Child Welfare: Past, Present, and Global Challenges

Historical Overview

Throughout history children have been abused and left the abusers with no trial. There were nolaws that protect children from their abusive parents or from their owners (as it happened to theAfrican Americans childrens during slavery). The history of child welfare began in New York inthe late 1800s when huge wave of immigrants strike toward the United States seeking foremployment and better life. Womens were no longer work at home, severe poverty hit thefamilies and child abuse reach levels of considering children private properties or chattel.

The history of legal child protection in the U.S. began in 1873 when a 9 year old Mary Ellenwas abused by her guarding that brought the attention of church girl to help Mary. She looked forlegal ways to help her. Soon Henry Burg, former diplomat, and Albert Gerry, hear about Marydesperate situation and deciding to help her. They decided to help her by applying the sameprotection that they applied when they created The American Society for Prevention of Crueltyto Animals (ASPCA).

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This was the first phase in the development of the legal protection for an abused children.

I chose this topic because child welfare is important to my country, Eritrea, since thegovernment is abusing children by placing them in indefinite military service, imprison themwithout legal trail, and use them as workers on any government or military facilities withoutproper payment. This led to huge number of Eritreans to desert the country especially childrenbetween the age of 12-17 years old to flee to were their foot is going to end up in place wherechildren rights is respected and enforced by the law.

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Also, I chose this topic to know more abouthow child treatment and rights have changed since the past.

Child Maltreatment and Child Welfare

Before we go deep on exploring and discussing child maltreatment, child welfare, and family it'salways good to define the terms first. Child maltreatment is when a child abused physically,sexually, psychologically, or neglected by parents or guardian. Child welfare is a network ofpolicies and programs designed to empower families, promote a healthy environment, protectchildren, and meet children's needs. Lastly, family is when a group of consisting of parents andtheir children live together (Karen K. Kirst-Ashman, 277-282.)Its has been saying that child maltreatment is on decline since the Great Recession, but someresearch showed the opposite.

According to Seth (2013), an economist, she showed that childmaltreatment have been increased since the great recession due to the economic downturn byproving that the google search engine for child abuse increased as soon as the Great Recessionbegan and didn't drop during the recession.

Children maltreatment is not just existed at the U.S. but its a global problem that every nation aresuffering from it. According Jonathan Bradshaw, the author of The Well-Being of Children inthe UK, 48 children homicide in 2013-14, over 36,000 have a sexual offence recorded under theage of 18 and a severe maltreatment by a guardian or parent of 25% and 15% respectively. Children is not just being abused sexully or phschologicy but also are subject to trafficking. Thenumber of unaccompanied migrant children is on its highest record - 300,000 - which gives a room for human traffickers and smugglers to abuse children sexually and physically (Gladstone,2017.)

Implaction

Like any other fields or careers, to practice social work for child welfare and child maltreatmentyou have to meet certain criteria in order to practice on that field. First, you have to haveefficient knowledge about the diversity nature that your client have, about social welfarepolicies, and about how to strengthen and empower your clients. Second, you have to have somebasic social work values: service, integrity, individual personal values, and social justice. Third,you need to have the skills of engagement with your clients, planning for solving the problem, listening and communication skills, empathy, leadership and critical thinking skills. Lastly, youneed to have some social work competencies like the application of social work ethical principlesto guide the practice on the field, the intervention of policy making to advance social &economic welfare and the application of knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have learned a lot of lessons on child welfare and maltreatment. Social work wasthe key to end the abusive nature toward childrens. Childrens for long period of time, throughouthistory, have been subject to cruel treatment by families and guardian or employers. They weretreated so bad to an extent that they were considered as a property or chattel sometimes. Childmaltreatment was one of top issues that led to creation of welfare not just for kids but also forthe adults. It also helps define child legal rights under their parents or guardians. Although child maltreatment is decreased it still in some countries that children are subjected to forced labor, human trafficking and slavery.

Reference

  • Stephens-Davidowitz, Seth (2013, July 14). How googling unmasks child abuse. ProQuestHistorical Newspapers: The New York Times, pg. SR5
  • Rick Gladstone, (2017, May 17). 300,000 child refugees and migrants traveled alone on 15 and 16, U.N. says.
  • A Brief History of Child Welfare. Viemo.com 2017. Retrieved fromRees, G. (2016). Child maltreatment. In Bradshaw J. (Ed.), The well-being of children in the UK(4th edition) (pp. 263-286). Bristol: Bristol University Press. doi:10.2307

Updated: Nov 30, 2023
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Child Welfare: Past, Present, and Global Challenges. (2019, Dec 06). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/child-and-family-1-example-essay

Child Welfare: Past, Present, and Global Challenges essay
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