasing number of street kids in the major Nigerian critics, - wherever there is a highly level of poverty take for instance in
Nigeria today, naturally you see people resorting to begging on the streets for a living because there is loss of jobs, dignity and the resulting effect will gradually shift to street begging (Jones, 2010).
The poor standard of education of children is a result of poverty considering the fact that Nigeria The poor standard of education of children is a result of poverty considering the fact that Nigeria schools happens to be very 'expensive that only the rich can-afford it, leaving the poor masses with no-other option that to enroll in low standard schools, stay at home or go out in the street begging for arms to aid themselves. Poverty has made so many children resort to the sleeping under the bridge due to high cost of living and rent which the poor cannot afford as such at this present state the child is prone to summary hazard that might be detrimental to his/her health and might eventually in one way or the other led to death.
DIVORCE: divorce is actually one thing that has also brought child abuse to its climax; it also has destroyed marriages etc.
In a situation where by a family/home is broken as a result of divorce, the children in such a home are left to themselves. To do whatever they which to do. At this point in time certain group influence that a detrimental to their behavioral way of life and otherwise.
LACK OF ATTENTION: anyone left to himself is prone to many things, parental love, care and attention truly matters in child upbringing. Lack of attention from parents to the children leaving them to house helps who tend to inculcate various ways of behavior into the children, this impacts actually makes them. Imagine a situation where 'both father and mother leaves home in the morning and is set to come back by midnight house, in this case the children set eye on their parents only on weekends not knowing what and what has transpired in their absence.
Until parents began to devote most of their time to the upbringing of their children, child abuse will have an upper- hand in the society at large.
DEATH: So many orphans have been exposed to child abuse at a very high rate considering the fact that they do not have parents any longer who take care of them or look after them.
Orphans who are left to their uncles and relatives after
A - the death of their parents tend to suffer child abuse due to some level of hatred and wickedness from their aunts/ uncles. This wicked uncles might send this orphans to go hawking which exposes them to risk of death by accident, sexual harassment, rape and kidnap etc. and also poor feeding, maltreating them and sometimes they are not sent to school.
SOCIETAL INFLUENCE: This is seen from an ideology that indulging in under aged sex refreshes the blood.
Following the context, so many men of high age grade tend to sleep or rather make love to maidens as old as their daughters all in the name of a quest for fresh blood which I don't think is obtainable in such an act but is an abuse to the teenager involved in such a mess. It is no longer news to hear that a father impregnates his own daughter causing her unnecessary pains which are not worth it.
Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect
The consequences of maltreatment can be devastating. For over 30 years, clinicians have described the effects of child abuse and neglect on the physical, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral development of children. Physical consequences range from minor injuries to severe brain damage and even death. Psychological consequences range from chronic low self-esteem to severe dissociative states. The cognitive effects of abuse range from attentional problems and learning disorders to severe organic brain syndromes. Behaviorally, the consequences of abuse range from poor peer relations all the way to extraordinarily violent behaviors. Thus, the consequences of abuse and neglect affect the victims themselves and the society in which they live.
Many complexities challenge our understanding of factors and relationships that exacerbate or mitigate the consequences of abusive experiences. The majority of children who are abused do not show signs of extreme disturbance. Research has suggested a relationship between child maltreatment and a variety of short- and long-term consequences, but considerable uncertainty and debate remain about the effects of child victimization on children, adolescents, and adults. The relationship between the causes and consequences of child maltreatment is particularly problematic, since some factors (such as low intelligence in the child) may help stimulate abusive behavior by the parent or caretaker, but low intelligence can also be a consequence of abusive experiences in early childhood.
Medical and Physiological Consequences
Physical abuse in infants and young children can lead to brain dysfunction (Dykes, 2010) and sometimes death. Most fatality victims of abuse and neglect are under age 5. In 1991, an estimated 1,383 children died from abuse or neglect; 64 percent of these deaths were attributed to abuse and 36 percent to neglect. However, the number of child deaths caused by abuse and neglect may actually be much higher, since cause of death is often misclassified in child fatality reports.
A child does not need to be struck on the head to sustain brain injuries. Dykes (2010) has indicated that infants who are shaken vigorously by the extremities or shoulders may sustain intracranial and intraocular bleeding with no sign of external head trauma. Thus early neglectful and physically abusive practices have devastating consequences for their small victims.
Neglect cases may occur at any point of a child's development but are often associated with early childhood, when they are more likely to be discovered by health professionals, educators, and child welfare workers. One form of child neglect is associated with nonorganic failure to thrive infants. The absence of physical growth in these infants can be measured by objective scales of weight and height (Drotar, 2012). Neglect is usually suspected when such infants demonstrate significant weight gain following hospital admission or child removal from the family. Deprivational dwarfism, a medical term applied to children of small stature whose physical growth is impaired by the absence of nutritional requirements, is another type of child neglect associated with some young children. Even after diagnosis and treatment, the psychological consequences of emotional neglect persist. Drotar (2012) notes that factors that trigger nonorganic failure to thrive and child neglect should be separated from factors that maintain these behaviors. In early periods of neglectful behavior, the child may exhibit stressful behaviors in the forms of feeding problems, irritability, or deficits in social responsiveness that place increased demands on the parent's caretaking duties. In some cases, nutritional deprivation, combined with increased maternal detachment, sets into motion a "vicious cycle of cumulative psychological risk" (Drotar, 2012). Eventually, the parent may begin to perceive the child as quiet, sickly, or not very competent, perceptions that may not be shared by others who observe the child. In the absence of growth indicators of nonorganic failure to thrive or deprivational dwarfism, clinical diagnosis of child neglect is quite difficult.
