Violence; Violence
against children
www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ERqu27hhk
Stress is difficult to handle as an adult. I
have always been told as an adult that stress is a silent killer. Therefore, I can only image how hard it is
for a child to deal with the daily stressors of life. However, “some stress seems part of every
infant’s life; it may even be experience-expectant” (Berger, 2014, p. 139).
Nevertheless, “there is a limit to how much stress an infant can accommodate”
(Berger, 2014, p. 139). Often times daily stress causes parents to be moody and
simply at wits end; the normal playing that toddlers do and the crying is often
far too much and parents might become intolerant. “Because the prefrontal
cortex has not yet developed, telling infants to stop crying is pointless”
(Berger, 2014, p.139). “Some parents react by shaking a baby” (Berger, 2014, p.
139). “This reaction can cause shaken
baby syndrome, a life-threatening condition that occurs when infants are shaken
back and forth sharply and quickly” (Berger, 2014, p.139). “Nonetheless, in the
United States, brain scans show that one out of five children are hospitalized
as a result of shaken baby syndrome and out injuries(which most of which prove
to be fatal)” (Berger, 2014, p. 139).
Violence is a harsh
stressor for anyone especially children.
As a teen, I had to handle the stressor of losing my two year old
cousin, at the hands of his stepfather.
My second cousin had married a man that she felt madly in love with and
was three years younger than her. All of
the family felt that he was controlling and often wondered if he abused her and
her children. One Friday night, she went
to the grocery store with my mom, my sister and I (because she did not have a
car) and left her youngest son, Ty (the victim) at home with her husband while
his older brother was at her parent’s house.
She was away from the home roughly three hours and Ty was dry, fed, and in
great spirits, and healthy when we left home.
We dropped my cousin off at her house around 8:30pm that night and
around 9:30 we received a call from my cousin indicating that she had put away
her groceries and went to check on Ty only to find that he was cold as ice and
unresponsive. Her husband claimed that
he did not even know and that he simply put him to bed at his normally bed time
and was unaware what happened. Ty was taken to the hospital by ambulance by was
DOA (dead on arrival). Days later my
cousin’s husband was arrested and immediately indicted for murder. Hospital
records revealed lots of bruises and broken bones (from prior untreated
beatings), and a ruptured spleen. Upon trying to get the exact year and date of
my little cousin’s murder, I contacted my sister (11-22-14) only to find out
that the accused has been released from jail and is currently in a relationship
with my cousin who has never divorced him after all these years and after
murdering her son (19-20 years ago, in 1994 or 1995). Much prayer is needed for
these types of situations for my family and families involved in such
situations around the globe.
The same violence against children is horrific around
the globe. Amartya
Sen, the Nobel Prize winning economist said in 1990, more than 100 million women are
missing; In India, China and some other countries in the world,
girls are killed, aborted & abandoned because they are girls. The
United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world
today because of gendercide. I have chosen this region in the world
because I wish to know more about not just the violence against all children
but, why females are singled out in an act that I feel is one of the most
horrific child stressors in the universe.
References:
Berger, K.S. (2014). The developing person through childhood (6th ed. p 139).
New York, NY: Worth Publishers.
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