Justin Golden, 20, went to court on Wednesday, months after he was arrested in January for aggravated manslaughter of a child and vehicular murder. Law&Crime looked into an arrest record that said Golden was driving his GMC pickup with his 8-month-old son Pablo Golden and the baby's mother on the morning of January 25. After going to Walmart, they started fighting over "baby wipes and money." The lady stated she wanted to get out of the car to stop the dispute.Golden replied by expressing that he "did not want to be responsible for the child."
The woman got out of the GMC when it was stopped at a red light. Golden grabbed Pablo out of the truck and put him in the road before he drove away, hitting the small boy with his car.
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Police caught up to Golden not long after he drove away from the site, which had a lot of witnesses to the terrible event, as Law&Crime has already covered. One person who was driving behind Golden's GMC observed the woman get out of the car "with nothing in her arms." The witness then saw the truck's driver, who was subsequently identified as Golden, take something out of the car and put it on the ground.
The report says that the witness told the police she assumed the thing was a "bag of trash," but then she recognized it was a kid when "she saw it move" after Golden drove over it. The witness said that Golden "did not speed away" while he was still driving.
Pablo's mom told the police that when she got out of Golden's car, she "heard screaming" and turned around to saw her kid in the middle of the road.
Pablo was taken to the hospital right away, where he was declared dead.
More from Law&Crime: Police say a father put his 6-month-old kid in the center of an intersection and hit and killed the youngster with his automobile after fighting with his girlfriend.
In February, local CW affiliate WJXT said that both families were still suffering following the event. Evelyn, Pablo's maternal grandmother, told WJXT, "He loved smiling, playing with his brother, his mom, and his dad." She also said, "His mom loves him, his dad loves him, this is just a tragic event."
Marie, Pablo's paternal grandmother, told WJXT that both families are mourning Pablo together. She said, "We didn't just start to be friends; this goes way back."
Golden admitted to killing a toddler at a court hearing on Wednesday. The charge of vehicular homicide was dropped as part of the plea deal. Golden's sentencing is set for November 13.
Professionals, social and cultural groups, and even time itself all have different ideas of what child abuse is. In the literature, the words abuse and maltreatment are frequently utilized interchangeably. 11? Child maltreatment may also refer to any kinds of child abuse and neglect. The definition of child abuse is contingent upon contemporary societal ideals regarding children, child development, and parenting. Different groups in society that deal with the issue of child maltreatment, such child protection agencies, the legal and medical communities, public health authorities, researchers, practitioners, and child advocates, may have different definitions of it. Because people in these different sectors sometimes have their own definitions, communication across them can be hard, which makes it harder to find, evaluate, track, treat, and stop child maltreatment. 3?
Abuse generally means doing something wrong, whereas neglect means not doing something right. Child maltreatment encompasses both acts of commission and acts of omission by parents or caregivers that result in real or potential harm to a child. Some health professionals and writers think that neglect is a type of abuse, while others do not. This is because the harm may have been unintentional or because the caregivers did not realize how serious the problem was, which may have been because of cultural beliefs about how to raise a child. There are also other concerns, such as the long-term impact of child abuse and neglect, especially emotional neglect, and the fact that there are many different types of child abuse.
The World Health Organization defines child abuse and child maltreatment as 'all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.' The WHO also says, 'Violence against children includes all forms of violence against people under 18 years old, whether perpetrated by parents or other caregivers, peers, romantic partners, or strangers.' In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses the term child maltreatment to refer to both acts of commission, which include 'words or overt actions that cause harm, potential harm, or threat of harm to a child', and acts of omission, meaning 'the failure to provide for a child's basic physical, emotional, or educational needs or to protect a child from harm or potential harm'. 11? The federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in the United States says that child abuse and neglect are, at the very least, "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation" or "an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."
Types of abuse
The World Health Organization has identified four categories of child maltreatment since 2006: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.
