Child Abuse And Parenting Essay Sample

Child abuse is a huge social problem not only in the United States but in the entire world (Simons, Simons and Wallace, 2004). Out of every 1000 children, about 12 are subjected to some form of abuse (Simons, Simons and Wallace, 2004). Over the years, sociologists have established that there exists a relationship between exposure to abuse or maltreatment as a child and engagement in abusive parenting in adulthood. Two theories have been developed in regards to this aspect.
The first approach is based on the social learning theory and suggests that children essentially learn how to parent by observing their parent’s behavior which they accept as typical behavior. The second theoretical approach suggests that abusive parenting is an expression of a more general pattern of antisocial behavior (Child Maltreatment: Inept Parenting or Expression of a General Antisocial Orientation, 2015). Simply put, there is a high likelihood of antisocial parents modeling such behaviors to their children as well as engaging in ineffective parenting, and this rubs off on the children. This second view hugely supports the notion that exposure to child abuse increases the likelihood of an individual growing up to manifest a lifestyle that is deviant and that includes abusive treatment of one’s own children. It suggests that child abuse is an expression of a general antisocial orientation (Child Maltreatment: Inept Parenting or Expression of a General Antisocial Orientation, 2015).
Sexual abuse is also one of the common forms of child abuse. Simons, Simons and Wallace (2004) postulate that people who engage in this deviant behavior do not always necessarily engage in other forms of deviance. It is shown that it is mainly family members who abuse children sexually. It is also argued that for men who engage in such behavior, there is a high likelihood that they were molested as children (Child Maltreatment: Inept Parenting or Expression of a General Antisocial Orientation, 2015)
A study conducted by Yun, Ball and Lim (2011) to investigate the relationship between child maltreatment and future violent delinquency seems to suggest that while physical abuse is not necessarily associated with violent delinquency in the future, neglect and sexual abuse considerably predict future violent delinquency. This obviously raises questions like; does sexual abuse accompanied by physical abuse predict a higher level of violent delinquency; what contributes to the finding that physical abuse is not associated with future violent delinquency? Does this abuse then predict any other kind of delinquency and if it does, what kind of delinquency is this?

References

“Child Maltreatment: Inept Parenting or Expression of a General Antisocial Orientation?” Families and Crime. (CCJ 4931). 2015.
Simons, R.L., Simons, L.G., and Wallace, L.E. (2004). Families, Delinquency, and Crime: Linking Society’s Most Basic Institution to Antisocial Behavior. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury. (ISBN 1- 931719-30-6).
Yun, I., Ball, J. D., & Lim, H. (2011). Disentangling the relationship between child maltreatment and violent delinquency: Using a nationally representative sample. Journal of interpersonal violence, 26(1), 88-110.