Child Maltreatment
The conception of what constitutes maltreatment of children and in fact the whole concept of what constitutes a designation of being a "child" has changed over time, like many other societal definitions. The designation of a child as a vulnerable member of society that requires special protection by parents and others is in fact a relatively new concept, and this is especially true of the social designation of adolescence. (Kellman, 2005, p. 81) Historically, childhood has been seen as a sort of temporary designation of years where the "child" was expected to act as much like and look as much like an adult as possible and engage in as much work as their physical body could endure to help support the family. "To the Puritans, children were miniature and deficient adults who had to be restrained from wasting time on sinful play." (Kellman, 2005, p. 81) This idea may have been an aspect of the fact that Puritan belief was wholly founded in traditional Christian theology which demonstrated a protectorate position of children, not because they were inculpable, but precisely because from the moment of birth (and some argue conception) they are beings capable of becoming either soldiers for God or agents of the Devil.
" It can even be speculated that Christianity increased the "emotional bonds" between parents and children, although this conclusion awaits more hard evidence. Further, the object must be acknowledged as a public as opposed to a private concern, as a problem of major importance and urgency, and as a problem that is at least potentially amenable to solutions. , exposure of a child to violence or harmful substances, extending in some views to the passive inhalation of cigarette smoke (see smoking ). 37) So, to some degree the conception of children was as a protectorate it was wholly different than the modern conception of to some degree an inculpable social being unable to yet make decisions about his or her moral obligations and unable to completely protect him or herself form harm. The 1998 NCPCA study asked about the prevalence of yelling and hitting, as well as opinions about the usefulness of these practices (Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research 1998). In the United States, New York became the first state to institute child protection laws (1875) that made abuse against children a crime, and other states soon followed with similar laws. ("Child Abuse," 2007)The rise of the social work profession and the development of a whole body of scholarly literature that stressed the importance of the protection of children modern definitions of childhood and child maltreatment were furthered and since then children have been offered an arguably safer world to live in. In the case of a social problem, the attitude must be one of concern. Many people also claim that there has been a significant increase in child maltreatment in the modern era, while others argue that the increased numbers is a result of the development of increased reporting and mandatory reporting laws by medical professionals, educators and other child advocates. There is a clear sense that the political and social opinion of this relenting and some even say growing social problem has changed significantly over time, in the legal and social sense. Despite efforts to reduce child abuse in America, more than a million children are physically abused each year; about 2,000 die. As with any other "social object" ( Mead, 1934), critical to this process is the emergence of a label or phrase symbolically representing the object and connoting an attitude regarding it. As Rose (1957) has noted, a collective interpretation process must occur before any given pattern of activity is singled out and defined as a social problem.
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Acceptance Essays
