Chris Perrault- Reaction #2

Chris Perrault
Persuasive Writing
9/23/08
Reaction Paper #2

The issue that I am going to use for my paper is child abuse. Child Abuse is a growing problem in the world and it is only getting worse. My three questions concerning child abuse are as followed. Number one: What is considered that boundary between discipline and abuse? Number two: What is considered child abuse? Number three: What can be done to prevent child abuse from happening? The kind of evidence that would take to find an answer to these questions requires research in many different areas of information.
The first article that I found was from the New York Times. The title of the article is called Girl’s Parents and Agency Face Charges in Starvation by Jon Hurdle. This article is about a girl named Danieal Kelly, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and was murdered by neglect and malnourishment. The article says that her mother, Andrea Kelly, was the one responsible for Danieal’s death, because she was embarrassed to have been seen with her disabled daughter. Danieal was fourteen years old and towards the end of her life, she weighed about 42 pounds, which as the article says is the normal weight of a five year old child. Danieal was bed-ridden and she developed bed sores so severe, that they went down to the bone. Another part of this article has to do with the Department of Human Services. The article states that some of the employees who have been charged with the protection of Danieal, failed to do anything to save her. The article further states that the DHS received four complaints about Danieal’s maltreatment. A grand jury convicted Andrea Kelly of murder and involuntary manslaughter. They also convicted Daniel Kelly of endangering the welfare of a child. The grand jury also convicted two social workers who were assigned to the care of Danieal Kelly. I chose this article, because it is the reason I have this issue in the first place. There is not enough that is done to protect children like Danieal from maltreatment and neglect. If social workers in the Department of Human Services were more properly trained, then incidents such as this one would not happen as frequently.
The next article I found came from a professional article from a mental health journal. It is titled Child Abuse: An Overview. This article explains that child abuse is a virus that spreads throughout generations of children. The mental health journal states that child abuse is defined as “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation; an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Effects of child abuse can last a lifetime. There are many survivors of child abuse who wind up inflicting the same type of abuse that they have received onto others. Child abuse can leave children mentally and physically damaged for a lifetime. There are four types of child abuse: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and child neglect. The main reason for defining abuse into four categories is for proper treatment and research. The article explains that there are many capable organizations that are formed to try to prevent child abuse, but they are not properly funded. This article gives a direct definition to what child abuse is and it also gives an answer to what is needed to prevent child abuse.
The final article I chose was from a website called www.new-life.com. The article talks about the difference between discipline and punishment, which can lead to abuse. The article states that people should use discipline to “promote positive growth” in their child. Punishment is done out of anger and can lead to child abuse. When people use discipline, they should use it out of love and to use it to focus on future behavior. Punishment is used more as an impulsive reaction to something that has happened. Many people that use punishment do not think about the consequences. That is how child abuse can occur.
Wikipedia is a website that provides information to be researched or used as a reference. I, myself, have used it as a source for many previous papers. It is a very credible website, because I added a statement to the definition of child abuse last night and when I checked it today; it had been removed. Wikipedia takes only the most reliable sources and not opinionated statements. To have put an erroneous statement into Wikipedia makes me feel slightly guilty, because I am entering information that has not been truly researched and properly referenced.
Every source of information I have used to discover the meaning of child abuse and what the boundaries are between discipline and abuse lead me to believe that there is more that can be done to prevent it. On the news every day, people are being charged with physical abuse of one child or molestation of another. Then, you read an article that states people in the DHS aren’t trained well enough to prevent a 14 year old girl with cerebral palsy from being ignored and starved to death. It all comes to one conclusion: There must be more that can be done to prevent children from having to suffer such terrible fates.