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TheTruth
About
by
Donald D. Schroeder
Why do sorne parents beat and abuse their own
children and others never do so?
C
H I LDREN
are daily
brought to the attention
of the public and health
officials having been beaten,
burned, stabbed, electrically
shocked, stamped on, thrown
violent ly aga inst walls or
raped- by parents or other
adults in charge of them.
A great portion of these vic–
tims are less than three years of
age, and many of them die. All
th is in our civilized world!
Fractured skulls, broken legs and
arms, blackened eyes, bruised
bod–
ies and whiplashed necks are com–
monplace. Even hardened law offi–
cers often break down emotionally
after finding such abused chil–
dren.
What Has Gone Wrong?
Only a small proportion of parental
or adult child abusers are criminal
psychopaths. Many abusers after
being counseled say they don't
want to hurt their children, but
somehow they lose control of them-
22
selves and do it anyway when child–
rearing problems or frustrations
arise.
"You swear you will never raise
your kids the way you were raised,"
said one mother who abused her
children, " but it ends up that way
because you don't know any other
way todo it."
Most incidents of child abuse
stem from crude and improper
attempts at discipline. Parents
become provoked by a child 's
apparent inability to follow instruc–
tions, by misbehavior or rebellion.
They lose their tempers and punish
a child in violent anger or by verbal
abuse. To call this child rearing is a
tragic misnomer.
Numerous physically abused
chi ldren are permanently damaged,
physically and intellectually. Many
suffer handicapping emotional dis–
turbances. Others run away from
homes and turn to sordid life-styles
and crime. Most vicious murderers
and rapists were seriously abused
children.
A spokesman for one organiza–
tion for the prevention of child
abuse says: "The residue of today's
child abuse will be seen in the hos–
pital emergency room tomorrow, in
the juvenile court in a decade, and
in a whole new· future generation of
abusing parents and abused chil–
dren."
What is the cause of this evil?
"The simplistic !ay view that
child abuse is caused by parents
•who don't know their own
strength' while disciplining their
children has been shown to be
false," says C. Henry Kempe,
M.O., former professor and chair–
man of the Department of Pediat–
rics, University of Colorado Medi–
ca! Center, Denver, Colorado.
Child abuse is an improper use
of physical or psychological forc.e
or discipline on a child, often
administered out of uncontrolled
emotional whim or ignorance.
CHILD ABUSE IS CAUSED BY PAREN–
TAL OR ADULT LACK OF EMOTION–
AL CONTROL.
What Research Has Found
Research into the backgrounds of
child abusers has discovered that
while there is no perfect profile of a
child abuser, an adult's potential
for child abuse can be estimated.
What researchers have found is
that most cases of chi ld abuse occur
when critica! factors come together
with sufficient force. Certain par–
ents under duress may say or do
something they later see was inap–
propriate and take steps to avoid
losing control again. But repeated
child abusers with bad emotional
habits in reacting to problems in
life and to d ifficulties with their
offspring fail to regain self-con–
trol.
Following are critica! areas that
determine a parent's potential for
child abuse:
•
How the Parents Themselves
Were Reared.
Almost invariably,
parents who physically or emotion–
ally abuse their small children were
reared in similar manner. Battering
parents often say that is how they
were raised, and that while they
may not always like the results,
they know no other way to "keep
the kids in line."
Abusing parents usually lacked
proper imprinting by their parents
or other adults with the loving, ten–
der attitudes, knowledge and tech-
The PLAIN TRUTH