Child Abuse and Social Work
Lauren Szymanski
Socialwork 200
November 28, 2010
Child Abuse
Child abuse is horrible and it affects everyone in one way or another. Before 1963, there were no laws to protect the kids from abuse but thanks to social workers and other judicial people, there were laws passed (Pfohl). This paper is going to explain why it is so important for social workers to protect kids by talking about this history of abuse and why social workers need to be around. It will also discuss what social workers do today to prevent kids from being hurt. Social workers are useful in just about every aspect of life but in my opinion this is one of the more important jobs of a social worker because your protecting those of the future. Abuse isn’t just physical, its also mental. And its been known that those who are abused and never treated will most likely turn around and abuse their own kids. Thus the cycle of abuse continues. This is why social workers are here, to stop the cycle of abuse.
Child protective services are there to protect kids from their parents or from other authoritative people. Child abuse not only does physical damage but can mentally affect them as well. According to the text book, the original power of authority was given only to the families. They believed that the parents knew best about what the kids needed but obviously as the years went by this became less true. The whole were used as a form of punishment and with no laws to protect kids it could have devastating effects (Pfohl). There are many examples of child abuse in history, like for example in the 17th century during the religion movement, it was thought as essential to a childs fear was to beat them within an inch of their life (Pfohl). There are other examples of this back in history. Child beating was socially acceptable for a long time. It was just what was done and so no one thought any differently. There was a court case in North Carolina called State vs Pendergass, where they deemed
Socialwork 200
November 28, 2010
Child Abuse
Child abuse is horrible and it affects everyone in one way or another. Before 1963, there were no laws to protect the kids from abuse but thanks to social workers and other judicial people, there were laws passed (Pfohl). This paper is going to explain why it is so important for social workers to protect kids by talking about this history of abuse and why social workers need to be around. It will also discuss what social workers do today to prevent kids from being hurt. Social workers are useful in just about every aspect of life but in my opinion this is one of the more important jobs of a social worker because your protecting those of the future. Abuse isn’t just physical, its also mental. And its been known that those who are abused and never treated will most likely turn around and abuse their own kids. Thus the cycle of abuse continues. This is why social workers are here, to stop the cycle of abuse.
Child protective services are there to protect kids from their parents or from other authoritative people. Child abuse not only does physical damage but can mentally affect them as well. According to the text book, the original power of authority was given only to the families. They believed that the parents knew best about what the kids needed but obviously as the years went by this became less true. The whole were used as a form of punishment and with no laws to protect kids it could have devastating effects (Pfohl). There are many examples of child abuse in history, like for example in the 17th century during the religion movement, it was thought as essential to a childs fear was to beat them within an inch of their life (Pfohl). There are other examples of this back in history. Child beating was socially acceptable for a long time. It was just what was done and so no one thought any differently. There was a court case in North Carolina called State vs Pendergass, where they deemed