All of the major religious texts in the world today stress the inherent value of children, but to many people throughout the world—including the United States—children are disposable. They are beaten, raped, and murdered by family members, bullied to death by peers, and enslaved.
Brutality in families:
In the United States, according to government documents:
- In 2009, 1,770 children died as a result of child maltreatment
- In over 75% of these cases, a parent was the perpetrator
- In 2010, 63,527 children were sexually abused
Bullying:
Probably every reader of this post either was bullied as a child or knows someone who was bullied. If so, it is likely you remember the incident(s) well.
Bullying is another symptom of a culture of violence, a culture in which brutalizing children has too long been ignored. To learn more about bullying in the U.S. today, view this graphic. Better yet, print it, send it around, and use it as a basis for discussion.
To humanize the problem more fully, see the reports on three recent cases in which children aged 10, 13, and 14 were bullied to death.
Slavery:
More people are slaves in the world today than at any previous time in history—and many of these slaves are children. Watch this video for more information.
What do you think are the effects on children of growing up in a culture of violence in which they can be exploited and brutalized? We will consider some of these effects in our next post.
Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology
i was reading this article and i was astonished. i did not know how many people get brutally abused, because i do not really hear about it or maybe i do not pay attention to it or maybe i just ignore it. as the video say many people avoid the word slave and what’s sad is that a slave price is around $90 around the world. looking at this number and listening to people that have lived their stories i can sense that it has been hard for them. i am glad to be aware of all this numbers because it can help some people not to feel alone if they have been abuse or bullied. this articles can be shared and help a lot of people that can not speak for themselves.
Thank you for your comment, Michael. I am glad the post was an eye-opener for you. Only very recently have sex trafficking laws been passed in Massachusetts. to see a recent article on efforts to stop what is essentially a form of slavery in Massachusetts, see http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2012/10/18/feds-state-seek-arrests-sex-slavery-operation/B3UGV1wkGYcGM7UOc71PWI/story.html . And for another important article on slavery in the Boston area today, see http://braintree.patch.com/blog_posts/fighting-slavery-today .
This was something really disturbing. To actually realize just how bad something like this is in our country is mind boggling. Police should really start cracking down on this. The way I look at it, if every pimp is behind bars then it kinda makes it hard to continue this type of operation.
Thanks for your reply, Daniel. Your suggestion that locking up pimps would solve the problem is consistent with the way a lot of Americans think about the issues that trouble them. Indeed, you may be interested in the following information from a report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency:
“In the past 30 years, the United States has come to rely on imprisonment as its response to all types of crime. Even minor violations of parole or probation often lead to a return to prison. This has created a prison system of unprecedented size in this country.
The US incarcerates the largest number of people in the world.
The incarceration rate in the US is four times the world average.
Some individual US states imprison up to six times as many people as do
nations of comparable population.
The US imprisons the most women in the world.
Crime rates do not account for incarceration rates.” For more information, check out
http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/factsheet-us-incarceration.pdf
Personally, I do not believe that Americans are inherently more crime-prone than everyone else in the world. I do believe we can find better ways of dealing with our social problems than simply locking up everyone whose behavior is offensive. Given the information from the Crime and Delinquency report, what other suggestions do you have as to how we can reduce victimization of women, children, and, yes, often men in our society?
I also found the article very astonishing when I saw the numbers. I don’t think the world is paying enough attention to most of these issues especially bullying. I know it doesn’t sound frightening but wen we see the numbers and hear the stories of many kids who lost their lives dealing with that problem. I think it is a serious problem because most of the time it is hard to know that someone is being bullied.
Hi, Rudy. I think you are right that bullying is a serious problem and up until recently it was one that attracted very little public concern and almost nothing in the way of prevention and intervention efforts. That neglect seems to be lessening now, perhaps because of media stories about the children who have committed suicide because of bullying. A report from American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry suggests that nearly half of all children get bullied at some point during their school years and that 10% or more are bullied regularly. The report says that “Boys tend to use physical intimidation or threats, regardless of the gender of their victims. Bullying by girls is more often verbal, usually with another girl as the target.” The authors of the report have a number of suggestions for parents who think their children are bullies or are being bullied. For example, they say, that if parents think their child is being bullied, “Don’t encourage your child to fight back. Instead, suggest that he or she try walking away to avoid the bully, or that they seek help from a teacher, coach, or other adult.” What do you think of that advice?Whatt other advice would you give to parents of bullies? victims of bullies? If you would like to learn more about the advice being given to parents, read the report at http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/bullying
I have always known that this is a cruel world that we live in. After reading this post and actually seeing the number of children that are brutalized, I am amazed. They say children are the future but even as this is so, the future would hold nothing more than a repeated cycle of cruelty if this continues to take place. Children are easily taken advantage of by their elders due to their innocent nature. This abuse is usually by a relative or peer but I feel people are not naturally violent, this is learned. In regards to bullying, sexual and physical abuse, these are abusers who themselves have been abused. It is a never ending cycle of abuse that needs to end and only with seeing numbers such as these can one realize how many young people are affected. Realization is only the first step; it will take many years and many willing people to actually put an end to the abuse.
