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Child and Elder Abuse
Many children and frail elderly people are at risk of being abused largely because their ability to defend themselves is impaired. In the recent past, the media has been awash with many cases of abuse and neglect involving children and the elderly. In this text, I conduct an online research in an attempt to identify and analyze two recent cases of child and elder abuse.
Case
Recently, Alyssia Skinner - a resident of Hernando, was according to Rojas (2013) "charged with child neglect, aggravated child abuse with great bodily harm, and torturing and caging a child." This severe case of child neglect and abuse was discovered after detectives visited her home and found a 17-month-old baby living in deplorable conditions. The said baby had been living in a small room which was largely disorganized and had no toys. Further, the room in question had several soiled diapers and in addition to being wet and discolored, the carpet smelled of urine. This is a clear indicator that the room had not been tended to in a long time.
When law enforcement officers visited her mobile home, they found the baby in a sorry physical state. In addition to being malnourished, the toddler was rather cold to the touch. She also had red rashes on both her public area and legs. On being taken to the hospital, the child was according to Rojas (2013) diagnosed with hypothermia. She had to be flown to another hospital for specialized treatment after subdural hemorrhaging was...
To drown the baby's cries whenever she had visitors, Skinner would play very loud music from a radio that was located in the toddler's room. In the words of Rojas (2013) "investigators said they were told the girl's legs cannot be straightened from a curled, fetal position because they had been contracted for extended periods of time in an attempt to conserve heat."
Case 2
Due to their advanced age, elders tend to be physically frail and weak. This effectively makes them more vulnerable to bullying and other forms of neglect. Last month, a male health care worker was charged with indecently assaulting an elderly lady in one of Citrus County's facilities. The victim of the attack was blind. At the time of the attack, the 90-year-old woman was in the toilet when a man walked in and told her that he intended to prepare her for bed. The accused, 39-year-old Daniel Christopher Hall, then proceeded to sexually molest the elderly lady by fondling her private areas. As Hollingsworth (2013) further points out, he then "penetrated her with his finger."
According to the elderly lady, she could not identify the man at the time as in addition to being blind, she hadn't heard his voice prior to the incident. She described the entire encounter as rough and hurting. Following the incident, the victim in this case complained of experiencing burning urination. On being arrested, Hall at first denied of sexually assaulting the old lady. However, he…
References
Hollingsworth, H. (2013, February 12). David and Pamela Martin Charged With Child Abuse for Allegedly Handcuffing Teen to Pole. Retrieved February 15, 2013, from the Huffington Post website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/david-pamela-martin-child-abuse-handcuff-teen-pole_n_2670898.html
Rojas, J. (2013, February 15). Citrus County Woman Charged With Severely Abusing Toddler. Retrieved February 15, 2013, from Bay News website: http://www.baynews9.com/content/news/baynews9/news/article.html/content/news/articles/bn9/2013/2/15/citrus_county_woman_.html
Starr, R. & Wolfe, D.A. (Eds.). (1991). The Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect: Issues and Research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Child and Elder Abuse Child Abuse The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) publishes a website called healthychildren.org. -- and the section called "What do I need to know about child abuse?" provides excellent information on the particulars of child abuse. The Healthy Children site points out that child abuse "…is common," and hence, with all the reports on television and in the newspapers about children being mistreated, it should cause parents, guardians,
126). Although there are an increasing number of elderly in the United States today with many more expected in the future, the study of elder abuse is of fairly recent origin. During the last three decades of the 20th century, following the "discovery" of child abuse and domestic violence, scholars and professionals started taking an active interest in the subject of elder abuse. This increased attention from the academic
That is because older patients bruise very easily (hence it would be conjecture that a bruise might have been the result of violence); also doctors may be reluctant to report a certain condition as abuse simply because they would (by law) then have to report it. Reporting a possible incident of abuse against an older patient would mean the doctor would have to testify in court, and might be
If one takes into account that the number of elderly in nursing homes in the country is on the increase, then the need for an adequate awareness of and research into the problem becomes evident. One of the central questions that need to be addressed is why this form of abuse occurs with such general frequency. While there will always be those few individuals who should not be in responsible
The speaker, however, quoted statistitics that demonstrated the vast majority of reported cases taking place in homes. The vast number of unreported cases also keeps the ignorance about this problem alive and well. Connected to these problems are other contributing factors such as the increased vulnerability of the elderly, their greater dependence, their susceptibility to dementia, a lack of basic awareness of the abuse, and the tendency to disbelieve reports
A lack of good relationships with staff can also result in a high risk factor for abuse from caregivers at these facilities. According to Woolf (1998), other factors that can contribute to the abuse of elderly persons, either in care facilities or in the home environment include external stress and intra-individual dynamics or personal problems. In terms of the former, a family members financial problems, job stress, or other issues