Abuse of the body
There is dispute among specialists and the general public on what actions are considered physical abuse of a kid. Physical abuse frequently manifests not in isolation but as an element of a behavioral pattern characterized by authoritarian control, anxiety-inducing conduct, and insufficient parental affection. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that physical abuse is:
Deliberate application of physical force towards the child that leads to, or has a significant probability of leading to, detriment to the child's health, survival, development, or dignity. This includes punching, beating, kicking, shaking, biting, strangling, scorching, burning, poisoning, and choking. A lot of the physical violence that happens to kids at home is done to punish them.
There is a fine line between abuse and punishment when it comes to physical abuse and physical punishment of children. Most of the time, physical abuse is meant to be punishment, both in intent, form, and impact. For example, in 2006, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro wrote in the UN Secretary-General's Study on Violence Against Children:
Corporal punishment means beating kids with your hand or an object like a whip, stick, belt, shoe, wooden spoon, or something else. But it may also include things like kicking, shaking, or tossing kids, scratching, squeezing, biting, pulling hair, or boxing ears, making them stay in uncomfortable postures, scorching, boiling, or forcing them to eat.
Most countries that have laws against child abuse think that on purpose hurting a kid badly or doing things that put the child in clear danger of getting hurt badly or dying is against the law. Physical abuse can include bruises, scrapes, burns, broken bones, cuts, and recurrent "accidents," as well as forceful treatment that could hurt someone. Having several injuries or broken bones that are mending at various times might make people think that abuse is happening.
Alice Miller, a psychologist known for her writings on child abuse, believed that humiliations, spankings, beatings, slaps in the face, and other similar actions are all types of abuse because they hurt a kid's integrity and dignity, even if the effects aren't seen right away.
becoming physically abused as a kid can cause problems in the future, both physically and mentally. These problems can include becoming a victim again, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorders, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, drug use disorders, and violence. There is apparently a correlation between childhood physical abuse and homelessness in maturity.
Syndrome of abused children
C. In 1962, Henry Kempe and his coworkers were the first to talk about the battered-child syndrome. The battered-child syndrome is a phrase that describes a group of injuries that young children get when they are repeatedly abused or neglected. Some of these signs are broken bones, many soft tissue injuries, subdural hematoma, starvation, and dirty skin.
Kids with battered-child syndrome may go to the doctor for a problem that has nothing to do with abuse or after getting hurt badly, but when they are checked out, they exhibit evidence of long-term abuse. Most of the time, the people who take care of the kids try to explain the obvious injuries by saying they were caused by little incidents. Parents could say that their child's behavior or habits, such being fussy or clumsy, caused the injuries when asked. Even if the child was abused, they may still feel close to the parent.
Sexual abuse
The main articles are on child sexual abuse and sexual abuse between children.
Child sexual abuse is a type of child abuse in which an adult or older teen sexually exploits a kid for their own pleasure. Sexual abuse is when a youngster is involved in a sexual act that is meant to provide the person doing it bodily pleasure or make money. Forms of CSA include asking or pressuring a child to engage in sexual activities, indecent exposure of the genitals to a child, displaying pornography to a child, actual sexual contact with a child, physical contact with the child's genitals, viewing of the child's genitalia without physical contact, or using a child to produce child pornography. Another kind of child abuse is selling kids' sexual services.
Victims of child sexual abuse may experience guilt and self-blame, flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, fear of things related to the abuse, low self-esteem, sexual dysfunction, chronic pain, addiction, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, somatic complaints, depression, PTSD, anxiety, other mental illnesses such as borderline personality disorder, a tendency to be victimized again as an adult, bulimia nervosa, and physical harm to the child, among other issues. Children who are victims are also more likely to get sexually transmitted illnesses since their immune systems are still developing and they are more likely to get mucosal tears during forced sexual contact. Sexual victimization in youth has been associated with various risk factors for HIV acquisition, including diminished sexual knowledge, heightened HIV prevalence, participation in hazardous sexual behaviors, condom evasion, inadequate understanding of safe sex practices, frequent partner changes, and extended duration of sexual activity.
In 2016, around 15% to 25% of women and 5% to 15% of males in the United States experienced sexual abuse during childhood. Most people who commit sexual abuse know their victims. About 30% are family members of the child, most often brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, or cousins. About 60% are other people the child knows, like family friends, babysitters, or neighbors. About 10% of the time, the abuser is a stranger. A minor is the culprit in more than one-third of incidents.
