CHAPTER I

This paper will discuss cultural, societal, and individual Child Abuse, enumerating the problems encountered in reaching an operational definition of child abuse. Current legal definitions of child abuse through the eyes of the State of California, the effectiveness and the complications encountered in the prosecution of the child abuser, medical definitions of child abuse, incidence of child abuse, prevalence, description, detection, and effects will be discussed. A cross-cultural definition of Child Abuse will be offered based upon the needs of developing child. Current therapeutic interventions will be examined.

Sections of this paper will be emotionally difficult to read do the very real trauma that is inflicted upon children. When the author first began to research child abuse in 1965 it was necessary to overcome a strong repulsion to the abuse of children and to control the anger that rose from observing severely abused children in the hospital. Only by studying this horrible social problem can any progress be made towards reducing child abuse.

Child abuse occurs at three levels: cultural, societal, and individual. Child abuse occurring at any of these three levels is manifested by physical, emotional, and sexual abuse/neglect.

Cultural Child Abuse is sanctioned by the dominant group in any culture and is supported by written laws and customs. Often it is vehemently defended as a cultural tradition and is not acknowledged as irrational behavior. (Cultural Child Abuse effects a majority of children and frequently is imitated by minority groups.) Abusive behavior is rewarded in the culture and an often time is rewarded when the same behavior is applied to a different culture. Common to all cultures is the characteristic of denying that a specific group of behaviors is abusive. The characteristics of denial make the development of an unbiased operational definition of child abuse most difficult.

In 1995 at the Sizzler restaurant in Fairfield California a women was asked to leave the restaurant because she was Breastfeeding her infant (Amburg, 1995). Less than 10% of American women breastfed their children. (Nova 1995). In the United States Breastfeeding is not a culturally acceptable public behavior, even though breastfed children are significantly more intelligent, healthier, and emotionally mature than non-breastfed children and the benefits of nursing for the mother include better health, fewer post partium problems and significantly less breast cancer. (Nova 1995; Mayo Clinic 1996). The strange prohibition against breast feeding in the United States has been supported by elements of the medical establishment and best expressed by Dr. Love of the UCLA Breast Cancer center when she was asked about the relationship between breast cancer and Breastfeeding. Her answer was that "we did find that women who breastfed for over five years did not have breast cancer, but who would want to do that". Dr. Love expresses a view that defines clearly the rejection and devaluing of the biological needs of the child, the mother, and the role of mothering. Currently in our culture there is debate over the requiring of welfare mothers to work as soon as possible regardless of breastfeeding needs. When in fact for the young child not meeting this requirement undoubtedly will contribute to subsequent physical and emotional pathology over the years. Children who are not breastfed for the duration of the biological breastfeeding span of our species will not receive the nutrients, anti-bodies, and functional tactile stimulation required for proper development.

In the United States one of the most frequently used child rearing verbal statements is "Quit the Crying or I'll really give you something to cry about". When this instruction set is issued after a child has been physically punished, the child has to use their brain to shut off incoming stimuli of pain (being hit, being rejected) and the spinal reflex (ROM-BIOS) arc of crying. The average age that a child can do this is about seven. When the child is able to dissociate the brain through its cognitive reward system says "Oh, I not going to get hit" and self stimulate a shot of endorphin for successful task completion (PROM). The child habituates a self-reinforcing loop for dissociating their feelings. The same is true of the process of teaching a child that thinking about something that is not sanctioned by the powers in control is the same as doing it. Thinking about sinning is the same a sinning and carries the same sanctions in eternity. Both these instruction sets go against the biological genetic code. Humans survive because of their ability to feel their environment, bond with other humans and to think and develop survival tools. The child who has yet to mature to the point of dissociating quickly from feelings and thoughts will develop low self-esteem.

In the Sudan both the modern city and the primitive rural village young girls are subject to ritual circumcision by the removal of the clitorises, major and minor vulvas, and the scraping of the vaginal walls so that the wound, when it heals, will seal the vaginal orifice. In the primitive village this operation is performed with crude instruments in unsanitary surroundings resulting in the death of 10% of the girls from infection. A mother from the Sudan would never consider stopping this traditional ritual which ensures the marriage ability of her virginal daughter. She does not consider this cultural tradition of genital mutilation child abuse.

In contrast, a North American mother would never allow her daughter to be circumcised this way. Indeed, the American public would be outraged and demand immediate prosecution and imprisonment of anyone engaged in such behavior if they were aware of it happening. Yet 90% of North American mothers allow and even expect that their infant males will be circumcised, and will defend self-righteously, an American endemic cultural tradition of male genital mutilation. Even though the American Medical Association has stated that circumcision is not medically necessary and health insurance companies are quickly disallowing benefits for circumcision. (Edell 1988; Milos 1987; Milos 1988)

The Sudanese mother would attempt to kill anyone who tried to circumcise her male children. Both the Sudanese and North American mothers are entrenched in their traditions, which completely controls their perception of abuse.

