Effects of Child Bullying and Maltreatment - Critical Thinking Essay Example

Bullying refers to the harassment of an individual by another person either verbally, psychologically, emotionally, physically or through cyber bullying which could be accompanied by a power imbalance. Most of the young youth especially those in the tenth grade tend to face the challenge of bullying. Incidents that are related to bullying can manifest themselves in various forms. Bullying in the form of physical aggression can involve shoving or pushing while verbal abuse involves teasing another person in a manner that is harmful or name calling. The victimization and acts of bullying tend to have a great impact on the other persons mental health, physical, and social behavior. Maltreated children tend to face the risk of experiencing negative outcomes which includes delinquency (Turner, Exum, Brame, & Holt, 2013).

According to various studies that have been carried out by various scholars, bullying can result in the poor performance of an individual at school. Hindering academic success and as well as school attendance due to the fear of being bullied by other students. It affects a persons social behavior as it results to a person isolating him/herself from the peers due to the fear of being victimized or getting involved in violence. Being bullied by peers results to the emotional well being of the individual being affected which results in mental health cases such as depression. High rates of depression can result in death or the individual committing suicide. There is a high number of cases whereby adolescents have been reported to have committed suicide after the challenge of facing continuous acts of bullying. According to Klomek (2007), females who are bullied are more likely to be depressed, attempt suicide and suicide ideation. Limited levels of bullying victimization can result to a female experiencing a negative outcome from it as compared to the male gender (Turner, Exum, Brame, & Holt, 2013).

Children who are prone to mistreatment tend to involve themselves in delinquent behaviors. Mistreatment of a child can range from being physically abused, sexually abused or being neglected. A child who has behaviors which are not appealing is at risk of facing juvenile delinquency. According to Synder (2002) in 2000 a large number of juveniles were arrested approximately 2.4 million because of being involved with bad behaviors which included violent crimes such as robbery, aggravated assault, rape, robbery, while others had involved themselves in acts of property crime such as theft. A child gets involved with such behaviors because maltreatment of the child by the family members, parents or a foster family tends to disrupt the social bond that ties the youth to their conventional institutions or caregivers (Ryan & Testa, 2005).

The boy child has been neglected and abused, and this has resulted in more of the male children having to face the juvenile justice system as they have ended up engaging themselves in various acts of crime. The maltreatment has resulted in increased rape cases. According to the statistics of the police department have risen to 540.In June 2015 three teenagers got arrested in Chinatown for raping a 33-year old woman and also stealing from the woman.

In conclusion, children should be adequately taken care of and provided with the necessary resources to enhance durable relationships that are built on trust, commitment and binding them together. It will prevent the child from associating himself/herself with behaviors that are not acceptable in the society. A healthy upbringing of a child depends on the parents and as well as other socializing agents who are required to confront undesirable or nonconforming behaviors. Acts of bullying should be highly condemned since it negatively affects the victims leading to depression or attempts to commit suicide.

References

Baker, A. (2015, June 2). 3 teenagers are arrested in rape in Chinatown.

Goldblum, P.,& Espelage, D. L. (2015). Youth suicide and bullying: Challenges and strategies for prevention and intervention.

Ryan, J. P., & Testa, M. F.(2005). Child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency: Investigating the role of placement and placement instability. Children and Youth Services Review, 27(3), 227-249. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2004.05.007

Turner, M. G., Exum,M. L, Brame, R., & Holt, T. J. (2013). Bullying victimization and adolescent mental health: General and typological effects across sex. Journal of Criminal Justice, 41(1), 53-59. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2012.12.005