Lit Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lit - Essay Example Some of the effects of child abuse include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic disorder, physical injury and propensity to for further victimization during adulthood among other problems. Sexual abuse by one of the family members results to incest and leads to long-term and more serious psychological trauma, mostly as in the case of parental incest. According to a 2009 report done in 22 countries by Clinical Psychology Review, the global dominance of child abuse has been estimated at 19% for females and 8% for males. Going by the available data, Africa leads in cases of child abuse (34%), especially in South Africa, with Europe being the least with 9.2%. Men commit most of these child abuse cases and some of them who have abused sexually a prepubescent child are pedophiles. A child who has undergone prolonged sexual abuse is most likely to develop a feeling of worthlessness, low self-esteem, and distorted or abnormal view of sex (Elizabeth, 2007). The child may later become withdrawn and mistrust the adults and may end up being suicidal. Fear-the offender makes the child to swear to secrecy and makes the child believe that something bad will happen if they reveal. Bribery, coercion or threats mostly accompanies sexual abuse. Overpoweringly, the child fears to tell out because of the consequences that might result e.g. blame, punishment, not being trusted, ultimate rejection or abandonment. Guilt and shame- the child knows that something is wrong but ends up blaming himself/herself not others. The offender mostly encourages the child to believe that the abuse was his/her fault and; as a result, becomes a person Responsibility-the offender forces the child to feel responsible for hiding the abuse. The child on the other side believes that they are responsible for keeping the secret so as to unite their family and maintain appearances by all means. However, the burden of responsibility