Writing Example

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WRITTEN ANALYSIS FINAL PROJECT
COMPLEX QUESTION
Brian Bish
The complex question that our group presented this quarter is the following: Can lack
of parenting skills lead to a pattern of Child Abuse and Neglect? This extremely complex
question has proven to be a great challenge for all of our group members to explore. Our group
has had many discussions analyzing and developing a wide range of possible solutions to this
problem. In the following paper, I will present our problem in more details and the various
solutions we developed as a group.
Child Abuse in today's society is a very sensitive topic. Categories of Child Abuse include
physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and general, medical, and educational neglect.
The complete understanding of all these different types of abuse can help give you a greater
perspective on just how enormous this problem is in today's world.
Whom does Child Abuse affect? It can be children from all types’ socio-economic,
religious, and ethnic groups. Child abuse is not limited to any one race, religion, or demographic
area. According to Colorado State University Family Education Department “more than one
million children are confirmed victims of abuse and neglect in the United States each yearquot;.
(Frobose, 2007) The number of abused children in this country is almost unbelievable and very
hard to comprehend the scope of the problem. Perpetrators of Child Abuse often are caretakers, a
family friend, or childcare provider. Perpetrators usually are people that children already know in
everyday life. Also, Colorado State University states that “15 out of every 1,000 children are
victims of maltreatment.quot; (Frobose, 2007) That is a huge statistic considering the entire population
of the United States. These statistics indicate that the problem of Child Abuse needs to be looked
at even more and combated with solutions to fight this terrible problem.

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People believe that the problem of child abuse occurs in poor demographic areas. Poverty
is the most noted risk factor for child abuse. The American Academy of Family Physicians notes
that quot;physical abuse and neglect are more common among people who are the poorest. Whether
this association is predicated by the stress of poverty-related conditions or results from greater
scrutiny by public agencies, resulting in over-reporting, is debatedquot; (American Academy of
Family Physicians, 2007). Nevertheless, child abuse can occur anywhere and anytime. It is not
restricted to just one class of citizens; the problem can arise in any town or place in the United
States.
When did Child Abuse start? The answer is as long as there have been human beings on
earth. But today, the number of affected children is in the millions. That is a very scary statistic.
As a society, we must be determined to find new and creative solutions to this ever-growing
problem.
There are several factors to why child abuse exists today in record numbers. One factor
can be parental substance abuse. Drug abuse can clearly affect a parent’s ability to make sound
judgments for their children such as providing needed care, guidance, and discipline. Also,
parent’s immaturity, lack of parenting skills and unrealistic expectations of their child can be a
factor that can cause child abuse. The child's parents may simply be lacking the proper education
when it comes to understanding child behavior and capabilities. Another huge factor for abuse
may be an unstable home with frequent family problems, economic pressure, and a past history of
one of the parents being abused as a child. These factors and many others all contribute to this
complex problem.
As a group we explored three possible solutions for fighting Child Abuse. The first
solution that we explored was looking at possible ways to further educate parents, teachers, and

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caregivers that interact with the child. Can our state government offer more help and programs to
educate the public? Making more programs available may help in educating lots more people.
Often, people are not aware that there actually is help out there. The challenge is that Child Abuse
is a very difficult subject and people often shy away from discussing anything pertaining to the
subject. Education is very vital to solving this problem. People need to be made aware of all
potential warning signs of child abuse and neglect. Knowledge can make all the difference in the
world. Children often do not realize that they have been abused until the incident is over.
Perpetrators are people that the child is previously familiar with in every day life. The child may
become afraid that the perpetrator will get mad if he tells someone of the alleged abuse. Mind
games are the perpetrators biggest tool when it comes to abusing a child. They attempt to
manipulate the child with fear. Who would possibly believe that Uncle George abused me? The
child thinks that no one will believe them anyway. Why bother telling anyone about the incident.
We need to educate people on the warning signs of Child Abuse and Neglect. The more
knowledge we have, the better off we will be in the long run. The biggest challenge with
education is participation. You can't force people to be educated if they do not want to be at all!
Our group’s second solution is to attempt to better educate health care professionals about
Child Abuse and Neglect. Often signs of abuse will go unnoticed or ignored. Rising health care
costs have made it difficult for some people to get the necessary treatment they need for Abuse and
Neglect. Possibly, adding more educated doctors and counselors could help the shortage of
knowledgeable people when it relates to Child Abuse and Neglect. The big problem with adding
more hospital staff is the issue of money. Can hospitals afford to hire more staff? Often, lack of
employees can leave some people without the care they need. Another idea is that hospitals could
attempt to add more programs relating to Child Abuse matters. These programs would ideally

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need to be easy for the community to attend. Possibly, health care professionals could provide
more education to schools and other programs that involve children.
The final solution we came up with as a group is making improvements with Children’s
Protective services as far as cleaning up their reputation on the streets and adding additional case
workers. Unfortunately, CPS has a bad reputation with the public. People are either afraid or
hesitate to ask them for help! Negative press about CPS often scares some citizens away that need
help. CPS could also add more programs to educate the community by holding seminars and
educating public schools. This solution is only as good as long as people participate in the
programs.
My personal solution to this complex question would be EDUCATION! People need to be
knowledgeable and aware of potential situations that can occur. I believe people can benefit from
programs dealing with Child Abuse. All three of our solutions deal with education in some way.
It was unanimous in our group that education is the first priority in attempting to solve this very
difficult problem. People who don’t have parenting skills have the opportunity to learn. They
should want to do their very best when taking care and providing for their child. If you don’t have
the skills then it is your responsibility as a parent to obtain them in any way you can!
American Academy of Medical Physicians also emphasizes education in the article that I
researched. I believe there is no excuse for abusing a child in any way. I don’t know how any
decent human being can justify doing that sort of thing to a child. I did not find any authorities
that disagreed with the idea of educating parents. Education is the highlight of most articles that I
have read pertaining to this subject.
Everyone in our project group agreed that finding new ways to educate people on Child
Abuse is the number one item that needs to be addressed! We realize that you will never get 100

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percent participation but by giving people the ability to have more options to choose is very
important to taking the next step against the fight of Child Abuse and Neglect. Our group
discussions were very beneficial. It is interesting to hear feedback from different people on the
same topic. Our topic was extremely challenging and complex to say the least!
I

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Work Cited Page
Frobose, Jane K, Colorado State University,
(Extension, Consumer, and Family Education) 2007
Child Safety – Prevent Child Abuse
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columncc/cc010814.html
Bethea, Lesa, MD. “15 March 1999: Primary Prevention of
Child Abuse. American Academy of Family Physician.
http://www.aafp.org/afp/990315ap/1577.html

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