Forms of Child Abuse
Child
abuse can be broadly categorized into five perspectives namely physical
abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and child exploitation
(child labour).
Physical Abuse: Physical abuse may be seen as the
inflicting of a non accidental bodily injury on a child. The injury may
not have been intended by the parent or caretaker and is not an accident
but may be due to over discipline or corporal punishment that may not
be appropriate or is unjustifiable for the child at the age.
Emotional
Abuse: Emotional abuse is also known as verbal abuse, mental abuse or
psychological maltreatment. The national clearing house on child abuse
and neglect information (2006) defines emotional abuses “as act or
omissions by the parents or other care givers that have caused, or could
cause serious behavioural, cognitive emotional or mental disordersâ€.
Emotional
abuse can thus be seen as any attitude, behaviour or failure to act on
the part of a care giver which interferes with a child’s mental health,
social development or sense of self worth. It is probably the least
understood, yet the most prevalent, cruelest and destructive type of
child abuse and its implications for the educational sector in Nigeria.
It attacks the child self concept making the child see his/herself as
worthy, worthless and capable. When a child is constantly humiliated,
shamed, terrorized or rejected the child suffers more than if he/she had
been physically maltreated. The resulting effect is that most children
often withdraw to themselves leading to depression and lack of
concentration in school (Khartri, 2004).
Sexual Abuse: Sexual abuse
is define by CAPTA (Khartri, 2004) as the employment, use of persuasion,
inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or
assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or
simulation of such conduct for the purpose of producing a visual
depiction of such conduct. It is the rape, and in cases of caretaker or
interfamilial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution,
or other forms of sexual exploitation of children or incest with
children. As a result of the secrecy that characterizes these cases,
sexual abuse is the most often under reported form of child
maltreatment. Sexually abused children experience emotional problems
from a feeling of guilt and shame (Corwin & Olaffson, 1997).
Neglect:
This is a failure to provide basic needed care for the child such as
shelter, food, clothing, education, supervision, medical care and other
basic necessities needed for the child physical, intellectual and
emotional development. It is a situation where the guardians or parents
fail to perform tasks that are necessary for the well being of the child
which invariably can lead to the child’s health and safety being
endangered.
Child Exploitation: Child exploitation often referred to
as child labour or child trafficking involves the use of a child in work
or other activities for the benefit of others. Child exploitation is a
systematic process of using children to work with little or no
compensation and consideration for their health and safety (Newton,
2001). These children are used to do hard works in the farms that are
above their ages and some are made to hawk wares for long hours without
food. Such children rarely benefit from education and will eventually
drop out of school. By the time these children reach adulthood, they are
intellectually damaged. Prevalence of Child Abuse and its Implications
for the Educational System.
The different forms of abuse stated
above occur in schools in very subtle way and could have damaging
effects on children’s educational development. Some of these abuses are
enumerated here under. This is not exhaustive but shows that abuse is on
going in the school. Physical abuse is one form of abuse that
persistently occurs in schools especially in the form of correction or
corporal punishment.
According to Straus (1994) corporal punishment
is the use of physical force with the intention of causing bodily pain,
but not injury for the purpose of correction or control. In many schools
in the USA, corporal punishment has been declared illegal. This is not
so in Nigeria where corporal punishment is being held in high esteem as a
way of correcting and instilling discipline in young children. Even
though spanking is culturally approved for correcting children most
times the teachers do this in anger and in the process the child is left
injured and physically inflicted with bruises and pains.
Teachers
hold great expectation of young children and so when these children fall
short of these expectations, they are mercilessly flogged. Children are
flogged for committing minor offences like coming late or failure to do
home work and for other major offences like fighting and insulting
others. Most teachers and school authorities assume that students are
stubborn, indisciplined and unintelligent and the only way to drive out
this ‘foolishness’ from the children is to use the rod in order not to
spoil the child.
Most times, the teachers fail to listen to the
students’ apparent show of some misbehaviour. They hold more strongly to
their beliefs and ideals that they are unwilling to hear the students
out. Thus they unleash corporal punishment on the students at the
slightest provocation leaving the students scared and unwilling to
attend school. Agnew (1983) however advised against the use of physical
punishment as it may lead to children committing delinquent act such as
abandoning school.
