History of Child Abuse

History of Child Abuse






History of Child Abuse
BSHS 408
September 28, 2015
Amy Willey, LCSW
History of Child Abuse
All through history, children have been exposed to many different types of abuse. It hasn’t been until the past few decades that legislation and organizations have been created to help the fight against child abuse and neglect. As you will read throughout this paper, the history of child abuse and neglect has contributed to shaping the current policies. Also, this paper will discuss the extent of the abuse and neglect issues along with the differences between the different types of abuse. Finally, this paper will discuss the implications of child abuse and neglect.
History and Legislation
Children have been educated, loved, and nurtured since the beginning of time, however, some children have also been abused, killed, and ignored. It was not until the early nineteenth century when a new attitude towards children began. During this time is when events started to change the way people viewed abuse and began to create new laws and social protection for children. Children were finally seen as needing protection rather than considered as property.
Educating parents and society about moral development became a big focus during this time as well. During the nineteenth century, the principle attitude was that only the poor abused and neglected their children. The primary feeling was to protect these children from growing into future problems was to save them as children. The feeling was that because the poor was abused and neglected they grew up to become thieves, beggars, and murderers, so they needed to protect society as a whole.
In the early times, laws primarily were to protect the adults since children were viewed as property. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the attitude began to change. New legislation in both the state and federal government started to develop, and new laws began to reflect the rejection of child abuse. First to...

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