Children are the future of a nation. It is the foremost responsibility of parents to provide a peaceful and safe environment necessary for proper growth and development of a child. Each year, thousands of children are traumatized and victimized by parents and guardians who tend to exploit children physically, emotionally and sexually. In most cases, these gruesome incidents of family violence are committed consciously and willfully.
Primarily, there are four different types of child abuse.
1. Neglect: These can include activities such as neglecting primary needs of children such as food, clothing and shelter, not caring for a child’s safety, refusal to provide proper healthcare and abandoning or expelling children.
2. Physical Abuse: These include activities such as inflicting injuries by punching, kicking, biting, burning or through other means that can physically harm a child.
3. Sexual abuse: These include activities such as child pornography, intercourse, rape, fondling a child’s genitals or any other acts of sexual assault or exploitation.
4. Emotional abuse: This type of child abuse occurs when a child witnesses some type of family violence or when the parent fails to provide necessary educational support, parental care or affection to a child. Even if a parent fails to intervene when the child demonstrates antisocial behavior, it is considered as emotional neglect.
Children, who witness family violence or become victimized by it, tend to suffer from a variety of emotional and mental problems. Some of these abnormalities include lack of self-respect, low self-esteem, behavioral anomalies such as aggressive and violence, improper intellectual development, low IQ, poor performance in schools, sleep disorders and feelings such as fear, anger, depression, grief and anxiety.
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