What Triggers Child Abuse and Discrimination?

The roots of the different stigma that plagued this society for generations
can be summed up in three words—Inequality, discrimination, and abuse. Sadly,
their ubiquity already resulted to the people being able to learn to live with them
that they now unnecessarily included in the definition of what makes our society
today.

Unfortunately, a number of those subjected in these experiences are those

who may not even have an iota of understanding of what life and the world really
are—children. UNICEF defines a child as a person below the age of 18, unless the
laws of a particular country set the legal age for adulthood younger. The
Committee on the Rights of the Child, the monitoring body for the Convention,
has encouraged States to review the age of majority if it is set below 18 and to
increase the level of protection for all children under 18. 1Some of the basic rights
of a child includes right to consider his best interests, right to live, respect for his
views, and so on, but unfortunately, these same rights are not spared from being
violated and abused owing largely to their physiological and psychological
made up.

Children, are by nature and necessity, considered dependent upon adults

for their living and survival. At its very face, this alone, unavoidably opens them to
the drastic and wide world of exploitation and abuse. In general, children are
compelled to assent to their parents, guardian, or any other adult charged of
their care because they are viewed to be incapable of deciding for themselves.
This is not necessarily untrue, but at the same time cannot always be considered
for their best interest too because most of the time, taking advantage of this kind
of child vulnerability is out of question as adults equally think that there is none or
little consequences of doing so.

Viewed from another perspective, the behavior of not taking into

consideration children’s capacity and/or incapacity of taking charge of
themselves is one form of neglect that places them in another kind of vulnerability
and abuse – restriction in their right to live. To be neglected, therefore, is not
constrained on not being provided with basic needs and care, but also includes
having their right to think for themselves hurdled. This, however, does not posit that
children should be left alone to think and decide for themselves in all context, as
this only means that children’s views and opinions should be given consideration
in as much as what is being decided upon is none other than their lives and their
future. The liberality in giving weights to children’s decisions and opinions so as not

1
https://www.unicef.org
to curtail their ‘humanitarian’ and ‘inherent’ right for the same is not without curbs
and limitations. The test is still the soundness of their thoughts for their best interest.

Another equally important factor which triggers child abuse is their physical
and physiological ‘weakness’ that primarily causes physical abuse, rape, etc. the
physical factor is largely considered to be the most prevalent external
manifestation of child abuse as the impact of these acts are more visible and
apparent. Needless to say, this kind of abuse happens to children since they are
usually left defenseless, weak, and frail when facing an assailant adult. Today,
incidents of domestic violence against children remain at epidemic proportions
although there is an increasing recognition to totally fight these through effective
legislations.

However, research and human rights advocates suggest that the issue on
child abuse and discrimination can ultimately be traced down to the existence
of socio-economic problems and poverty. One hypothesis to this is that poverty
may reduce a parent’s ability to provide for a child’s most basic necessities. 2

Accordingly, using state-level data on the number of reports and

substantiated cases of child maltreatment, Paxson and Waldfogel find more
broadly that the socioeconomic status of families does affect levels of child
maltreatment. Maltreatment encompasses a wide range of behavior that harms
children, including neglect, physical abuse, and other forms of abuse. They
argued that family structure and parental employment status matter and
concluded that children with absent fathers and non-working mothers do not
appear to be at higher risk for maltreatment than children with two working
parents, or a working father and non-working mother.3

On the other hand, many also believe that the two main causes of child
abuse are domestic violence and substance abuse. Children who live in
households where violence is present usually end up becoming victims
themselves. Research found out that children exposed to violence (either child
abuse, domestic violence, or both) had higher levels of externalizing and
internalizing behavior problems in adolescence than those exposed to neither
form of violence. 4

Unfortunately, despite laws enacted primarily to protect children’s rights, all

forms of discrimination against children are exacerbated by virtue of their age
and vulnerability which mean they have fewer opportunities for challenging

2
Retrieved from http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/pdfs/dp138510.pdf
3
Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/digest/jan00/w7343.html
4
Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2872483/
discrimination because, for example, they do not have access to courts and
complaints mechanisms on an equal basis with adults.

In conclusion, it seems to be impossible to point out with certainty one and

each cause of child abuse. In fact, it can be said that there can be no single and
independent cause for such abuse as most of its causes are inter-related and the
occurrence of one necessarily results to another. Ironically, the prevention, if not
the eradication, of such can hardly be encapsulated in just the enhancement of
existing laws and regulations pertaining to children and their implementation or
to reformation of the traditional practice of child abuse prevention from the
different sectors in the society. The call to action for everyone to fight this long-
standing battle is, indeed, beyond question.