Hi, Anthony. Thanks for your comment. Both people and misfortune can bring cruelty into the lives of many people, including children, but as you recognize there are “willing people” who work to end violence and abuse in this world. And I don’t mean just the Mother Teresas and the Gandhis and the Nobel Peace Prize winners. I mean ordinary people in ordinary communities who empathize with those who are less fortunate and work to make the lives of others better. I am sure you know some people like that, and given the empathy you show in your essay, I imagine that you are one of the people who can make a difference.
I’m not shocked by these statistics at all. I think the country has for too long turned a blind eye to things that need attention. I grew up in a home with two parents who set the rules and stuck to them. But I had many friends with two homes, two sets of rules, and varying stages of independence. I can remember most of the problem activities like drinking and experimenting with drugs happening at the homes where the rules were either lax or non existent of many of my friends. I think the main problem is that basic family values are no longer existent in most cases and parents face tremendous amounts of stress and financial difficulties which they can’t handle and it creates tension and anger in the family unit which leads to violence. I don’t have the solution, but the issues are escalating at such a rate that something has to be done.
Dear Charlene. Thank you for your comments. I agree that most American families have to deal with enormous stresses, particularly in these difficult economic times. There is plenty of evidence that stress is one contributing factor to child abuse and other forms of family violence as well as evidence that violence in the home is associated with bullying. I wonder, though, about how to explain the behavior of people who basically enslave other human beings, including children, for personal profit. Do you think stress and anger are viable explanations in those cases? We have been running a series on the blog concerning the culture of violence. Are there aspects of our culture that you think can help explain enslavement of children for sex or other forms of labor?
I think it really depends on where this is happening. In some countries like India where there is a caste system these things are part of their culture and economy. So unless you are going to change the laws that govern that country to reflect the basic human needs and rights of all people that isn’t going to change. The problem isn’t what is happening, it’s why its happening. Privatization of natural resources has left few options for people that have lived and survived off of the land for thousands of years. Vandana Shiva has several books published on this issue. Water is bottled, crops are bagged and sectioned off from civilians to be exported and sold throughout the world. But what about the people that live there? They now need to find new means of generating revenue because land and resources that they have survived on for years are privatized. When you have no land to grow crops or raise animals for food or a way to support yourself and purchase food that you have always had available to you, what option is left? Children are transported over the border to the US from Mexico at an alarming rate and frequently sold in to slavery. But what most people don’t realize that these children are often surrendered to these transporters. They can only hope that the person that they are handing their children over to aren’t going to harm their children. Why are these things happening? Because of money and greed in my opinion and it won’t be until we put more worth in life and sustainability instead of the all mighty dollar that things will change.
Thank you for your very thoughtful comments, Charlene. The issue you raise about children being transferred over the border from Mexico to the US is extremely important, and extends far beyond exploitation of children. I recommend the film Wetback, tho it is truly chilling to see what horrors people go through just trying to escape poverty that is imposed on them by the practices of people with varying kinds of power to exploit and harm. Here is a link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Aw6C52LbQ
I enjoyed your article because as a child I never could grasp why some girls/women did certain things. However as an adult and through my professional career I learned the struggles and trauma some of these girls/women experienced. I gained a tremendous amount of respect for anyone who suffer past/present trauma. I continuously try to be non-judgmental and supportive to anyone in need of help. Watching the video of sex trafficking reminded me on why it’s important not to judge a closed book.
Thanks for your comment, Erica, and for sharing your experience in learning a very valuable lesson.
I was watching this vedeo i really could not believe how bad children can be treated in this country. In other places In Africa and other third world countries child abused is common, but the goverments or counties have no means and ways to protect their children. It is rediculous to see young children in the US (greatest country) in the world having that kind of treatment. If anything Children should be safe and protected by any mean possible. Instead of spending all this money in war every year. To me there is no effort at all by the state to stop those kind of activities. according to the video 1 out 100,000 people who are involve in sex trafficking get cut, and it happens every single day almost everywhere in the country? That is ridiculous why can’t the goverment spend that money in some kind of child protection programs?
