View Single Post
  #14  
Preechr Preechr is offline
=======
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: NA
Preechr is probably a spambot
Old Jul 2nd, 2003, 05:35 PM       
Will there always be child abuse and neglect? Yes, probably. Will it ever become so rare as to be considered an anomaly rather than endemic? Hopefully. How? You have to consider why it happens at all...

Before I start rambling on and on about the general problem of child abuse and neglect, I'm gonna answer your question as if you were asking for a specific solution to a specific situation. As I said, a person that abuses a child relinquishes their right to privacy, at least in that matter. Protection of children is a public concern, and the abuser has obviously made his abuse public if you've heard of it or witnessed it. The most efficient public mechanism for dealing with an issue is addressing it directly.

Confront the abuser. They are either guilty or innocent, and in either case cannot realistically blame you. The life and well-being of the child is prioritized higher than that of the child's guardian, so no insult is implied. By intervening, even in error, you are helping. If your help is taken as an insult, take that as a clue that the guardian's priorities are fucked anyway, and that you are probably right.

There is no need to beat around the bush on the matter, and no need to sugar-coat your words. Ask a few well worded and direct questions, and know all possible answers beforehand.

Child abuse is only ever misplacement of frustration. While it is not really your intention, I assume, to "solve" the problem, to do so means finding a more appropriate way to engage the frustration. The problem lives in the abuser, not its victim.

You will probably be stop at confirming your suspicions. I doubt your intention is hands on treatment, and you are probably not qualified. Find a local counselor that is familiar with intervention, and take their number with you to confront the abuser. Depending on your commitment to ending the abuse, you can either simply strongly suggest they call, or give them a one week deadline before you call the counselor yourself.

You can work out the details of that with the counselor you find. Try to use a charitable private therapist, as government employees tend to be a bit Draconian in their methods.

If your question, again, was more general in nature, I guess educating the public to react to perceived abuse in this manner, rather than waiting on Social Services to magically appear one day, would be a good start toward eradicating abuse and neglect.
__________________
mburbank~ Yes, okay, fine, I do know what you meant, but why is it not possible for you to get through a paragraph without making all the words cry?

How can someone who obviously thinks so much of their ideas have so little respect for expressing them? How can someone who so yearns to be taken seriously make so little effort?!
Reply With Quote