Child Abuse in Jamaica

Name:                 Lemar Archer

I.D #:                 3121007

Course:         Critical Analysis and Expository Writing Skills

Lecturer:         Mrs. Ellis        

Date:                 March 2013

Child Abuse in Jamaica

 “Children are like wet cement-whatever falls on them makes an impression.” Dr. Haim Ginott. Child abuse is a crisis in Jamaica which leaves an impression on the children. According to the Office of the Children’s Registry’s (OCR) website, child abuse is “any 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 of a child. Any act, or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child also counts as child abuse.”  There are different types of abuses in Jamaica that threatens children, these include, neglect, sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and child labour. According to the OCR’s recent statistics on child abuse in 2012, for the period January to June, the Agency received 4, 499 reports of child abuse, an increase of 11.4 per cent over the corresponding period in 2011. During the period, there was an 82 per cent increase in reports of educational neglect, while reports of physical neglect, including abandonment of children by their parents, climbed by 33 per cent. This growing trend in our society is a disaster and a violation of children's rights that needs serious attention. The writer at the end of this paper wishes to inform the audience of negative effects of child abuse specifically sexual, physical, and emotional abuse. Child abuse must be addressed as its causes have affected many of the nation's children one way or another.

Child abuse can be caused by a number of interacting factors. A factor that causes child abuse is the transferral of abuse from one generation to the next as a learned behaviour.  Today in society it is that children who experience physically, sexually or emotionally abuse from their parents may adopt this behaviour as a model for their own parenting and then grow up to abuse their own children. This is one of the main causes of abuse to children from their parents.  Thus, the abusive behaviour is transmitted across generation. However, there are parents who have not been abused as children who become abusive, as well as parents who have been abused as children and do not abuse their own children. Another factor that leads to child abuse is that of parents’ lack of knowledge of parenting skills.  This lack of knowledge may result in unreasonable or unrealistic expectations from children. Lack of parenting skills and inappropriate attitudes can contribute to abusive behaviour, for example, acceptance of violence as a way to solve problems. Another cause is stress brought on by a variety of social conditions such as unemployment which leads to poverty; physical illnesses; unwanted pregnancies; marital conflicts; and death of a family member that can substantially increase the likelihood of abuse within a family. Alcohol and drug use, common among abusive parents, may also aggravate stress and stimulate violent behaviour. With all these causes there are negative effects that are placed on our abused children; whether abused sexually, physically, emotionally, neglected, or faces with child labour.