The BBC reported in 1999 on the RAHI Foundation's survey on sexual abuse in India. 76% of those who answered indicated they had been assaulted as children, and 40% of them said the abuser was a family member.
Abuse of the mind
Psychological abuse is the main topic of this essay.
There are several definitions of psychological abuse of children:
In 1995, The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children defined it as: spurning, terrorizing, isolating, exploiting, corrupting, denying emotional responsiveness, or neglect' or 'A repeated pattern of caregiver behavior or extreme incident that convey to children that they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting another's needs'
The American Psychiatric Association introduced Child Psychological Abuse to the DSM-5 in 2013. They defined it as "nonaccidental verbal or symbolic acts by a child's parent or caregiver that result, or have reasonable potential to result, in significant psychological harm to the child."
In the US, rules differ from state to state, although most states have prohibitions prohibiting "mental injury" to children.
Some people have said that it is the outcome of conduct like screaming, being rude and coarse, not paying attention, harsh criticism, and putting down the child's personality that causes psychological and social problems in a child's maturation. Other instances are name-calling, making fun of someone, putting them down, breaking their things, torturing or murdering a pet, giving too much or too little criticism, making unreasonable or too many requests, not talking to them, and routinely labeling or humiliating them.
Many adults who have been abused find it tougher to modify their habits and way of life after the abuse. Child maltreatment may have a significant impact on psychological behavior, exposing individuals to undesirable attitudes. To avoid these bad results, many people need to get aid to let others know about them so they can take steps to avoid them.
The APA discovered in 2014 that psychological abuse of children is the most common type of maltreatment in the US, impacting around 3 million kids each year. Studies have shown that the effects of psychological abuse on children may be just as bad as those of sexual or physical abuse.
People who are emotionally abused may respond by staying away from the abuser, taking the cruel comments to heart, or striking back by insulting the abuser. Emotional abuse can lead to aberrant or disordered attachment development, a propensity for victims to self-blame, acquired helplessness, and excessive passivity to evade similar circumstances in the future.
Not caring for
Child neglect is the main topic of this essay.
Child neglect occurs when a parent or other responsible individual fails to provide essential food, clothes, housing, medical treatment, or supervision to such an extent that the child's health, safety, or well-being is jeopardized. Neglect is when the people around a kid don't pay enough attention to them and don't provide them the things they need to live, including love, care, and attention.
Some symptoms that a kid is being neglected include that they often miss school, beg or steal food or money, don't get the medical and dental treatment they need, are always unclean, or don't have the right clothes for the weather. The 2010 Child Maltreatment Report, an annual publication by the United States federal government utilizing data from state Child Protective Services Agencies, identified neglect as the predominant form of child maltreatment.
There are six types of neglectful behavior:
Supervisory neglect: when a parent or guardian isn't there, which can lead to physical damage, sexual abuse, or criminal activity;
Neglecting someone's bodily needs means not giving them the basics, such a secure and clean environment.
Medical neglect is not getting medical treatment;
Emotional neglect: defined by an absence of care, encouragement, and support;
Educational neglect: when the caretakers don't provide the child an education or other resources to help them be a member of the school system; and
Abandonment: when a parent or guardian leaves a child alone for a lengthy time without a babysitter or other adult to watch after them.
Neglected children may encounter delays in physical and psychosocial development, potentially leading to psychopathology and compromised neuropsychological abilities, including executive function, attention, processing speed, language, memory, and social skills. Researchers examining maltreated children have consistently identified that neglected children within foster and adoptive populations exhibit distinct emotional and behavioral responses to restore lost or secure relationships. These children are often reported to possess disorganized attachments and a pronounced need to exert control over their environment. These kids probably don't see their caregivers as a safe place to be. Instead, they tend to become more aggressive and hyperactive, which might make it hard for them to form healthy or secure attachments with their adoptive parents. It seems that these kids have learnt to deal with an abusive and unreliable caregiver by being cautiously self-reliant. As they grow up, they are often called glib, deceptive, and insincere in their relationships with other people. Children who experience neglect may encounter more challenges in establishing and sustaining relationships, including sexual and platonic connections, in later life owing to their previous lack of attachment.
