Some stammering statistics., page 1

During Economic Recessions and Depressions, children are the invisible victims as Child Abuse skyrockets during these times. This is a known fact, and the recent dramatic increase in Child Abuse at this point in time is of no surprise.

Of course, there are other factors that contribute to this, none of which they list.

1.) Children are least likely to be abused when they live with their biological father. This is partially psychological being ingrained over millennium that the father is the protector of the family unit, but primarily it is biological. When the biological father is present, his pheromones act as a suppressant to his child, delaying the onset of puberty, and reducing the risk of sexual predators. It is assumed by the scientific community that this is a natural biological response to prevent incest, but statistics show that there is significantly less incidents of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse when the biological father is present.

2.) The number one abuser to children is non-biologically related males. Boy-friends of a single mom, step fathers, foster dads, and so forth are most likely to commit abuse. In our society where marriage or conventional families are almost a distant memory, like the model of the Nuclear Family, we have seen a dramatic increase in this. When a male is not vested biologically in the rearing of a child, there is little reason for them to ensure the child's safety at all costs. With boys, this is especially common as unconsciously the non-biological male will see the boy as competition. Likewise, the non-biological male is more likely to unconsciously regard the girl as potential sexual mate.

3.) For generations we never considered the possibility that mothers could ever commit abuse to their own child. Now that we have shattered stereotypes that persisted for decades, we are able to recognize that the biological mother is the second most common abuser of children. Many times it is subtle abuse, such as emotional abuse, but it can be far more severe. With the increasing number of single mothers, especially those without strong support groups of family friends, it is becoming more and more common to find abuse by the mother. It is hard raising a child as a single parent. It's difficult to consider mothers such as these as monsters because of the stresses they must daily face working full-time, parenting full-time, and trying to make ends meet on a single (often low) income. This is one of the reasons why Social Programs are so important as child abuse from the biological mother is generally far more easy to prevent than other groups.

The changes in our basic Family and Social Structures is a very big contributing cause to the increase of Child Abuse. As much as I am against the idea of a "Nuclear Family" and the Christian Right who push their Marriage agenda, there is a valid underlying premise to their arguments. I believe that two gay men or two lesbian women could be just as good of parents as the next. I also don't believe that a man and a woman should ever remain married for the sake of their children if their marriage is beyond repair and severely dysfunctional. However, statistically speaking, biology plays a huge role in preventing Child Abuse.

As far as Children Protective Services or Department of Human Services, and the Foster Parent Programs, they hurt as many families as they help. Their goals and their mission is a good one. I will not deny them that. However, it is commonly known that they damage and break up many good families to err on the side of caution. Rather than refer families that are having difficulties, where the abuse is not life-threatening, they simply remove the child from the family. Not all people labeled as Child Abusers are bad people. They are just broken and are in desperate need of help.

I say this because I was physically abused by my father for 10 years. It did not take me long after I moved out of the house at age 15 for me to heal and have sympathy on my father. I do not blame him for what he had done as I understand that his father did the same to him, as his grandfather probably did to his father. In my father's mind, he was just trying to make me "tough", not intentionally trying to hurt me. His actions were never out of malice, just severely misguided. I was strong enough to recognize this to no longer blame him, and break the cycle of abuse. In the end, I came out more than okay. If DHS or CPS had intervened at any point, I cannot say the same outcome would have come about. If I had been removed from my family as a child, I probably would have been further abused by a Foster Family, had serious issues of Neglect and Abandonment, and would have been another statistic in the continuation of the cycle of abuse. I am grateful that DHS or CPS didn't intervene, although if they were to consider repairing broken families by promoting or enforcing family counseling in such cases, it may have been a beneficial ending.