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Child abuse and neglect is a medical, psychological and legal issue. Any form of violence and negligence towards the young ones is prohibited by law and entails various types of responsibility. The number of children subjected to the cruelty of parents is growing every year. Obviously, cruel treatment of juniors cannot be permissible under any circumstances, and the belief that the use of violence is in the child’s interests is extremely erroneous and even criminal. Social services, which are guided by the legislation, do everything possible to reduce the level of child abuse, neglect and deaths. Their actions, however, are aimed at solving the issue but not at its prevention. It is obvious that the current measures are not enough to prevent child abuse and neglect fully and social services should increase their authority to avoid deaths among children.

According to the statistics, the United States has one of the highest rates of child abuse (American SPCC, 2015). Thus, on average, five children a day die from child abuse and neglect. More than 7 million kids in the United States at least once experienced cruel treatment from their parents (Whitlinger, 2017). It is obvious that the work of social services should be oriented not only to preventing child abuse but also to the decrease of the child death rate. In other words, the functions of social services should be multidirectional. Additionally, the social services should have a diversified structure and personnel of various posts to cover as many problem families as possible and provide help to them.

The first thing that social services can do to reduce the number of cases of abuse against children is the identification of poor and low-income families. Social services may establish close collaborative relationships with police officers, precinct officers and other authorized persons to find problematic households. At present, social services practice this approach, but it has showed its inefficiency since numerous troubled families remain undiscovered. According to the statistics, the total number of people living in low-income working families in the US stands at 47.5 million, including 23.5 million children (American SPCC, 2015). The studies reveal that the probability of child abuse in underprivileged families is higher than in well-off ones (American SPCC, 2015). For social services, it is necessary to increase the personnel whose main duties will incorporate the search and establishment of the first contact with low-income parents for further transmission of suspicious facts and contact information of the executive. Hence, this will help to find families with the greater likelihood of neglecting children and to prevent potential child abuse.

The second appropriate measure that social services can implement is the preventive interviews with parents at risk. Psychologists, sociologists and therapists have enough experience to conduct such dialogues with parents, and social services should increase the number of employees to improve the effectiveness of preventive measures (Whitlinger, 2017). It is advisable to raise awareness of the issue on a national scale, emphasize the importance of respect for children and their proper upbringing. Since the main causes of child abuse are mostly social in nature, social services should focus not only on identifying high-risk families but also on preventing possible cases of child abuse by means of preventive conversations.

Further, social services should take control over schooling in educational institutions that are appropriate to the age and development of juveniles. School attendance is an effective indicator of parents’ responsibility in relation to rearing of children as well as their discipline. If students skip classes or do not attend school at all, the likelihood of child abuse and neglect in such families is increased considerably. Currently, social services work with schools to transmit attendance data. This cooperation, however, does not imply the control of children’s visits but only monitoring of the attendance (Christian, 2015). It is necessary to expand the scope of powers of social services so that they could observe the child’s education independently and establish family surveillance. At the same time, youngsters who often miss school are required to approach a psychologist at least once a week in order to share their concerns as well as possible abuse and neglect towards them.

Despite the apparent predominance of abuse against children among low-income families, the studies show that child abuse is pertinent to representatives of all socioeconomic and educational levels, religions, ethnic and cultural groups (Mather, 2013). Consequently, social services should take into account this fact and closely monitor not only insolvent families but also all families who are at risk. Social services can strengthen cooperation with the police and simplify the transfer of data on missing juniors. In this case, social services will have access to another source of information to identify families in the high-risk group along with the resources to prevent deaths.

Another measure that can minimize the rate of deaths as a result of child abuse is the establishment of close interaction with the neighbors of those families who are in suspicion or in a high-risk zone. Cries, quarrels, crying and signs of aggressive behavior exhibited by parents usually accompany child abuse (Fortson, 2015). Nevertheless, such signs go unnoticed by neighbors but they often remain undisclosed. Social services should ensure a cooperative relationship, contact with neighbors and ask them to notify each fact of violence in a troubled family. Hence, social services will respond appropriately to prevent such cases in future.

Finally, one more measure is the assistance in finding employment for the members of low-income families as well as organizing their treatment for alcohol and drug addiction. As it has already been mentioned, low-income families belong to the high probability group of child abuse and neglect. Moreover, parents in such families often suffer from different kinds of addictions (primarily, alcohol and drugs) (Whitlinger, 2017). Additionally, the research reveals that parents who misuse alcohol or drugs resort to child abuse three times more often than normal families. Children in such families are four times more likely to be exposed to violence (Fortson, 2015). Social services should establish cooperation with the largest employers, become a kind of intermediary for unemployed parents and help the latter find stable work. Hence, social services can provide assistance for parents who are dependent on alcohol or drugs.

It is possible to argue that not all of the above measures correspond to the principle of non-interference in private life. After all, every family and every parent has the right to use a ban on the collection, storage, usage, and dissemination of information about a person’s private life without his/her consent. Social services, police, neighbors and all subjects of legal relations violate this principle trying to rectify the situation with child abuse. However, there is a UN convention on the rights of the child, which obliges all participating states to take all possible measures to protect children from all forms of violence. Consequently, the supervisory authorities can rely on a convention that has a higher legal force than the principle of non-interference in private life.

In summary, child abuse is an acute and urgent problem. Social services should strengthen their functions to prevent deaths as a result of abuse and neglect. Therefore, it is possible to identify families with low income. They also can conduct preventive interviews with parents at risk, as well as enhance control over school attendance. It is possible to promote cooperation with the police to monitor the loss of children as well as to assist parents in the treatment of alcohol or drug addiction and in the search for stable work. There is every reason to believe that these measures can help prevent child abuse and neglect and avoid deaths among children.

References

American SPCC. (2015). Child abuse statistics in the US. American Society for the Positive Care of Children. Retrieved from https://americanspcc.org/child-abuse-statistics/

Christian, C. (2015). The evaluation of suspected child physical abuse. The Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 135(5), 1338-1357.

Fortson, B. (2015). Preventing child abuse and neglect: A technical package for policy, norm, and programmatic activities. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Retrieved from https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/38864

Mather, M. (2013). U.S. low-income working families increasing. PRB. Retrieved from https://www.prb.org/us-working-poor-families/

Whitlinger, K. (2017). Child abuse: Prevent child abuse by learning how to detect, protect, and report it. (n.p.).