Socio-cultural bases of child abuse

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><div><p><strong>INTRODUCTION</strong><br>&nbsp;<br><strong>1.1 &nbsp;</strong><strong>Background to the Study</strong><br>&nbsp;<br>One of the most celebrated things in the world of mankind is marriage which has as one of its<br>functions, reproduction. It is the wish and prayers of each and every spouse, their family and well-wishers to have the priceless gift of God to human kind, children. Having children is a thing of joy especially in African (Daily Trust, 2009). But despite the much celebration and thanksgiving for giving birth to a child, the children are abused in such a manner that one wonders if the abusers do not know the value of chidren. To this end, Gil (2006) defines child abuse as “the intentional, non-accidental act of omission on the part of parents or other caretakers, aimed at hurting, injuring or destroying that child”.<br>The greatest dream of almost every society in the contemporary world is to equip children for a healthy future so that they can be useful members of the society. This explains the reason why the international community is so much concerned about the issue of protecting childrenâs rights<br>(Onipe, 2004). An aspect of violence against human kind that has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years is the issue of child abuse. This practice does not only refer to the sparking and other physical punishments typically meted out to children by their parents. It means much more serious acts, such as subjecting children to vicious beating sometimes severe enough to break their bones, tying them up or locking them for hours or burning them with cigarettes or forcing them to put their hands on a hot stove, cutting their bodies with blade, using pepper on their sexual organs and even in extreme cases, killing them (Dietrich, 1983).</p><p></p></div><h3></h3><br> <br><p></p>