TOGETHER WE ARE
Introduction
Physical abuse is often the most easily recognized form of abuse. Physical abuse can be any kind of hitting, shaking, burning, pinching, biting, choking, throwing, beating, and other actions that cause physical injury, leave marks, or cause pain.
Sexual abuse is any type of sexual contact between an adult and anyone younger than 18; between a significantly older child and a younger child; or if one person overpowers another, regardless of age.
Emotional abuse can be the most difficult to identify because there are usually no outward signs of the abuse. Emotional abuse happens when yelling and anger go too far or when parents constantly criticize, threaten, or dismiss kids or teens until their self-esteem and feelings of self-worth are damaged. Emotional abuse can hurt and cause damage just as physical abuse does.
Neglect is difficult to identify and define. Neglect occurs when a child or teen doesn't have adequate food, housing, clothes, medical care, or supervision. Emotional neglect happens when a parent doesn't provide enough emotional support or deliberately and consistently pays very little or no attention to a child. This doesn't mean that a parent doesn't give a kid something he or she wants, like a new computer or a cell phone, but refers to more basic needs like food, shelter, and love.
Survey
We conducted a survey about abuse, with the intention of determining what people knew about abuse, how they would handle these types of situations, and whether they had been in an abusive situation themselves.
The results of the review
The results of our survey showed that 90% of our participants had never been abused or in any sort of abusive relationship. They chose to punish their children in an appropriate manner, which seems to be how their parents punished them. This, we believe shows that they are unlikely to express abusive behaviour. They all displayed a reasonable amount of knowledge about abuse: most being able to correctly identify different types of abuse, even listing some themselves, and all agreed that victims of sexual abuse are both male and female.
All the questions got nearly the same or similar answers and none of them were particularly worrying, except for one: Are females who wear revealing clothing more likely to be sexually abused? The answer to this question was almost evenly split: 52% answered no and 48% answered yes.
Another thing that we took note of, for this question especially, was the ages of the participants. The majority of those ages 20-39 said yes, participants 10-19 were just about evenly split although the majority agreed as well, whereas those 40 and above believed otherwise despite having been brought up during, what is considered, a more conservative and modest time.