Social Justice: Child Abuse And Neglect

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Social justice issues have engulfed many members of today’s society, whether it be having to sit in jail for a crime that one did not commit or being paid an unfair amount for the work that one does. Social injustice, at different levels, impacts people of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. One specific area of social justice is child abuse and neglect. Child abuse and neglect demonstrate social injustice as children are oftentimes not able to control the situation in which he or she is being abused and/or neglected and the child may not understand how to advocate for him or herself. Child abuse and neglect include physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as failure to meet the needs of a child, which results in serious health concerns …show more content…
Those who experience abuse and neglect are at higher risk for experiencing with smoking, alcohol, drug abuse, and engaging in risky sexual behaviors. According to the CDC (2018), adults with a history of child abuse and neglect are 1.5 times more likely to utilize illicit drugs in middle adulthood. The CDC also discovered that children who are abused or neglected are at least 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy, lower academic grades, and delinquent behaviors. Experiencing abuse or neglect increases the likelihood or a juvenile arrest by 59% and increases the likelihood of an adult criminal behavior by 28% and violent crime by 30%. Child abuse and neglect also have the potential to influence intimate relationships in adulthood.
Economically, the average lifetime cost of a child experiencing nonfatal abuse and neglect was $210,012 in 2010. These costs included childhood health care, adult medical costs, productivity losses, child welfare costs, criminal justice costs, and special education costs. Whereas, the average lifetime cost for those whose abuse or neglect lead to death was $1,272,900. In 2008, the total economic toll that child abuse and neglect took in the United States was approximately $124 billion, which is close to the costs of strokes and type two diabetes (cdc.gov, …show more content…
Children who experience abuse oftentimes suffer from long-term consequences, emotionally and physically. When adults who have been abused as children are attempting to cope with their past experiences and take care of themselves, it can be difficult to care about what is going on around them. In other words, the individual is going to attempt to fix his or her current situation before trying to benefit the rest of society, which would be the common good. The common good is accomplished when all members of society experience equality in regard to receiving support socially and economically. Many factors contribute to the attainability of the common good, such as people being able to recognize that there is an injustice. Linzer (1999) also points out that “the causes of child abuse and neglect include…inadequate housing, unemployment, limited education…” (p. 71). Each of these points can be attributed to the common good. If each of these points was accomplished, society would be one step closer to reaching the common
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