INDIVIDUAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT

Name: Nurul Nasrin Husna binti Sahardi (Section 29)

Matric No.: 2015146

Children are a precious gift of God for every couple. They are the joints and the heirs of
a family. The existence of a child has increased the sustenance that God gave to every married
couple. They are also entertainers in the household with laughter and crying that always
require adequate love from parents. However, now we have heard various children's abuse
happening here and there who is increasingly widespread as it has been published in
newspapers and news on television. Abuse means the act of torturing a person physically
and mentally in a way of hurting or hitting. Typically, the case of abuse is classified into
several types. Among them are, physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect and use of children
as forced labor. According to the data from department of Social Welfare, Malaysia (JKM),
the numbers of reported cases of child abuse in Malaysia has exceeded thousand every year.
This does not include the unreported cases which means it has become an issue that shivers
in our country. That is why child abuse under the 16th goal, peace and justice strong
institutions is included in United Nations’ sustainable development goals as it is to protect
our legacies and the future protector of the future generation, as well as protecting their
physical and mental health. The increased of child abuse cases in Malaysia should alert
Malaysians to be more aware of such problems and its risks, and to look further at (i) the
causes of child abuse; (ii) the impacts of child abuse, and (iii) the steps the government and
society take to overcome the matter of child abuse.

There are a lot of factor for child abuse like parental factors, child factors, family factors
and environmental. Abusive parents (as cited in Turben Developmental Services -
Characteristics of Abusive Families, 2016) usually lack the abilities and talents necessary to
produce showing emotion for themselves. they need not learned to spot and procure
emotional support for themselves. they need not learned to spot and procure the emotional
support they have from others not have they learned the way to deal with the anger, worry
frustration they feel, in relevance these unmet desires. As a result, they expertise a severe
lack of shallowness or sense of self-worth. Abusive parents feel unbeloved, unappreciated
and unwanted. This negative self-image usually ends up in perceptions of themselves as
insignificant, unattractive or stupid. Next is child factors. Certain children square measure a
lot of at risk of abusive behavior. The child’s age and physical, mental, emotional and social
development will greatly increase or decrease the probability of abuse. In general, (Escher,
2008) who seemed to be “different”, like disabled children, square measure at bigger risk of
abuse. kids who socially isolated may be at high risk. as an example, a toddler who doesn't
have close relationships with his family and has few or no friends could also be a lot of prone
to offers of attention and warm-heartedness in exchange for sex. In specific life state of
affairs of some families will increase the chance of abuse, like marital status conflict,
violence, state, monetary stress and social isolation. Families concerned in abuse tend to
exhibit a pattern of daily interaction characterized by token social exchange, low
responsiveness to positive behavior and high responsiveness to negative behavior.
Environmental factors are typically found together with the above factors. The incidence of
child abuse is higher in some cultures and societies than others. Economic pressure, values
regarding the role of the kid within the family, attitudes regarding the employment of
physical penalty, and also the degree of social support for parents appear to account for
these variations. Abusive families are typically isolated from their neighbors and
community. As a result, these families tend to participate less in community activities and
create less use of accessible economic, health and social resources.