The mother in the primitive Sudanese village is no different in her uncritical acceptance of cultural tradition than her well-educated, liberated counterpart in North America. Neither is able to perceive such behavior as child abuse and are supported in their beliefs by their mates. Both Sudanese and North American parents allow extreme physical abuse in the form of genital mutilation of their children in the name of tradition.

Male and female circumcision exemplifies the problems encountered in reaching an operational cross-cultural definition of child abuse. Available and useful definitions of child abuse must transcend cultural traditions and focus upon the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs of the developing child

The two examples of genital mutilation discussed above would be classified as both physical and sexual abuse, which occurs with the support of the customs of the culture and effects a majority of children. Genital mutilation is defended as a cultural tradition and is not treated as abusive behavior, nor is there any punishment associated with the behavior. Genital mutilation is sexual repression functioning at the cultural level.

Societal abuse when revealed is punished by the dominant group, and is a violation of written laws and custom. It is promulgated by bureaucratic institutions both governmental and private, and it thrives in a milieu of social indifference. Societal abuse is most often administratively punished when discovered, even though violation of written laws and custom is obvious. It is frequently motivated by budget cuts and profit. Society abuse effects selected groups of children, and it is not recognized as abusive behavior.

In 1968 CBS News produced a program called "Hunger in American", narrated by Charles Kuralt. This film depicted young children working in the fields to produce the abundance of food enjoyed by the American public. The children in their life style lacked adequate food, clothing, shelter, and cleanliness. This program portrayed children, who were starving to death not because they were being neglected by their guardians, but because the children and their caretakers were members of an "outcast" minority group which was denied access to the rewards of this society. Child labor is cheap labor.

In 1977, Thrasher, working for the "National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Office of Child Development, Department of Health, Education and Welfare", reports on various state institutions charged with the care of children. He stated that some state institutions for the mentally retarded that it was a common practice to tie children to their beds at night in buildings which were often fire traps, because of the lack of staff to supervise them. He further stated that in other institutions young boys were place in solitary confinement for up to 30 days for such minor matters as sending a love note to a woman teacher. In still another state institution children were punished by being forced to pull grass without bending their knees, for up to five hours at a time. Additionally, accounts of male and female children being sexually abused by staff members were reported at several institutions. Common in most institutions was the excessive use of sedative drugs to keep young-children or juveniles under control. Unfortunately the same problems exist today as they did in 1977. (Rindfleisch 1984)

Both of the above examples of Societal abuse have the element of a select group of children being abused in the private or governmental institution; the private for profit and the governmental for lack of adequate funding. Both systems sustained by social indifference. These examples would be classified as physical, emotional, and sexually abusive/neglectful.

Individual Child Abuse is unacceptable child rearing behavior to the dominant group. It is always a violation of statutory law and custom with criminal punishment for violators. It is the act of one or a very small group of people, which generally effects one to ten children and frequently occurs in the home of the child’s caretaker. Parent, stepparents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and baby-sitters are most often the individuals involved in cases of Individual Child Abuse. They do not recognize or accept that they are abusing the children under their care. (Bain 1963; Banogala 1974; Harper 1985; Helfer 1968)

In a case described by Dine in 1965, a child had been repeatedly admitted to the hospital with symptoms of unconsciousness, high fever, convulsions, and excessive sleep. The physician in charge could not determine the cause of the child’s symptoms and decided to keep the child in the hospital for evaluation. He suspected that the mother was giving the child heavy doses of the tranquilizer she was taking, even though laboratory tests had not indicated any trace of the drug in the child’s blood stream. The mother came to the hospital to visit her son and brought him an ice cream cone. Ten minutes after consuming the cone the boy went into convulsions. A blood test given immediately revealed the tranquilizer in his blood. Even then, the mother refused to admit that she was abusing her child.

Aldelson reported a case in 1964 in which a mother asphyxiated her child by pouring black pepper down his throat. The child died in one and on half-hours. An autopsy performed on the child revealed previous beatings and fractures. The dead child had a sibling who had one of his eyes knocked out when his mother threw a bottle at him.

In 1975, Wylie and Wylie described the abuse of 19 children. All of them had been beaten with belts and /or fists. Several had been struck with only the buckles of the belts. One child had been burned with a hot iron and beaten with a shoe, another with a battery-cable. One infant had been hacked to death with a razor. One infant boy had a string tied around his penis and subsequently died of uremia when his bladder burst. Two children had been forced to eat their own feces and had been put inside a garbage can overnight. One 18-month old girl had been repeatedly raped and then beaten to death. One two-year-old boy had been dipped into a pot of boiling water and his skull fractured. Two children had been punished by having their skin rubbed raw with sandpaper.

Cultural, Societal, and Individual abuse/neglect do not vary in the trauma inflicted upon the child. Only the frame of reference is different. (Bershorov 1976; Beneron 1969) This concludes the discussion of cultural, societal, and individual abuse. A review of current legal definitions of child abuse follows this thought expressed about children.

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, speak to us of children. And he said your children are not your children they are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. Your may give them you love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts, You may house their body but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot Visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living Arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon The path of the infinite, and He bends you with His Might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves Also the bow that is stable.

Kahil Gibran