Abuse and neglect may result in serious health problems that can adversely affect children's development and result in irremediable lasting consequences. Early studies of physically abused children documented significant neuromotor handicaps, including central nervous system damage, physical defects, growth and mental retardation, and serious speech problems (Aber and Cicchetti, 2014). Physically abused children have been found to have more mild neurologic signs, serious physical injuries, and skin markings and scars than their nonabused peers. Children who have been sexually abused, and some children who have been physically neglected, have shown heightened sexuality and signs of genital manipulation. A particularly serious biological consequence of child and adolescent sexual abuse is the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, including human immunodeficiency virus, gonorrhea, and syphilis.
Cognitive and Intellectual Consequences
Cognitive and language deficits in abused children have been noted clinically (Abram, 2010). Abused and neglected children with no evidence of neurological impairment have also shown delayed intellectual development, particularly in the area of verbal intelligence. Some studies have found lowered intellectual functioning and reduced cognitive functioning in abused children . However, others have not found differences in intellectual and cognitive functioning, language skills, or verbal ability.
Problematic school performance (e.g., low grades, poor standardized test scores, and frequent retention in grade) is a fairly consistent finding in studies of physically abused and neglected children, with neglected children appearing the most adversely affected. The findings for sexually abused children are inconsistent.
Alessandri (2011) found that physically harmed 4-year-old children showed deviant patterns of processing social information, related to aggressive behavior, at age 5. Physically harmed children (relative to non physically harmed children) were significantly less attentive to social cues, more inclined to attribute hostile intent, and less able to manage personal problems. They explain possible cognitive deficits in abused and neglected children by suggesting that physical abuse affects the development of social-information-processing patterns, which in turn lead to chronic aggressive behavior. The experience of severe physical harm is associated with the "acquisition of a set of biased and deficient patterns of processing social provocation information".
Differences in findings on the cognitive and intellectual consequences of childhood maltreatment may be related to the failure to control for important variables, such as socioeconomic status, and the lack of statistical power of small sample sizes. Other possible explanations for the inconsistencies in this literature are the tendency of earlier studies to aggregate different types of maltreatment (which may mask different consequences associated with specific forms of child maltreatment) or the inclusion of children who had neurological dysfunction to begin with (which can dramatically influence cognitive and intellectual performance). More recent studies have excluded children with obvious neurological impairments. Yet maltreatment, especially early maltreatment, can cause injury to the central nervous system that results in future cognitive impairments (Alfaro, 2011).
Psychosocial Consequences
Some studies suggest that certain signs of severe neglect (such as when a child experiences dehydration, diarrhea, or malnutrition without receiving appropriate care) may lead to developmental delays, attention deficits, poorer social skills, and less emotional stability. Consequences of physical child abuse have included deficiencies in the development of stable attachments to an adult caretaker in infants and very young children. Poorly attached children are at risk for diminished self-esteem and thus view themselves more negatively than nonmaltreated children. In several studies, school-age victims of physical abuse showed lower self-esteem on self-report and parent-report measures (Kaufman and Cicchetti, 1989), but other studies found no differences ( Stovall, 2010).
The consequences of neglectful behavior can be especially severe and powerful in early stages of child development. Drotar (2012) notes that maternal detachment and lack of availability may harm the development of bonding and attachment between a child and parent, affecting the neglected child's expectations of adult availability, affect, problem solving, social relationships, and the ability to cope with new or stressful situations.
Nearly all the children in this study whose mothers were psychologically unavailable were anxiously attached at 18 months of age, with the majority of these classified as anxious avoidant (86 percent). These children were observed with their mothers in a problem-solving situation at 24 months and a teaching task at 42 months and were found to be angry, non complacent, lacking in persistence, and displaying little positive affect. One of the most dramatic findings for these children was the nearly 40 point decline in performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development between 9 and 24 months. In the preschool classroom, these children presented varied and serious behavior problems.
Linkages between parental behaviors that have emotionally or psychologically destructive consequences on children have not been clearly established. While verbally or symbolically abusive acts designed to terrorize or intimidate a child (such as constant belittling or the destruction of a favorite object or pet) are associated with severe long-term consequences (Vissing, 2012), the processes by which children interpret aggressive or neglectful actions are poorly understood. The failure to provide age-appropriate care (such as parental availability and nurturance), cognitive stimulation, or achievement expectations also can have profound psychological impact, especially when such omissions occur during critical child and adolescent developmental periods.
Inappropriate sexual behavior, such as frequent and overt self-stimulation, inappropriate sexual overtures toward other children and adults, and play and fantasy with sexual content, are commonly cited as symptoms of sexual abuse in studies that compare sexually abused with non abused or nonclinical children. Across six studies of sexually abused preschoolers (those most likely to manifest such symptoms), approximately 35 percent of the abused children showed such behaviors. Sexual abuse has also sometimes been associated with the onset of sexual activity in middle childhood. Reported rates vary widely because of differences in samples, measurement instruments, and definitions of the outcome behavior. The lowest estimates (of 7 percent) were based on a large study that included many well-functioning and older children (Augoustinos, 2010). While sexualization seems relatively specific to sexual abuse, inappropriate sexual behavior has been noted in nonsexually abused children.
Sexually abused children, particularly those abused by a family member, may show high levels of dissociation, a process that produces a disturbance in the normally integrative functions of memory and identity (Ayoub and Milner, 2015). Many abused children are able to self-hypnotize themselves, space out, and dissociate themselves from abusive experiences. In some clinical studies, severely abused children appear to be impervious to pain, less empathetic than their nonabused peers, and less able than other children to put their own suffering into words (Jacobson, 2010).