Introduction:

Child abuse has been recorded in literature, art and science around the world for a long time. A myriad of reports published to capture social and individual attentions to infanticide, mutilation, abandonment and other forms of violence against children which date back to ancient civilizations, are collected and assessed in order to revise current approaches without any discrimination. The common chapter of all speeches released by lawyers and legal academics is about the necessity of listing solutions. The writer attempts to prepare a bunch of practical mechanisms to show how extremely protective we can be. It is worth mentioning that finding any useful wayout is not possible, if the solutions are not categorized by the origins causing some child-abuse behaviors like cultural issues, fatal or non-fatal abuse, physical, emotional and psychological ones and family structure and resources. In this article collected data approving the role of cultural origins increasing or decreasing the trend of child abuse conducts has been attended to, irrespective of economic issues.

The importance of debate:

The concentration of the debate focuses on this question: “How are child abuse and neglect defined?” Undoubtedly, the answer is mingled with cultural elements. To Explain more, any global approach must take into account the differing standards and expectations for parenting behavior in the range of cultural criteria among national, regional and international zones. Clearly, the consensus about the definition of culture is not an imaginary educational concept. Actually, culture is defined as a concept including a society’s common fund of beliefs, behaviors, and other concepts of how people accept to conduct themselves individually and as a member of their society as a whole. In terms of child abuse, it is included all ideas about what acts of omission or commission might constitute abuse and neglect. Positively, culture assists to define the generally accepted principles of child-rearing and care of children. It is obvious that different cultures lead to different rules about what are acceptable parenting practices are. Seemingly, there is a suggestion approved by researches pointing out that child-rearing across cultures might diverge to such an extent that agreement on what practices are abusive or neglectful. There is no one to claim it may not be extremely difficult to reach. Consequently, it appears what is of great value to define “must” about respecting and insuring it, is culture. Therefore, one of the most important solutions to manage the increasing rate of child abuse is to resize cultural infrastructures.

Forms and Solutions:

The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect recently compared definitions of abuse from 58 countries and found some commonality in what was considered abusive.[1] In 1999, the WHO Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention drafted some definitions as well.[2] Hence, many outlooks have been published by research centers, NGOs and international organizations categorizing the forms and then solutions. This article mentions some of the most significant forms and their mechanisms briefly. They are not necessarily based on the writer’s opinion regarding child abuse.

Some definitions attend to the behaviors or actions of adults where abuse is taken place by different kinds of harm or the threat of harm to the child. It is hard to differ between behaviors, regardless of the outcome. The reason of confusion is about the impact or harm potentially confusing one, if parental intent forms part of the definition. The result is different, if parental abuse child is raised as an issue. Hence, the education of them can be programmed in daily or even annual plans performed by media, TV shows, schools, governmental programs or lectures presented by colleges. This approach can manage physical and psychological child abuse as well.

In addition, it is not possible to neglect that some experts seriously consider children who have been harmed through the actions of a parent. Some legal systems directly criminalized this type of behavior as a crime harming social sense before harming a child physically. The collected data shows this movement is not enough to protect children specially in the societies where poor people suffer from a poor socio-economic culture. This approach does not accept the idea presenting some of the literature on child abuse explicitly including violence against children in institutional or edicational settings. While child abuse in schools and the society is reported daily, the root of its occurrence is rooted in the field of their family culture. Therefore, there is no solution to prevent child abuse, if all social programs do not focus on parents and parenting behaviors. This approach assists them to manage causes and consequences of four types of child maltreatment, namely physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. It is necessary to cite that neglect in this article refers to the failure of a parent to provide for the development of the child, specially where the parent is in a position to do so in one or more of the following areas: health, education, emotional development, nutrition, shelter and safe living conditions. It is thus distinguished from circumstances of poverty. Therefore, neglect can occur only in cases where reasonable resources are more and less available to the family or caregiver, but children do not enjoy them.

Conclusion:

It seems that the role of parents is fundamental to save children and prevent them from all abusive events. Metaphorically, the parenting style can be defined as a protective shelter for children. Economic roots as well as educational ones play a vital function to prevent and act instantly to support them from all forms of child abuse. Of course, protective measures to rehabilitate children after attacking and prepare them physically and psychologically are recommended by experts. The elimination of cultural attitudes causing child abuse by educational programs in schools, religious centers, media, newspapers and so on, is advised principally to make a better atmosphere for children to live more safely.

[1] – Bross DC et al. World perspectives on child abuse: the fourth international resource book. Denver, CO, Kempe Children’s Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, 2000.

[2] – Report of the Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention, 29–31 March 1999, WHO, Geneva. Geneva, World Health Organization, 1999 (document WHO/HSC/PVI/99.1).