Child Sexual Abuse - Essay Example

Module Module ID: 11/14 Child Sexual Abuse By critically examining the history of the globe at large, it becomes crystal clear that crimes had been an essential part of every society and culture since the beginning of collective human life on the earth. Crime is actually the violation of the statute of prevailing law, against which judicial system announces punishments and penalties by investigating into the nature, intensity and intention of the offence. Thousands of crimes including homicide, rape, felony, robbery, fraud, embezzlement and others are committed in almost every region of the world on daily basis; child rape and molestation is also included the list the most challenging crimes committed on the face of the earth leaving indelible and incurable affect and impact behind it. Theorists define various reasons behind child sexual abuse, which has direct relationship with structural-functional and social conflict theoretical frameworks. Before embarking upon the topic under analysis, it would be advisable to define child rape. Child rape simply means the sexual victimization and harassment of innocent children and pre-pubertal adolescents generally at the hands of their seniors or adult members of society. It includes rape of minor and defenseless girls and boys, who have not reached the age of puberty. “Abuse of a child is anything that causes injury or puts the child in danger of physical injury, which can be physical, mental, sexual, or emotional.” (International child abuse network) However, sexual abuse includes touching of child’s private parts, incest, exhibitionism, stripping, pederasty and intercourse etc. The reports reveal that thousands of children become victim of rape and sexual assaults, though only few cases are reported at the police department. “The National Victim Center estimates that only 16 percent of rapes in the United States are reported each year. This low reporting rate can be attributed in part to the cold, impersonal reporting process and the rape victims fear of appearing at the trial of the suspect.” (The legal Dictionary) The reasons behind not reporting the cases on the part of children include the sense of shame and humiliation, fear of punishment from family and threats from the offender; and hurt of ego and of prestige, lack of resources, absence of evidence and fear of enmity as well. Thus, a large proportion of the mishaps took place in the life of children remains concealed from the knowledge of society and law enforcing agencies. “There were 103,297 substantiated cases in 2003 across Canada (excluding Quebec), a 125% increase in documented child abuse since 1998. This increase is considered a result of improvements in reporting and investigative methods for child abuse, as well as enhanced awareness and understanding of child abuse, not necessarily an increase in the amount of abuse.” (Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect) It has aptly been observed that sexual assaults and harassment adversely tell upon the weak and feeble nerves of innocent children, and it takes several years in their complete convalescence from the trauma caused in the wake of the mishap took place in their life. Sexual attacks not only inflict physical harm to the victims, but also destroy the soul and mind of the poor children. Consequently, they are unable to come out of the shock after many months and even years after the rape. “Severe child abuse, are re-experienced later in life on a sensory level, due to the fact that those brain and psychological systems responsible for directing the encoding and early organization and processing of explicit, narrative memory material may be flooded by overwhelming emotional input during severe abuse or trauma -- resulting in less integrated, primarily sensory recollections upon exposure to trauma-reminiscent stimuli.” (Briere, 2002:4) The studies also exhibit that a large majority of the victims of child sexual abuse turns out to be unable to lead a normal life even as grown-up. There remain flaws and disturbances in everyday personal, domestic and professional activities, and thus fear of insecurity haunts the poor fellows almost throughout their life. Not only this that the victims of sexual assault lead an imbalanced life for the future years to come, but also there appear probabilities to their adopting the line of deviant behavior and perversion in order to take revenge of the cruelty and injustice from other members of society. As a result, crime rate also witnesses an upward trend particularly in the societies where system of social justice is weak and ineffective. Thus in many third world countries, some criminal acts are detected, and culprits are arrested and tried at the court of law; while in some cases, the offenders escape any punishment because of the weaknesses of law enforcing agencies as well as judicial system, which provide the opportunity of evasion and dodging to the culprits. It is therefore crime rate remained constantly on rise with the passage of time. The political authorities came to the conclusion that mere devising of law and implementing the same is not sufficient for the eradication of crime. Consequently, theories were articulated and researches were conducted in order to mitigate the possibilities of crimes. Structural functional, labeling, conflict and biological theories explain the root-cause behind committing of crime, in the light of which crime rate can be controlled to a great extent. The same is applied to child sexual abuse, which could be studies in the perspective of the above-mentioned theoretical frameworks. Attributed to distinguished philosopher and intellectual Karl Marx, social conflict theory declares every crime as the outcome of exploitation of the weak and haves-not at the hands of the powerful and haves. The purported ‘haves’, according to the conflict theory