Why Do People Batter Little Children?

It now seems like an everyday occurrence to read or hear about a child being abused, sometimes even to the point of death. Many reports show that it has reached epidemic proportions all over the world. According to “The Journal of Legal Medicine”, The most common cause of childhood death today may be child abuse. It is a horrible fact that over 4,000 children die a year from circumstances associated with abuse or neglect. Most of these children are under the age of five. Hearing about the many different account of child abuse is heartrending.

Can you even believe that there are parents who have actually chopped off a child’s hands, burned, mutilated, beaten, starved, chained, imprisoned, and murdered their children. And to make matters even worse they are also subject to verbal, and emotional mistreatment. Those children who do survive usually have to go through many years of treatment, and sometimes even then they do not fully recover. Many doctors have found the child abuse is seldom the result of someone not liking the child or hating them. As strange as it may sound doctors say that these parents actually love the children that they hurt. Doctors feel feel that many of these parents suffer from some type of mental illness.

This is probably true since there has to be something wrong with any parent who would want to harm their own child. It is just not natural for them to have no affection. In some cases the parents or adults were victims themselves that were never treated. Other times it is just uncontrolled anger that causes this type of horrible abuse. Often anger results when circumstances arise for which one or both parents are not prepared. Many times this occurs when there are too many children for the parents to handle.

Especially in families where there is only one parent or when a step parent is involved. Many young girls who become pregnant have no idea of what it means to take care of a child. Some just can not cope with infants, while others can not cope with toddlers. However for someone to abuse a child to the point of death the problem is often a lot deeper than that. Many abusive parents have low-self-esteem and have been made to feel that way, according to Carole Bowdry the head of a child abuse project in Dallas Texas. Parents that were abuse themselves when they were children are often starved for love, and expect the impossible from their young children.

The list of opinions and ideas on why children are abused goes on and on. The bottom line is these children need help, and are just not getting it. The children that have already slipped through the cracks and were abused when they were children are now adults. And unfortunately because they were never helped or treated for their abuse they will continue the same pattern with their children. Many doctors feel that it is important to find out what causes the abuse and try to stop it before it happens. But there are so many things that can cause someone to abuse a child there is no way of really preventing it. However a solution to all of these problems is not far away!