Thanks for your comments, Jameson. You end with a very good question: “why can’t the goverment spend that money in some kind of child protection programs?” I think that needs to be followed up by other questions–for example, who controls government spending? To what constituencies or other forces do Congresspeople respond? Why are so many members of Congress eager to spend mondy on armaments when even the Pentagon says says many are not needed instead of programs to protect children?
After reading this article I realize that the older I get, I have come to realize that bullying never dies, it simply changes form. As human beings, I don’t think we realize how much bullying stays with us, and can determine whether or not as adults we are the bully or the victim. Aggressive adults demonstrate the same type of behavior as children, just at an elevated level, where sadly and in extreme cases of bullying and physical altercations, one of the individuals dies.
Hi, Amanda. You are certainly correct that it is not just children who do bullying. There are many so-called adults who are constant bullies, and I would suggest that there are countries, including our own, that very much engage in bullying behavior.
It really is unbelievable how much sex trafficking does happen here in the US, and it is so sad that these poor children become victims of it. It is sad and unfortunate enough when a woman or man feels they have no other choice but to turn to the oldest profession of prostitution, but for these children and young adults who had no choice it is just horrible.
On another note however I want to bring up about bullying. I was bullied very much when i was younger, but i have to say that I never thought once about killing myself or harming myself over it. I’m wondering why it is that so many children are killing themselves because of being bullied. Maybe I just was never aware of it, but it seems to me that the rate of suicide for kids being bullied is much much higher than it has ever been. To me that makes me feel like there is something else going on or that maybe something else needs to be done and I don’t just mean more anti-bullying stuff.
These kids, these victims of bullying need to be talked to maybe even more so than the bullies themselves. The kids need to understand that this part of their life (as hard as it is) will only last for a short while, and that if things are really that bad than there are other choices than killing yourself. These kids could change schools or change classes or see a therapist. By no means am I saying that the bullies should get off scott free, they should absolutely have to answer for what they’ve done, but it is not just about the bullies it is about he victims.
Hi, Katie. It is a good question whether more kids today are killing themselves following bullying or whether the suicides are just reaching public awareness more often. We do seem to hear much more today about bullying, suicides from bullying, and efforts to prevent bullying. For GLBT kids, one important initiative is the It Gets Better project. Interested readers can learn more at http://www.itgetsbetter.org/
Child abuse and bullying has become one of the most devastating type of crime in this moment of time, it is a crime that requires more awareness to help lessen the fatality rate of suicide and homicide in the country. its saddening to see that most of these crimes are being committed by people whom the children’s know, while they are supposed to be there to help protect children’s, not put them in harm.
this is really disturbing to know that this kind of activity is going on in the US. the government is spending so much money on wars that is not even necessary. they can’t even protect their children. this is sickening.
I agree with the comments above. Although abuse clearly happens in our society, most try to brush it under the rug. Fortunately, there are blogs as this one that will hopefully shed some light on the situation.
i personally am shocked by these stats….To know that such acts of violence and such behavior is occuring right here. as anthony said , the children are our future but at the rate of which people are using and mistreating our children …in my opinion the future is looking very dim.
i was reading this article and i was astonished. i did not know how many people get brutally abused, because i do not really hear about it or maybe i don’t want to know because if i don’t know about it then it not real that they is evil people in this world. as the video say many people avoid the word slave and what’s sad is that a slave price is around $90 around the world. looking at this number and listening to people that have lived their stories i can sense that it has been hard for them. i am glad to be aware of all this numbers because it can help some people not to feel alone if they have been abuse or bullied. this articles can be shared and help a lot of people that can not speak for themselves. I learn lot for the video and article.
Thank you for your comment, Lily, and i hope you will be one of the people who will share the article and the link to the video, and help spread awareness regarding the problems.
Listening to the young girl speak about the dramatizing experience she endured gave me goosebumps. It made me wonder if her parents knew what was going on. The young girl was taken advantage of. I could not imagine this happening to my child. When I heard the clip say it happens to many girls between the age 13-17 I could believe it. That is the beginning of the teenage life where they do want to experience and learn new things. I am glad she was confident enough to share what she went through and also glad that she made it out!
Children are more susceptible to maltreatment compared to other age groups for a number of reasons. At a young age children are easily influenced, allowing continuous abuse to go unnoted due to threats to remain silent. Few resources are known to children for them to seek help, and even family members cannot be turned to when they are most often the perpetrators of abuse. Recurrent abuse leaves children especially vulnerable to future abuse by peers, such as bullying.
