Child Abuse

THE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE Child abuse happens a lot around the world. According to Yes I Can Organization (1999), child abuse is the bad treatment of a child under the age of 18 by a parent, caretaker, someone living in their home or someone who works with or around children. There are four major types of child abuse include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and child neglect, which result children’s health, development, and strips away their dignity. Approximately 20% of women and 5% to 10% of men report being sexually abuse as children, while 25% to 50% of all children report being physically abuse (World Health Organization, 2010). It states that nearly 53 000 are murdered each year. How many more children will become the next victim of this issue? Even though child abuse is caused by several factors, there are also solutions to this social dilemma.

One of the major problems that lead to child abuse is family problems. Substantially, child abuse occurs when parents are stressed because they have to face many problems such as financial problems. Some people believe that parents with limited income are under more stress than parents with high incomes (Stewart, 1989). Normally the parents that have lower income cannot support their family members’ basic need. The parents will be stressed as they are trying hard to fulfill their children’s demand or request. When a parent feels as if he or she is under too much pressure and can’t relax, some of them turn to alcohol for relief and that in turn weakens their ability to control their behavior (News Straits Times, 2012). Besides that, divorce is also becoming a factor in child abuse cases (The Star Online, 2011). According to Deputy Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Senator Heng Seai Kie (2011, as cited in The Star Online, 2011) said parents who go through messy divorces face high stress and tend to take it out on their children, leading to neglect and abuse. They feel