For decades, we have been silenced on the subject of child abuse. In today's society, the issue of abuse is no longer shoved under the carpet. Through technology, we are more aware than ever of all kinds of social concerns, including child abuse. Only recently, and only in particular countries and cultures, has the abuse of children been seen as a major social problem and main cause of many people's sufferning and personal problems, or even deaths. The interesting part to explore with regard to the issue of child abuse is "why do abusers abuse?" Many people use religious rationales or Bible verses to justify the abuse, but in the end, there is no argument that makes it right to abuse children. There are many aspects of child abuse. The three most commom are physical abuse, child sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. The physical abuse is the most apparent or easiest to see in a child. The World Health Organization defines physical abuse as "anything that results in actual or potential physical harm from an interaction or lack of interaction, which is reasonably within control of a parent or person in a position of responsibility, power, or trust". One of the most talked about abuses in our society, especially within the Catholic churches is child sexual abuse. According to the World Health Organization, child sexual abuse is " the involvment of a child in a sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent." Emotional abuse usually happens to children in the midst of other sorts of abuse. Every child suffers emotionally in any kind of abuse, however The World Health Organization defines emotional abuse as "including the failure to provide a developmentally appropriate, supportive environment, including the availability of primary attachment figures, so that the child can develop a stable and full range of emotional and social components." There are many kinds of abus, each one just as serious as the next. Child abuse is a huge problem and is becoming more common every day. Child abuse has many effects on children; in fact, it can affect every aspect of the child's life. The most common issue is the toll it takes on the child's self esteem. When kids live the life of constantly being beat down and not feeling the love from their parents, they are bound to feel unworhty. I think, to love yourself, you must have a trusted adult show you what love is, and in these cases of abuse, it isn't happening. Other effects children suffer due to abuse include having trouble sleeping, eating and concentrating. They may even perform poorly at school because they are angry or frightened or because they don't care or can't concentrate. Many people who are abused cannot easily trust others. They may feel a lot of anger toward other people. They may even feel anger toward themselves. It can be hard for them to make freinds. Some abused teens or children become depressed. Many become engaged in self-destructive behavior, such as cutting or abusing drugs or alcohol. Some may even attempt suicide. One of the most important tasks for all adolescents is learning the skills that will help them manage their own lives and make positive healthy choices. As Dave Pelzer, an abused child himself, stated, "Each act of child abuse reverberates into the future; when a child gets hurt, we may all suffer the consequences." It is always easier to come up with a remedy for a problem when you can pinpoint the reason for the problem. Bothe victoms and abusers come from all races, religions, backrounds, classes, ethnic groups, occupations, and economic levels. "Intelligent peopl elet this happen too" said psychologist Robert Geffner, the president of the Family Violence and Sexual Assult Institute of Tyler, Texas in a 1994 Newsweek article. Some people like to blame the media. The media definitely has a large effect on the child abuse and domestic violence that goes on in our homes here in America. The media can be sursed as well as blessed. It can be blessed because it is such a great tool to use to inform people of the problem of abuse, advertise services, show abusers the consequences, reporting crimes, volunteer support awareness, raising money, and much more. After all, the media is the reason that we are so much more aware of the issue of child abuse now days as apposed to the past. The media is cursed because it can't be ignored. In some media, mostly the music industry, there are many innuendos leading to the idea that abuse is okay. For example, rapper Eminem wrote a song called "Shit on You" which included phrases that degrade women, contain sexual content, and abusive phrases. Songs like these are played on teh radio all the time. Children could hear these things and think it is normal to be treated that way and not tell, or maybe even worse, children could conclude that doing thse things to others is okay. The media has an amazing influence on the thoughts of all Americans. I believe that it has helped the issue of child abuse more than hurt it, but there will always be curruptness within the media. Most abusers have their "reasons" for abusing. Some suffer from drug or alcohol problems, some have been beaten as a child and are repeating the learned pattern, some have mental or psychiatric disorders that lead them to abuse; however, the most disturbing part of my research was finding how common it is for abusers to hurt their children in the name of God. Christian theology has been rooted in the threat of punishment and some say they beat their children to establish a form of authority at home. While some simply beat because they were beaten as a child, or for vaious other reasons, a huge chunk of abusers justify their doings with Bible passages and talk about disciplining their children for the Lord. Some verses advocates use are verses I, as a Christian myself, would never interpret in the name of abuse. (Samuel 7:14-15) "I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit inequity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him". (Deuteronomy 21:18-21) "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: then shall his father and mother aly hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of the city, and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of the city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is glutton an da drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die; so shalt thou put evil away from amung you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear." Many Christian fundamentalists pull verses like this out an duse them to justify cruel behavior. Really, this verse was written in a different society and time period, and in depth, probebly teaches a lesson far deeper than the story itself. Most Christians that beat their chlid in the name of God are misinterpreting the bible in the first place. The bible itself is very contoversial and can have many interpretaions. When readin Bible verses, we are not intended to take the stories literally and do as they did, but we need to take a lesson out of each story and use that lesson to better ourselves. When people choose to take these things literally and look for stories that would justify their behavior, sometimes they find verses that make them think this kind of behavior is okay, hwen really they could be misinterpreting the meaning of the story. Although I believe in teaching children that there are consequences of your behavior, the God I know is a loving God, and would never approve of or encourage people to harm children in any way. Although most of my research has been about the wrong ways to discipline a child, Dr. James Dobson's book The New Dare to Discipline suggested many ways to discipline a child without abusing them. I agree with most of Dr. Dobson's views on how to raise a child. One of his first mentioned and most effective points made in the book is, "it is desireable for children to be kind, appreciative, and pleasant, those qualities should be taught- not hoped for. Heredity does not equip a child with proper attitudes; children learn what they are taught. We cannot expect the coveted behavior to appear magically if we ahve not done our early homework." Discipline is a quality that should be respectively instilled in children, not beat into them. Dobson shows in his book, how to raise a respectful child without any kind of abuse. He introduces the idea of taking away something of importance to the child when they act out or do something wrong. Dobson also says that children should be rewarded for things they do right. Sugguestions like these are successful in teaching parents how to discipline their children without hurting them in any way, yet still teaching them right from wrong and instilling respect and discipline. For many decades, we ahve been faced with the statistics of child abuse. Now that we have the technology and education to help the problem, it is still widespread. Not only parents who have alcoholism, or were abused themselves as children, or that have psychiatric disorders do it, but also good christian people. There has got to be a stop to this horrible misinterpreting of the Lord's word. Children do not deserve to be hurt in teh name of anyone. God did not intend on this happening. Is your discipline corrective or corruptive? Think about it.