Consequences
Child abuse can hurt a child's body right away, but it is also strongly linked to developmental issues and many long-term physical and mental health problems, such as higher rates of chronic conditions, risky health behaviors, and a shorter life span. A research from May 2019 that was released by Cambridge University Press found that child maltreatment is also associated to suicide.
Children who are abused may grow up to be abusive adults.
Emotional
Physical and emotional abuse have similar impacts on a child's mental health, and they have been connected to sadness, low self-compassion, and negative automatic thinking in children. Some studies indicate that elevated stress levels resulting from child maltreatment may induce anatomical and functional alterations in the brain, thereby leading to emotional and social disturbances. Kids that are abused might grow up feeling insecure, having poor self-esteem, and not developing normally. Many children who have been abused have issues trusting others, withdrawing from social situations, doing well in school, and making friends.
Abuse can impact babies and other young children in different ways than it does older children. Babies and preschoolers who are being emotionally abused or neglected may be too friendly with persons they don't know well or at all. They may not feel safe or confident, seem to not have a close relationship with their parent, show aggressive conduct, or be mean to other kids and animals. Older kids could use bad language or behave quite differently from other kids their age. They might also have trouble controlling their intense feelings, look distant from their parents, lack social skills, or have few, if any, friends.
Kids can also have reactive attachment disorder. RAD is characterized by significantly impaired and developmentally unsuitable social interactions, typically commencing prior to the age of 5 years. RAD may manifest as a chronic inability to initiate or respond appropriately to the majority of social contexts. The long-term effects of emotional abuse have not been well researched; nonetheless, current studies are starting to record its enduring implications. There is a correlation between emotional abuse and higher levels of despair, anxiety, and problems in relationships with other people. People who were abused or neglected as children are more likely to commit crimes as teens and adults.
Domestic violence also affects kids; even when the child isn't the one being abused, seeing the violence has a big effect on them. Research studies, like the 'Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Child Abuse and Children's Exposure to Domestic Violence,' indicate that 36.8% of children commit felony assault, in contrast to 47.5% of abused or battered children. Studies have demonstrated that children subjected to domestic abuse are at a heightened risk of developing behavioral and emotional issues.
Physical
Rib fractures in a newborn resulting from child abuse.
The immediate physical consequences of abuse or neglect might range from modest to severe. Some injuries, such broken ribs or femurs in babies who aren't yet walking, may make people more suspicious of child physical abuse. However, these kinds of injuries are only encountered in a small number of children who are being physically abused. Burns from cigarettes or scalds may also lead to an investigation into child abuse.
The long-term effects of child abuse and neglect on physical health and growth can be:
Syndrome of shaken babies. Shaking a baby is a typical kind of child maltreatment that can cause lasting brain damage or death. Bleeding in the brain, injury to the spinal cord and neck, and rib or bone fractures can all cause intracranial hypertension.
Brain development is not going well. In certain instances, child abuse and neglect have been demonstrated to inhibit the appropriate formation or growth of critical brain areas, leading to developmental impairments. Child abuse or neglect can cause structural abnormalities in the brain, such as a smaller total brain volume, hippocampal atrophy, prefrontal cortex dysfunction, a lower density of the corpus callosum, and delays in the myelination of synapses. These changes in brain development have lasting effects on cognitive, linguistic, and academic skills. These neurological alterations also affect the amygdala and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which are important in how the body responds to stress and may trigger PTSD symptoms.
Bad health. Household dysfunction and childhood maltreatment are linked to a lot of long-term physical and mental health problems, such as getting sick more often as a child, teenager, or adult, having more chronic conditions, engaging in risky health behaviors, and living a shorter life. Adults who were abused or neglected as children are more likely to have bodily problems such allergies, arthritis, asthma, bronchitis, high blood pressure, and ulcers. There may be an increased chance of getting cancer later in life, as well as problems with the immune system.
A recent study's results back up earlier research that shows that exposure to violence and abuse can cause specific neurobiochemical changes, that several biological pathways may lead to the development of illness, and that certain physiological mechanisms can make illnesses less severe in people who have been through violence or abuse in the past.