leave no stone unturned in inflicting pains and sufferings to the poor and down-trodden strata of society. They commit every type of crime on the basis of their financial, social and physical strength, and thus push the entire social fabric into the state of uncertainty and turmoil. The same is the case with child sexual abuse, where the elite stratum also deflowers the children belonging to working classes, and does not allow them to lodge any complain against them. Such kind of exploitation creates feelings of hatred in the heart and mind of the victim, who applies the same financial or physical strength against the individual inferior to them in status, position and power. “Marx viewed the degree of inequality in the distribution of scarce resources, most notably power, as determining the objective conflict of interests, between those with, and those without, power.” (Turner, 1978: 131) Thus, the vicious circle of crime carries on, and the innocent, weak and helpless children keep on becoming the target of nefarious designs and lustful desires of the nasty offenders and rapists. “Conflict theorists feel that crime, and the laws governing them, are products of a struggle for power and control. According to a conflict theorist, a select few powerful individuals and groups make the laws, and those laws are enforced to outlaw any behavior that threatens their interests.” (Associated content) Conflict theorists also view the sexual assaults of step-fathers, uncles, neighbors and teachers as the misuse of power and status, which looks for taking advantage of the position at home, family, locality or educational institution. Hence, the obnoxious rapists serve as the most accursed stratum, which puts the future of the future nation-builders in grave jeopardy because of their condemnable behavior and loathsome offence. Structural functional theory, on the other hand, declares society as an organic whole, structure of which is entirely dependent of the proper functioning of all institutions and organizations at large. The same notion also applies to crimes, where lack of proper penal system and absence of imposition of the judicial code introduces deviation and perversion, and thus gives a go to criminal behavior in society. Thus, disturbance in the functioning of law enforcing agencies and lack of courage to destroy criminal network augments perversion and deviancy including child sexual abuse in a social establishment. Somehow, structural functionalists also take crime as a normal behavior instead of abnormal one, which is necessary for the regular functioning of society. “Durkheim views crime as normal in terms of its occurrence, and even as having positive social functions in terms of its consequences. Where crime exists, collective sentiments are sufficiently flexible to take on a new form, and crime sometimes helps to determine the form they will take.” (Coser, 1977: 141) Similarly, eminent biologist-theorist Lombroso had articulated his biological theory of crime, according to which the criminals contain the physical traits that are quite different from non-criminals. Hence, criminals are born offenders, and cannot be stopped from taking part in criminal activities. According to him, some particular structure of skull, ears, hands and feet can suggest inner-self of criminals. In the same way, psychological causes can also help the law enforcing agencies in respect of detecting a crime. For example, children grown up in extremely poor environment can commit crimes related to robbery, theft and burglary in order to take revenge of the deprivations they underwent in their childhood. It is the obligation of law enforcing agencies to identify and detect the criminals by following the causes behind committing of crimes. (Ritzer, 2002: 191) Thus, the rapists, particularly the child rapists, also have coarse features, ugly appearance and cruel facial expressions, which reflect upon their obnoxious nature and condemnable mind as well. To conclude it becomes crystal clear that child sexual abuse is a black mar on the very face of society, which is the source of putting the roots and foundations of society at stake. Raping the innocent and defenceless children exhibits the intensity of mental retardation, magnitude of deprivation and nefarious socialization process of the culprits, which are responsible for the ruination of the entire stratum out of their lustful desires and nasty plans. The social inequalities, inadequate socialization and unjust distribution of wealth and resources are responsible for the destruction of moral values, which paves the way towards the committing of such heinous and destructive crime against the flowers of nature i.e. children. Works Cited Briere, John. Treating Adult Survivors of Severe Childhood Abuse and Neglect: Further Development of an Integrative Model 2002 2-9 Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences Keck School of Medicine University of Southern California Retrieved from http://www.johnbriere.com/STM.pdf Coser, Lewis A. Masters of Sociological Thought: Ideas in Historical and Social Context, 2nd Ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1977 Ritzer, George. Sociological Theory 6th Edition. McGraw Hill 2004 Turner, Jonathan H. (1978) The Structure of Sociological Theory. The Dorsey Press, Homewood, Illinois. 1978 130-132 Verzich, N. Crime through the Eyes of Functionalism and Conflict Theory 2007 2 Associated Content Retrieved from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/366166/crime_through_the_eyes_of_functionalism_pg2.html?cat=9 Child Abuse; How to Help Victims June 2006 1-7 Retrieved from http://www.crcvc.ca/docs/child_abuse.pdf International Child Abuse Network Child Abuse Defined Retrieved from http://www.yesican.org/defined.html The Free Dictionary Criminal Offence Quoted in http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/rape Read More