According to the Third National Incidence Study from 1996, over 1.5 million children in America have experienced harm from abuse or neglect, whether the abuse is physical, emotional, or sexual. This maltreatment extends across all ethnicities in America, but is especially prevalent in African American and Native American Indian communities, both of which have experienced violence and oppression. African American children are the highest among all children to be victims of abuse or maltreatment. African American parents use more aggression against their children than White parents do, and in addition are more prone to stressors from the ongoing history of discrimination and stereotyping. Such discrimination and stereotyping can also lead to the bullying of African American children in school. Native American Indian children also experience a large amount of child maltreatment, with neglect being the most common form throughout all tribes. The sovereignty that Native tribes have does not require them to report cases to U.S. officials, leaving many cases of child abuse unreported and children without help. Native American Indians tend to be the most violently victimized ethnic group in America, making these children easy targets for abuse across the country. Child abuse is hard to detect across all ethnicities, especially since millions of cases go unreported each year. By education and awareness on the issue children across the globe may be able to get the help they need in order to live in a safe environment.
The statistics in this post are staggering considering what a privileged country we live in. In today’s world one would think that more nation wide attention would be directed to the useless deaths of our children. Why is it that such topics as child abuse, bullying, and under aged sex trafficking are not on our politician’s campaign platforms? I wish I had a rational answer to that question. All I can come up with as an explanation is that our culture ignores children, especially orphans, victims of abuse, and the underprivileged. When political attention is concerned, people feel it is more important to focus on trivial pursuits such the legalization of marijuana rather than focusing on the future and wellbeing of children in need. Attention as a means of prevention, I believe, would be the first step in the fight against child brutalization. If a larger amount of the population were aware of not only the statistics, but the faces behind crimes of child abuse, people may be more inclined to find answers and demand action from state and federal legislature. Possibly more important, funding to independent and non-profit organizations that help fight abuse and treat its victims would increase with heightened awareness of the problem. Sometimes, children need to be guided by a helping hand in order to spot abuse, or information as to how they can escape it. For the most part, this type of information is not readily accessible, thus leaving a large part of the population in the dark. As I mentioned earlier; no one can take action if they are unaware of the scope of the problem.
I agree that these statistics and the video are sad and shocking but I think that more often than not, we as a culture refuse to acknowledge the prevalence of violence in our society. Violence against children permeates all classes and all ethnicities and we need to do a better job of addressing family risk factors for child abuse. Those risks include single-parent families, step-families, parental substance abuse, and low income, to name a few. Additionally, Americans still cling to the idea that people should be self-sustaining and successful without the help of others. This value prevents our culture from learning to accept help when it is needed. We know that about 30% of abused children will go on to be abusers themselves, so we need to find a way to educate and support those children to stop the cycle of violence. When parents and children feel they cannot seek help to stop abuse, laws against child abuse will only serve to punish and not prevent perpetrators.
Some reports say that physical maltreatment had decreased over 50% in the last 20 years, but how do we know if this is truly the case? Child abuse is not present in the current discourse of our country, so it is possible that the decrease is due to fewer reports and not lower incidence. I think it is also important to remember that violence is not the only type of child abuse. Neglect and psychological maltreatment are also forms of abuse and are still prevalent in our society. Statistics show that mothers are most often reported for neglect over fathers, but this is probably due to our reliance on mothers to raise children. Americans need to be more critical about the causes of child maltreatment in all of its forms or else we will continue to repeat the cycle of violence.
One line really stuck with me while watching the video: “Who do I trust, who do I give my name to?” Our society has so much trouble defining words that cause tragedies in our environment. Words like abuse, sexual abuse, neglect…and so on. We’ve been focusing on definitional issues while children, as this video has portrayed, are being dehumanized in America. Most of the time, we focus a lot of on physical and sexual maltreatment of children, but little do we understand and recognize that there is a deep, underlying psychological abuse that happens throughout as well. The woman states in the video of the acts she’s seen and how she has been sexually abused and sold off like a slave, which paints a horrid picture of the violence in her life. Then, the video gives viewers (and her) that glimmer of hope through the organization Fair Fund. However, she still mentioned that she has trouble trusting others and having that complete sense of peace (similarly to this blog reading: http://engagingpeace.com/?p=6108). But should this be a surprise? Neglected children are at risk for becoming prostitutes, and for suffering worse effects socially, emotionally, and academically. They can also become the most withdrawn, obtaining a very low self-esteem and having the most difficulty coping (Hines & Malley-Morrison, Family Violence in the United States, 2013). Even as Asia describes her past, she mentions a troubled childhood, how her mentally ill mother left her and was instead raised by her grandmother. Asia also became pregnant and gave her child up for adoption. With her lack of family support (of any support actually) she was vulnerable and traffickers would prey on these kinds of victims for control. Asia was extremely lucky to come across the organization Fair Fund to help her cope and deal with her psychological issues that remain from the pervasive abuse she has endured throughout her life. But there are many girls like Asia that will go unreported. Victims of child sexual abuse and sex trafficking are inhibited to disclose of the abuse. It might be because of embarrassment and shame but even for those that did eventually disclose their abuse, less than 10% say that their abuse was reported to the authorities (Hines & Malley-Morrison, Family Violence in the United States, 2013). Knowing that there are many other abuses that go unreported, we have to continue to strive for psychological treatment and prevention so that the cycle of abuse can be broken.
