Child Abuse In The States

Introduction

There is a plague that has infected the globe for centuries. Once it has infected a community, this plague will spread quickly, imbedding itself in both young and old. This plague does not kill, however, but fosters the encouragement of pain and abuse that can lead to unintentional death. There are many studies about child abuse and its effect on children, not only in their youth but in their adult life as well. Elizabeth Gershoff (2010) summarized a multitude of studies about corporal punishment in a home setting, stating that 110 out of 117 studies found negative effects resulting from corporal punishment toward children. These effects consist of, but are not limited to, higher aggression in children in their youth and adult ages, higher susceptibility of mental-health issues, and greater risk of criminal and antisocial behavior amongst children in their youth and adult years (p. 50). The United States, in particular, has a major issue with child abuse. Gerschoff (2010) states that 50% of toddlers and 65% of preschoolers receive corporal punishment from their parents, and 85% of middle and high school children in America have received some form of physical punishment (p. 31). The existence of child abuse in the United States is influenced by numerous reasons; two, of which, are from the significant influence of radical Christian beliefs and from government laws that allow these practices to take place.

Fundamentalism

One reason child abuse is still a major problem in the United States is due to the strong control of the Fundamental Christian view within the nation, especially in the southern region known as the “Bible Belt.” In general, Fundamental Christians, such as Evangelicals, view biblical texts as literal and should not be strayed from for fear of eternal damnation, even if these texts encourage physical harm toward children. In the 18th and 19th centuries, an emerging group of evangelical preachers manipulated people’s emotions to quickly gather a large following. These revivalists traveled across the nation to spread their ideology about the only true book with no fallacies. These preachers had their best standing in the southern and midwestern areas of the US due to a lack of educated clergy, Christian preachers who view their bible with more skepticism, within those areas. The living conditions also played a significant role in converting people to Evangelicalism during this time (Jouet, 2017, p. 85). However, this reason does not completely explain how individuals can legally practice toxic religious practices that result in the abuse of children.

Religious Exemption Laws

Religious exemption laws throughout the country are another reason why this issue persists in the United States. These laws allow parents to physically hit their children for discipline reasons and to withhold medical practices for their ill children in favor of spiritual healing. For example, a couple in Florida was found guilty of felony child abuse and third-degree murder by a jury. The couple had withheld medical care for their child due to their religious beliefs, resulting in the death of the child. However, Florida’s state Supreme Court overruled this decision due to the parents being protected by Florida’s spiritual healing provision (Rogers, 2014, p. 4). Not only did Florida’s religious exemption laws allow for the death of a child for religious reasons, but they also allowed the perpetrators to not be found guilty by a state Supreme Court. Historical events like this allow for individuals and communities to notice child abuse in the United States and potentially influence groups to change the narrative.

Who is Affected

Abused children, being the primary individuals affected by this social issue, receive unethical punishment for a multitude of reasons. They lack the needed support in their youth and are commonly shoved into a box so to “fit in” with the community’s social norms. Take, for example, one interviewee of Barton (2009), named Kelly. She recorded the moment in her life when her family found out she was a lesbian. Kelly witnessed Ella, her sister, being slammed into a wall by their own mother due to being caught in bed with another girl. After defending her sister, Kelly let her sexuality slip. That was the moment she was disowned by her entire family, telling her “[they] want nothing to do with [her]” (pp. 11-12). Kelly and Ella suffered emotional and physical abuse from their own family solely due to their sexuality. However, children are not the only group who are affected by child abuse.

Even though children are directly affected by this issue, numerous religious groups in American society, and potentially worldwide, are also affected. When incidents of child abuse due to religious beliefs are reported, the religions supporting those beliefs are challenged. Rogers (2014) mentions in his book a statement from a supporter of Christian Science, Talbot. He stated that the prosecutors of Hermanson’s, a child who died from untreated diabetes, trial wanted to ban a form of healing, specifically spiritual healing. He also stated that parents should have the ability to choose the specific care they want for their children, whether that care is spiritual, material, or a mixture of both (p. 33). Sometimes, those beliefs are tried in government courts and outlawed across a state or throughout the country. Other times, those beliefs repel followers of religion, resulting in a generalized negative view of those religions. Attempting to understand the cause and effect of child abuse can be tedious, however social science disciplines allow one to better understand this issue.

Two social science disciplines can aid in the understanding of the issue of child abuse in the United States. One of these disciplines is sociology, which is the study of how humans interact in a community as a whole (What is sociology, n.d.). This discipline allows an in-depth study on the societal factors that are allowing children to be abused in the United States by collecting and analyzing surveys about the validity of child corporal punishment, a community’s accepted ways to discipline a child, among other aspects related to child abuse within society. The other discipline is psychology, which studies an individual’s mind and behavior (Stangor & Walinga, 2014). Psychology would provide insight on the mental effects of abuse on children and the mental state of adults practicing the issue. The discipline can predict how this issue will persist in the future by studying how an individual’s past childhood trauma affects their mind and behavior in their adulthood.

There is also a social science theory that can explain how this issue developed. Symbolic interactionism describes how someone perceives meaning among social interactions (Nickerson, 2023). Using this theory, one possible explanation for the development of child abuse in the United States begins with parents perceiving their role within society to spread the word of their god. How they are perceiving their role in this manner is from the teachings and interactions of the dominant religion within the United States, Protestantism. Because of this perceived role, parents will attempt to conform their own children to possess the same view as themselves, which can result in corporal punishment, abandonment, among other abuse towards children. The actions chosen by parents to conform their children to their religious views can be examined using a diversity of ethical perspectives.

Ethical Explanation

Possibly the most important ethical perspective to be considered when formulating a position on this issue is deontology. This theory relates how ethical someone’s action is based on their obligation to a certain entity (What are ethical frameworks, n.d.). Take, for example, an Evangelicalism parent who decides to perform corporal punishment on their child who tries to leave Christianity. With a deontology view, the parent’s choice can be viewed as ethical due to their expected duty of spreading “God’s word” to their child. The choice can also be considered unethical due to the parent’s other expected duty of protecting their child from harm, which they failed to do in this scenario. The rights framework is possibly the second most important ethical perspective when creating a position on this issue. This framework places the rights established by a society as the highest priority when making a decision (What are ethical frameworks, n.d.). Going back to the prior example, within the view of the rights framework, the parent’s decision could be viewed as unethical due to violating the right to health to the child. However, their decision can also be viewed as ethical due to the parent’s right to practice their religion. In any case, an individual should consider as many perspectives as possible before deciding how they want to raise their own children.

References

Alan Rogers. (2014). The Child Cases : How America’s Religious Exemption Laws Harm Children. University of Massachusetts Press.
Barton, B. (2009). “I disown you. You are dead to me!”: Christian Fundamentalism, Homophobia and Family Life. Conference Papers - American Sociological Association, 1.
Gershoff, E. T. (2010). More Harm than Good: A Summary of Scientific Research on the Intended and Unintended Effects of Corporal Punishment on Children. Law and Contemporary Problems, 73(2), 31–56.
Nickerson, C. (2023). Symbolic Interactionism Theory & Examples. Simply Psychology.
Mugambi Jouet. (2017). Exceptional America : What Divides Americans From the World and From Each Other. University of California Press.
Stangor, C., & Walinga, J. (2014). 1. introducing psychology. Introduction to Psychology 1st Canadian Edition.
What are ethical frameworks? Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education. (n.d.).
What is sociology? Department of Sociology. (n.d.).