Here’s the article:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/03/4689218/death-sentence-upheld-in-child.html
The death sentence was upheld in this case where a four-year-old girl’s uncle tortured her to death. The article gives the details of what he did to her. I believe that we do have a flawed justice system but for the retribution of this little girl, the system worked.
There’s a story that some of you may remember about a ten year old girl being locked in a closet by her mother. The link to the article is below.
The article was posted on Newser.com on June 24th, 2012 by Mark russell. After reading the article, I got curious and went to read the reader comments. I won’t post any of the specific ones but most were discussing what should be done to the mother. Personally as much as I agree with the comments, another part of me says that by abusing the abuser (in this case, the mother) society would only sink to the level of the abuser. I believe this is why we have the judicial system. However flawed the system is, it’s meant to uphold the law so that we as individuals can be free. Also, because they system is ran by people, it is therefore imperfect.
I have done a bit more research and also want to post a link to a more in depth article regarding the situation.
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/07/12/mother-s-boyfriend-charged-case-girl-found-closet
The key paragraphs that I want to point out are copied below.
That witness said she last saw LP at Thanksgiving and that the girl ate so much she got a stomach ache. The girl also drank a lot, the witness told police. When the witness asked Prince why the girl seemed so hungry and thirsty, Prince allegedly said LP was “just greedy.”
According to documents filed last month in Jackson County family court, the process has begun to terminate the parental rights of Benson and Prince for all three girls. Benson, who is not the biological father of LP, is accused of some of the same things that Prince is.
“Jacole Prince and her boyfriend, Marcus Benson, have physically abused (LP) by hitting her with their fists in her stomach, face, back and legs, which have left the marks, scars and bruises on (LP’s) body,” a filing said.
I wanted to share this article that I came across today regarding the effects of psychological abuse on young children and its severity. Anything stated in this blog is not meant to be taken as fact but only as my personal opinion of what’s being discussed in the article. I welcome anyone that would like to add their thoughts as well.
One of the definitions of psychological according to http://www.dictionary.com is as follows:
of, pertaining to, dealing with, or affecting the mind, especially as a function of awareness, feeling or motivation.
Abuse is given a total of five definitions. They are as follows.
to use wrongly or improperly, misuse.
to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way.
to speak insultingly, harshly, and unjustly to or about; revile; malign.
to commit sexual assault upon.
to deceive or mislead.
So, in my own understanding and the way that my brain processes things, my personal definition of psychological abuse is the assault on ones mental stability.
This article states that ‘psychological abuse was recognized over 25 years ago, the researchers said few studies have looked at the rates of psychological abuse. Previous studies suggest about 8 to 9 percent of women and 4 percent of men in the US and Britain said they suffered from severe psychological abuse in childhood.’
I am going to go off track slightly to give some insight to my thought process. I remember when I was in college, in my Intro to Psych class, we were required to write a ten page self analysis paper. I remember going to do research on the subject matter of psychological abuse and maltreatment at the library. There was a very limited amount of reference material on the subject and I had to rely on a lot of my own personal experience. Thankfully my psych teacher accepted my personal inclusions in the paper.
Eight to nine percent of women and the four percent of men that the article discusses seems like a small number. Please take into consideration the massive amounts of people that don’t come forward to discuss their stories openly. Men (more often than women) choose not to talk about things like abuse. They prefer to move forward and forget it. Where as, women want to openly discuss their issues in order to process any lingering feelings. Here is a population example of the sheer numbers of people that have come forward with their stories…
Estimated population in the united states in 2011 (information gleaned from the U.S. Census Bureau) was over 311 Million. What is 9% of that population number? The answer is 27,990,000 million people. Granted this number is subject to male vs. female ratios and is simply being used as an example of quantity.
In most cases, I believe that if someone is willing to physically abuse a child, they are just as likely to psychologically abuse them. Depending on the person, one type of abuse is more dominant than the other. It just depends on what that person feels to be the worse of the two. Even the article discusses this. The article states:
The child said that the dad says things about me that make me feel badly, worse than the hitting.
Today, there is considerably more material on the subject matter of psychological maltreatment since it’s becoming more and more apparent in our society. What do you feel is the worse of the two: mental abuse or physical abuse? And should one be given more importance over the other?
These questions are meant to resemble a double edged sword. My opinion is that neither is worse than the other because the end result is the same… ABUSE and they should both be equally important. However, I feel that our society is moving too slowly in rescuing the multitudes of children that are in abusive homes.
1-year-old died from blunt head trauma, child abuse: officials – Chicago Sun-Times.
The above link is to an article published by the Chicago Sun Times and the Sun-Times Media Wire on July 29, 2012. It talks about a one year old little girl that died due to ‘blunt head trauma and child abuse.’
My heart breaks for the life that was born and then taken away without being able to experience life. When people ask themselves why these things happen, the number one response is that everything happens for a reason.
What reason is there for this little girl’s life to be sacrificed at the hands of her abusers? The article says that a homicide investigation has been opened… but no one has been implicated as of yet.
Above you will find a link to a New York Times article written by Nicholas Bakalar and published on July 23rd, 2012. This article states that with the rise of the mortgage crisis that our country is still suffering from, the child abuse rates have risen by 0.79 % per year since 2000 through 2009.
The question that comes to my mind is… is abuse linked to stress? I know the answer is, in a round-about-way, yes.
My thoughts are all over the place at the moment so please message me if something is unclear so that I can develop my thoughts further. I ALWAYS appreciate constructive criticism and will do my best to not take it personally.
Here’s something to ponder: An adult experiencing stress due to financial hardships takes their frustrations out on their child/children by beating them. So abuse is their outlet for frustration and stress. If that SAME adult had a positive outlet (for example, a sport like basketball) that they took part in on a daily basis for the purpose of de-stressing, would they still beat on their kids/family?