Recent research shows that stress that happens early in life can cause epigenetic changes that endure into adulthood.
Study on Bad Childhood Experiences
The main topic is about bad things that happen to kids.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abuse and neglect in children can have long-term effects on health and well-being.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study has been going on for a long time. It looks at how difficulties in childhood, including abuse and neglect, might lead to health problems later in life. From 1995 to 1997, the first part of the research took place in San Diego, California. The World Health Organization sums up the study as follows:
Childhood maltreatment and home dysfunction lead to the development of chronic illnesses that are prevalent causes of mortality and disability in the United States. There was a high link between the amount of bad things that happened to people and their subsequent claims of smoking, being overweight, not exercising, drinking too much, using drugs, being depressed, trying to kill themselves, being sexually promiscuous, and getting sexually transmitted illnesses.
A longitudinal research of adults retrospectively disclosing adverse childhood experiences, including verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, along with other kinds of childhood trauma, revealed that 25.9% of adults reported experiencing verbal abuse, 14.8% reported physical abuse, and 12.2% reported sexual abuse throughout childhood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System also support these high rates. There is a strong link between the amount of varied bad things that happen to kids and the chance of adults being sick, dying early, abusing drugs and alcohol, or getting cancer, heart disease, or mental illness. According to an anonymous self-reporting poll of kids in Washington State, 6–7% of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders had tried to kill themselves. Depression rates are two times higher. Other risky activities are considerably worse. There exists a correlation between child physical and sexual abuse and suicide. Most childhood abuse stays unreported and unproven because of legal and cultural reasons and because kids are afraid of being taken away from their parents.
Researchers have shown that maltreatment in childhood can lead to drug and alcohol addiction in teens and adults. Research shows that any kind of maltreatment that happens to a child can modify their brain in ways that make them more likely to become addicted. A big research looked at 900 court cases of kids who had been sexually and physically abused as well as neglected. The research indicated that a significant number of the mistreated youngsters are presently struggling with alcohol addiction. This case study shows that childhood trauma may lead to addiction.
Mental
See also: Bad things that happen to kids
Kids who have been neglected or physically abused are more likely to have mental health issues or an attachment style that is not well-organized. Furthermore, children subjected to abuse or neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested during adolescence, 28% more likely to be arrested in adulthood, and 30% more likely to engage in violent criminal activities. Disorganized attachment correlates with several developmental issues, including dissociative symptoms, with anxiety, depressive, and behavioral symptoms. When some of these children become parents, particularly those with PTSD, dissociative symptoms, and other repercussions of child abuse, they may struggle to address the needs and normative distress of their infants and young children, potentially resulting in detrimental effects on their child's social-emotional development. Additionally, youngsters may struggle to experience empathy for themselves or others, perhaps leading to feelings of isolation and difficulty in forming friendships. Even with these possible problems, psychosocial intervention can work, at least in some circumstances, to change how parents who abuse their children think about them.
People who were abused as children also have different kinds of health problems as adults. Some individuals apparently have persistent discomfort in the brain, abdomen, pelvis, or muscles without a discernible cause. Most people who were abused as children know or think that their abuse is or could be the cause of health problems in their adult life. However, for most of them, their abuse was not directly linked to those problems, which means that they were most likely diagnosed with other possible causes for their health problems instead of their childhood abuse.
Conversely, several infants reared in abusive environments subsequently have unexpectedly favorable outcomes concerning the preconditions. People call these kids "resilient children" because they tend to thrive no matter what the weather is like, much like dandelions do. It is really important to find out what makes the impacts of child maltreatment less severe in these youngsters.
Reasons
Child abuse is a complicated problem with many different causes. No one element can be determined as to why some adults behave abusively or neglectfully toward children. The World Health Organization and the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect delineate many elements at the individual level, within relationships, the local community, and society at large, that collectively impact the prevalence of child maltreatment. Research indicates that individual characteristics such as age, mental health, substance use, and a personal history of abuse may operate as risk factors for child abuse. At the societal level, issues leading to child maltreatment including cultural norms that promote severe physical punishment of children, economic disparity, and the absence of social safety nets. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) say that it's important to understand how different risk factors work together to solve the problem of child abuse.
