How do you feel about child abuse?

Question: How do you feel about child abuse?
- Keywords:
  child psychology
Asked by anon-204914 to Sally, Lucy, Louise, James, David, Dan on 6 Mar 2019.
- Dan Taylor answered on 6 Mar 2019:
  
  I’d probably start by just clarifying that from a moral standpoint, child abuse is clearly wrong and I do in no way condone it.
  Academically and forensically (though i’m sure Sally can explain more) child abuse presents a complex issue that really does need to be understood in order to help prevent this type of crime from happening again. Unfortunately providing an explanation for behaviour can sometimes be seen as condoning it. I don’t believe this to be true as having an explanation for a behaviour is key to preventing it – take something like depression, if we know neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) play a role in depression, we can see antidepressant drugs that affect the levels of these chemicals are going to be important in treating depression.
  I don’t know a lot about child abuse, however I have some knowledge of paraphilia – or sexual disorders, one of the most “famous” paraphilia is pedophilia which is frequently linked to child sexual abuse. Pedophilia presents a complex problem for many mental health and forensic professionals, as there is an argument that it has strong biological roots that lead it to function as an almost sexual orientation and therefore cannot be cured. Therapies like CBT may help people cope with urges but does not stop the attraction. Whilst this can be seen as condoning or accepting the behaviours associated with pedophilia I believe its important that these treatments can be accessible in order to prevent children being abused in the future. Often early intervention can be vital in a multitude of disorders and therefore using research to identify who may be at risk, not only for abuse but for carrying out these abusive behaviours is important.
- James Munro answered on 6 Mar 2019:
  
  Interesting question. If you mean how do I respond to it emotionally, it makes me feel very sad, very angry and very helpless. Child abuse is a big problem worldwide and I am just an individual.
  
  If you mean what do I know about its causes and solutions to it – not enough. There is a cycle of child abuse, in which being abused as a child seems to make you more likely to abuse your own children or be violent to other people. It is therefore very important for outsiders to be able to stop that cycle by helping the adults and children get the help they need. If an abused child growns up to be an abusing adult – is there any point in assigning blame? Very important to treat everyone as humans and educated and take care of them to avoid these things repeating every generation.
  
  This is not an area I am an expert in – these are my opinions as a psychologist but not a child welfare psychologist.
- Lucy Maddox answered on 6 Mar 2019: last edited 7 Mar 2019 3:11 pm
  
  I feel deeply sad about it.
  EDIT: This question has been in my mind and I wanted to add to my answer.
  One of the reasons I feel so sad about child abuse is because the effects of it can be so devastating, but in addition to that I think it’s important to say that things aren’t always set in stone – being abused doesn’t mean someone will go on to be an abuser and doesn’t mean they are doomed – there are definitely things that can help people cope with the aftermath – getting out of the abusive situation first of all and then being in a safe place, and maybe having talking therapy to try to help with the emotional consequences.
  I had a job as an expert witness for a couple of years, which involved trying to help work out what the least worst outcome was for children from families where they had experienced very severe abuse. Some of this involved interviewing parents who had been abusive. Usually the parents really loved their children, but couldn’t cope for multiple reasons. The abuse was devastating for the children but often also for the parents.
  Just in case anyone is reading this and feeling unsafe or worried themselves, the NSPCC site Sally linked to is a really good one.
  There is also Young Minds: https://youngminds.org.uk/find-help/feelings-and-symptoms/abuse/
  And Childline: 0800 1111
- David Chadwick answered on 6 Mar 2019:
  
  Abominable. What more can one say?
  I also think that FGM is just as bad.
- Sally Tilt answered on 6 Mar 2019:
  
  Child abuse can of course take different forms – sexual, physical or neglect – and it is a sadness for our society. On a positive note – there is now more awareness of child abuse, and more support for people than at any previous time. Teachers, sports club organisers etc. will all have attended training to help them to spot signs of abuse, and to raise concerns at an early stage. There are also lots of online support sites for anyone who is worried about their situation, that I’d recommend e.g. https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/how-abuse-changes-childhood/
  
  Many of us have a particular image or idea of child abuse that most readily springs to mind when we hear about it – often based on cases that the media talks about most often. But abuse can occur in such a range of situations by a wide variety of people – and so it follows that the approaches that can help to avoid abuse need to be wide and varied too. In some cases of neglect, providing support for parents to understand about the importance of interacting with children from birth, to allow for attachments to develop and the beginning of language acquisition can help to avoid abuse through neglect.
  
  I found Dan’s answer really helpful – when he talked about men and women who have a sexual attraction to young children – paedophilia. (This term is generally used in the media to refer to people attracted to all children and young people – but the term actually refers specifically to an attraction to younger children – below about 10 years. An attraction for children between 10 years and 14 years is called hebephilia). Sometimes the term paedophile is used interchangeably with the term child abuser – but actually this is a misunderstanding. Many people who sexually abuse children are not paedophiles – that is, they do not have an attraction to children – the abuse is linked to different reasons. Similarly there is a significant group of people who are paedophiles (i.e. who have a sexual attraction to children) who are strongly opposed to any form of harm to children, and have never and never intend to act on their attractions. This is not as surprising as it might first sound – we know that if people have a sexual attraction to e.g. adult women, they can chose whether to act on this attraction and don’t try to form relationships with all adult women. In order to ensure that these people – who sometimes prefer to use the term nomap (non offending minor attracted person) than paedophile – get the support that they need to continue with their intention never to harm a child, it would be easier if information like this was more widely understood.
  
  You’ve asked a really important question – thank for raising this issue and giving us a chance to hear each others thoughts on it. More talking and understanding is likely to lead to a safer society in the future.
- Louise Rodgers answered on 10 Mar 2019:
  
  Its taken me ages to respond to this because I kept thinking about how to answer it. Firstly, some of the other psychologists have put excellent links into their answers from trustworthy organisations if you want to find out more about any aspect of it, including how to report it.
  
  I don’t have any special knowledge or research background in this area, so my knowledge just comes from reading, knowing and working with people who have experienced this and shared their feelings about it. Its really damaging and takes place in all types of families and settings, in all walks of life … but recently I think there has been a change in social attitudes towards accountability and stigma. This is the beginning of a good thing, I think – its becoming more acceptable for people who have survived abuse to talk openly about it instead of blaming themselves or feeling ashamed, for example. For years secrecy, shame, blame, guilt have all been part of an extra burden for victims of child abuse, and wouldn’t it be great if we’re seeing the beginning of the end for that?

Question: How do you feel about child abuse?

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