Child abuse leaves loads of impact on abusers, victims and communities. Abusing
effecting in several aspects, particularly within the development of emotions and
interactions with one another. a number of the common effects (Child Welfare Information,
2019) are, physical health consequences, psychological consequences, behavioural
consequences and social consequences. In term of physical health consequences, some long
physical effects of abuse could occur at once like, brain harm caused by head trauma,
however others will take months or years to emerge or be detectable. there's a simple link
between physical abuse and physical health, but it's together important to acknowledge that
abuse of any kind can cause semi-permanent physical consequences. Childhood practice
(Widom, Czaja, Bentley, & Johnson, 2012; Monnat & Chandler, 2015; Afifi et al., 2016) has
been connected to higher risk for an outsized vary of semi-permanent and/or future health
problems like polygenic disorder, respiratory organ sickness, deficiency disease, vision
issues, practical limitations, coronary failure and etc. in keeping with a history, (Bick &
Nelson, 2016) child abuse conjointly has been related to sure components of the brain failing
to form, perform and grow properly. Psychological consequences area unit the common and
most shown effects to the victims. child abuse will cause victims to feel isolate, worry and
distrust. As psychological consequences will be translated into a womb-to-tomb effects as
instructional difficulties, low vanity, depression and hassle forming and maintaining
relationship. Researchers have known link between child abuse and also the psychological
outcomes like, diminished executive functioning and psychological feature skills, poor
mental and emotional health, attachment and social difficulties and posttraumatic stress.
Discontinuous- brain development (Kavanaugh, Dupont-Frechette, Jerskey, & Holler, 2016)
as a results of mistreatment will cause impairments to the brain’s main functions like
memory, self-control, and psychological feature flexibility. Experiencing ill-treatment can
even be a cause to depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorder throughout adulthood.
it's collectively shown that (Williams, Debattista, Duchemin, Schatzberg, & Nemeroff, 2016)
adults with major depression who involved abuse as kids had poorer response outcomes to
medication treatment. Infants in tutelage who have undergo abuse followed by disruptions
in early caregiving can develop attachment disorders. Attachment disorders can negatively
have a sway on a child’s ability to create positive peer, social, and romantic relationships
later in life (Doyle & Cicchetti, 2017). In addition, kids who undergo abuse or neglect are
tend to most likely to develop delinquent traits as they grow old, which could end in criminal
behavior in adulthood. Victims of child abuse and neglect generally exhibit behavioral
difficulties even once the mistreatment ends. Some samples of however mistreatment can
have an effect on individuals’ behaviors as adolescents and adults are unhealthy sexual
practices, misbehavior resulting in adult criminalness, alcohol and drug use and future law-
breaking of mistreatment. Although the physical, psychological, and behavioral
consequences of kid abuse and neglect weigh heavily on the shoulders of the youngsters who
undergo the experience of it, the impact of mistreatment doesn't finish there. Society pays a
price for maltreatment and neglect in each direct prices.
 To overcome the problem of child abuse, the help of all parties is indispensable. Parents
who are the main cause of child abuse should be given a lot of help to reduce cases of abuse.
Teachers at schools should always pay attention to students when finding a big change to a
student. Teachers need to give love to students so that they can express their feelings and
problems if abuse takes place. The school can find the authorization of the police as the police
also found that abuse cases happened to a student. It is doubtless that law is the necessary
element to stop abuse and neglect cases. As the society had been neglecting and taking it as
a matter for the government to take care. Society should dump the attitude of minding their
own businesses, and stop being selfish. On the contrary, the community should always be
aware of the circumstances around them. Any incident of abusing children among the
neighbors should be reported as soon as possible. Furthermore, safety controls in residents
of residents should be tightened to ensure that no one dared to abuse children at will. The
society should also spread awareness of this issues as it is not something that should be taken
lightly. Moreover, society should cooperate more and protect the children as they are the
future generations and our future leader. As the government also done a number of laws for
the protection of abused child. The Child Act 2001 (Abas, A, 2012) was believed to brought a
major change in the law regarding the protection of child in Malaysia. According to this act,
it provides amenities for the children that in need of, restriction on media reporting and
publications, protection from the police officer and duty to inform on abuse case. Since the
law make it compulsory for family member to inform about the abuse, and failure to do so
can result to a fine not exceeding RM5,000.00 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding
two years or both. It is suggested that this law of duty should be extended also to the
neighbor and society as they are surround the victim and may have seen the signs of abuse
or mistreatment. This will allow the society to spit facts and not staying silence regarding
this matter. Based on Domestic Violent Act 1994 which was designed to provide protection
for the survivor or victim of domestic violent. The only problem is that Domestic Violent Act
does not provide for specific offence but in need to be read together with Penal Code. Under
the Domestic Violent Act, victims can ask for two types of protection which are, Interim
Protection Order that involved the court to prohibit the person against the order from using
domestic violence against the child. The order shall cease once the investigation completes.
The next one is Protection Order where the protection order will be given in proceedings a
complaint against domestic violence and the offence is a compoundable offence. The victims
may also ask for other orders by order of the court to restraint the accused from entering
house occupied by the victim. From The Child Witness Act 2007 believed that the victims are
not required to give evidence in the court as the normal proceeding. The Act provides for a
child witness to present proof within the court however protected by a screen between him
and also the suspect person or a child charged with the offence or by the live link or by
recording.

In a nutshell, it is devastating to find the person that should be protecting the children
are the one destroying them and putting them in a tight spot of leaving. Indeed, children need
perfect protection and care, including legal protection as they are still immature in terms of
intangible and inner and need to be protected by their fundamental rights. Children should
be able to enjoy a situation that is safe wherever they are. They should be raised in a healthy
state. Parents and teachers need to provide full protection as well as the community. If the
home or family environment is no longer safe, then the teacher and school staff is where
children complain and take refuge. Another fact that may be difficult is for the community to
be aware about abuser no matter what background, gender, level of education or socio-
economic. In fact, a complex family crisis can affect negative to children and adolescents.
Clear implications in children and teenagers cause emotional suffering and mental health
disorders. Thus, everyone including the society need to be responsible and be aware of
surroundings, as we should be the protector of our people more importantly, children as
they are our legacies and future ruler.
Turben Developmental Services - Characteristics of Abusive Families. (2016). Turben

Development Series. http://turben.com/article/218/1594/Characteristics-of-

Abusive-

Families.html#:%7E:text=Abusive%20parents%20feel%20unloved%2C%20unappr

eciated,expect%2C%20even%20to%20provide%20rejection.

Escher, R. (2008, February). What causes child abuse? Health24.

https://www.news24.com/health24/Mental-Health/What-causes-child-abuse-

20120721

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2019). Long-term consequences of child abuse and

neglect. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,

Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau.

Widom, C. S., Czaja, S. J., Bentley, T., & Johnson, M. S. (2012). A prospective investigation of

physical health outcomes in abused and neglected children: New findings from a 30-

year follow up. American Journal of Public Health,

Bick, J., & Nelson, C. A. (2016). Early adverse experiences and the developing brain.

Neuropsychopharmacology, 41, 177–196. Retrieved from

https://www.nature.com/articles/

Kavanaugh, B.C., Dupont-Frechette, J. A., Jerskey, B.A., & Holler, K. A. (2016). Neurocognitive

deficits in children and adolescents following maltreatment: Neurodevelopmental

consequences and neuropsychological implications of traumatic stress. Applied

Neuropsychology: Child
Williams, L. M., Debattista, C., Duchemin, A. M., Schatzberg, A. F., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2016).

Childhood trauma predicts antidepressant response in adults with major

depression: data from the randomized international study to predict optimized

treatment for depression. Translational Psychiatry

Doyle, C., & Cicchetti, D. (2017). From the cradle to the grave: The effect of adverse

caregiving environments on attachment and relationships throughout the lifespan.

Abas, A. B. (2012, December 1). CHILD ABUSE IN MALAYSIA: LEGAL MEASURES FOR

THE PREVENTION OF THE CRIME AND PROTECTION OF THE VICTIM. DergiPark.

https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ijsshs/issue/26220/276044