Tension and conflict in a marriage are two things that may affect partnerships. Parents who engage in physical violence toward their wives are more inclined to perpetrate physical abuse against their children. It is hard to tell if problems in a marriage produce child abuse or if both the problems in the marriage and the abuse are caused by the abuser's personality. Parents may establish expectations for their kid that beyond the child's abilities, and the ensuing frustration from the child's non-compliance may serve as a contributing reason to the incidence of child abuse.
A girl who was hurt in religious violence in Orissa, India
Most often, people hurt kids physically to punish them. Interviews with parents in the United States show that up to two-thirds of reported cases of physical abuse start as corporal punishment meant to change a child's behavior. A large-scale study in Canada found that three-quarters of confirmed cases of physical abuse of children happened while they were being punished physically. Other research has indicated that kids and babies who are spanked by their parents are far more likely to be hurt badly by their parents or need medical treatment. Research shows that abusive treatment generally includes parents blaming their child's willfulness or rejection for problems, as well as "coercive family dynamics and conditioned emotional responses." The escalation of conventional physical punishment by parents into documented child abuse may stem from the punishing parent's failure to regulate their emotions or accurately assess their own power, coupled with a lack of awareness of the kid's physical vulnerabilities.
Children born from unwanted pregnancies are at a heightened risk of abuse or neglect. Unintended pregnancies are more frequently correlated with violent relationships, and there exists an elevated risk of physical abuse during pregnancy. They also make mothers less mentally healthy and damage the quality of their relationships with their children.
There is relatively little evidence that children with moderate or severe impairments are more likely to be victims of abuse than non-disabled children. A research on child abuse aimed to ascertain the types of abuse inflicted on children with disabilities, the prevalence of such abuse, and the underlying reasons of abuse within this population. This study utilized a customized questionnaire on child maltreatment to gather data. Participants included a sample of 31 students with impairments chosen from special schools in Botswana. The research indicated that most individuals engaged in household tasks. Their professors also harmed them sexually, physically, and emotionally. This study demonstrated that children with impairments were susceptible to mistreatment in educational settings.
Substance use disorder can significantly contribute to child abuse. A research in the U.S. revealed that parents who used drugs, most often alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, were substantially more likely to abuse their children and far less likely to accept court-ordered assistance and therapies. A different research indicated that more than two-thirds of occurrences of child abuse and neglect included parents who were addicted to drugs or alcohol. This study notably identified correlations between alcohol and physical abuse, as well as between cocaine and sexual abuse. Parental stress due to substance use also heightens the probability of the youngster displaying internalizing and externalizing tendencies. Even while the victim of abuse doesn't always know it's wrong, the confusion inside them might cause problems. Anger on the inside evolves into frustration on the outside. When they are 17 or 18, they drink and do drugs to ease the pain, nightmares, and flashbacks that happen throughout the day. If the victim can't obtain a job, they will have to commit crimes to get the drugs.
Child abuse rates go up when people are out of work and having trouble with money. CBS News said in 2009 that child abuse has gone up in the US during the economic downturn. It presented the example of a father who had never been the main caregiver for the kids. The kids started coming in with injuries now that the father was in charge. People have also said that a parent's mental condition might lead to child abuse. A recent Children's HealthWatch research found that moms who show positive signs of depression are more likely to be food insecure, provide poor health care for their children, and have more hospitalizations.
The American psychotherapist Elisabeth Young-Bruehl asserts that violence to children is rationalized and legitimized by prevalent views in children's intrinsic subordination to adults, leading to a predominantly unrecognized bias against children, which she designates as childism. She asserts that this bias, although not the direct cause of child maltreatment, necessitates examination to comprehend the reasons underlying specific abusive actions and to illuminate societal deficiencies in addressing children's needs and overall development. 4–6? Michael Freeman, who started the International Journal of Children's Rights, also says that the main reasons for child abuse are bias against children, notably the idea that human rights don't apply to children and adults equally. He says, "Child abuse doesn't come from parents who are mentally ill or from stress in the environment; it comes from a sick culture that dehumanizes and devalues children, turning them into property and sexual objects so that they can be the rightful victims of both adult violence and lust."