Understanding the Challenges in Defining Child Abuse Clearly

This essay delves into the complexities of defining child abuse, highlighting the various factors that contribute to the difficulty in its identification and determination. It begins by defining child abuse as encompassing neglect, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, along with exploitation, all of which inflict physical and mental harm on children. The essay posits that a lack of understanding of children's rights and the 'cycle of violence,' as explained by the Social Learning Theory, are significant contributors to child abuse. The author argues that children's dependence on parents, coupled with parental involvement in abuse, further complicates the definition. The essay also addresses the reluctance of children to report abuse due to shame, confusion, or fear of disbelief. Drawing from personal experience, the author illustrates the long-term mental trauma resulting from child abuse and emphasizes the importance of supportive relationships in fostering resilience, referencing the resilience theory. The essay concludes by reinforcing the multifaceted challenges in defining and addressing child abuse effectively.

"Why is child abuse difficult to define?"
According to Nelson (2016), child abuse is defined as the behaviour such as neglect,
physical abuse, emotional, sexual abuse and exploitation that harms the child. Child abuse has
severe impacts that lead to physical suffering and mental trauma among the children.
There are many reasons that lead to child abuse. In my opinion, child abuse often occurs
when people do not understand children’s right of being safe. According to the Social Learning
Theory, it is assumed that the abusers have themselves been abused at one point in their
childhood thereby creating a ‘cycle of violence’. It is usually noted that children are abused by
people who desire to feel powerful, or do not think if such behaviour is appropriate. In my
opinion, the abusers tend to forget the hateful feeling of being a victim (Vidal et al. 2017).
The children are usually dependent on their parents for information and help. But if the
parents are involved in abusing their child, it becomes difficult to define or determine it. It is a
common tendency among parents to punish their child if they are doing something wrong.
However, there have been times where it becomes difficult to determine if they are abusing the
child. For example, Sweden banned spanking which was a common punishment among parents
in disciplining their child (Gumbrecht 2011).
It may be noted that children may choose not to speak up or confide in anybody if they
are being abused. I believe they deny for most of the times that they are being abused. It becomes
difficult to define and determine child abuse as the children are ashamed and do not prefer
discussing the matter. Further, there are times when children are confused if they are facing
abuse. There may be situations when the child feels emotional intimacy or physical pleasure
from the abuse thereby making it difficult for them to talk about it. For example, if the abuser

sexually abuses the child, they tend to play the child’s fear or convincing them that they enjoyed
and wanted it to happen. Moreover, I believe that the children are afraid that nobody is going to
believe them. The children also think that the people hearing their stories would comment ‘your
mom/ dad would not do that’.
Child abuse often results in long-term mental trauma. In my personal experience, I have
come across a story of my niece where she experienced child abuse several years back. She
started feeling isolated and I played a significant role in motivating her. However, nobody
around her could sense the presence of child abuse as she was given parental warmth. According
to the resilience theory, the children may not be damaged by child abuse as they are often fixed.
In case of my niece, she had me as a supportive adult that helped in her development and
confront the abuser. She threatened the abuser after which things got normal for her (Barron,
Miller, and Kelly, 2015).

References
Barron, I.G., Miller, D.J. and Kelly, T.B., 2015. School-based child sexual abuse prevention
programs: Moving toward resiliency-informed evaluation. Journal of child sexual abuse, 24(1),
pp.77-96.
Gumbrecht, J. (2011). In Sweden, a generation of kids who've never been spanked - CNN.
[online] CNN. Available at:
https://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/09/world/sweden-punishment-ban/index.html [Accessed 15
Dec. 2019].
Nelson, B.J., 2016. Making an issue of child abuse. University of Chicago Press.
Vidal, S., Prince, D., Connell, C.M., Caron, C.M., Kaufman, J.S. and Tebes, J.K., 2017.
Maltreatment, family environment, and social risk factors: Determinants of the child welfare to
juvenile justice transition among maltreated children and adolescents. Child abuse & neglect, 63,
pp.7-18.