I love that this video sheds light on slavery, especially sex trafficking that still occurs today because more people need to be aware. Not enough people realize how prevalent sex trafficking is in our country, perhaps even in our states. In addition, this is also related to psychological maltreatment. Most children who have been a victim of child sex trafficking have deeply rooted negative effects of psychological outcomes. At the core of all child maltreatment, psychological maltreatment is always present and is often the most difficult to experience because it is so deeply rooted in one’s identity (Family Violence in Cultural Perspective, p. 39). At the same time, I love that this video talked about the Fair Fund and how this helped Asia find hope in the midst of darkness by giving her employment and housing, teaching her to be independent, and also just allowing her to grow emotionally, especially with all the things that she went through having been a victim of sex trafficking. In addition, this made me wonder what makes someone more prone to be sexually abused as a child and there were some similarities and differences found in the various cultures. However, by realizing and learning about what makes a child more vulnerable to sexual abuse, we can take action, especially with those at-risk to prevent it from happening as well as just growing awareness. For example, in African American communities, poor family communication, authoritarian parenting, and corporal punishment make a child more vulnerable to sexual abuse. Knowing these things, communities can help build each other up in areas where they need to be supported, especially in the families. In other cultures, there are different factors, but all in all, it just makes me realize that since we know what factors contribute to child sexual abuse, there is something we can do. Sex trafficking should not be part of our society today, as well as child maltreatment in general.
The fact that more people are enslaved today than at any point in history is both sad and shameful. It is no secret that arguably the biggest stain on American history is the purchase, sale, exploitation, and killing of slaves. With the exception of hate groups, nearly every American knows that this type of barbaric behavior is unacceptable. Of course, to view the enslavement of any person, especially those sold into the sex trade, from a strictly American perspective is very shortsighted. The child sex trade is especially prevalent in the modern world, and there are horrific consequences for even those victims who escape or are freed. Specifically, I think of the tremendous amount of therapy necessary to provide even a semblance of help to a victim of such abuse. It is likely that these children experience Stockholm Syndrome, and actually begin to sympathize with their attacker. It is only through removal from the situation and intense therapy that a person can see clearly, but that damage has been done. A child who was in the sex trade since he or she was, let’s say, five-years-old likely never received any proper education. For those victims who escape or are freed when they are 12 or 13, there is very little room for improvement. The child will constantly struggle academically, will undoubtedly be socially impaired, will likely suffer from PTSD, and a host of other problems. As such, it is a sad truth that these children may ultimately find themselves jobless, abusing alcohol or drugs, and possibly homeless.
I could not agree more with your above comment about enslaved children. I was stunned at the sentence in the article that referred to children as disposable, but as I continued to read and watch the videos I realized this was very much the truth. As a country we are lacking in several areas that only allow the enslavement of children to grow and somehow still go unnoticed. As mentioned in another comment we spend more time focusing on definitional issues surrounding such devastating problems that we are in some ways allowing this behavior to continue. Without the education of the prevalence of this crime and any other in relation to the abuse and dehumanization of children people often don’t recognize what is going on or they ignore it. It reminds me of the idea that an incident could happen on the street and someone could be hurt and although there are many bystanders no one calls the police because they assume that someone else has already done so. We can no longer sit back and assume that some one else is speaking out on behalf of all of the children that find themselves caught up in these situations. It is time to take a stand and begin with educating others about this problem in order to come together and establish prevention strategies as well as rehabilitation for individuals that survive so they can go on and try to live a “normal” life. I feel that there are some agencies that have begun doing this, but there is not nearly enough being done to combat this issue.