Family Violence :: essays research papers

In his book Wounded Innocents, source Richard Wexler recounts the testimony of eight-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson in the commencement ceremony U.S. court case concerning minor abuse. The year was 1874 Mama has been in the habit of whipping and beating me to the highest degree every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip, a desolate hide. The whip always left a black and blue loot on my body. I have now the black and blue label on my head which were made by mama, and also a bite on the left side of my forehead which was made by a pair of scissors. She struck me with the scissors and cut me . . . I do not know for what I was whippedmama never said anything to me when she whipped me.Interestingly, this case was brought forward the court by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Although thither had been laws enacted as early as colonial times to prevent sister abuse, in practice the legal system had mostly ignored the issue. In Mary Ellens case, the ASPCA successfully argued that the girl was protected under laws interdict the mistreatment of animals. As a result of the publicity surrounding Mary Ellens case, more than two hundred Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children sprang up well-nigh the country, and many states passed laws making electric razor abuse illegal. However, public awareness of the bother wavered over the next eighty years, and child abuse remained a by and large unacknowledged fact of life in America. Most communities continued to pack the family itself to deal with the issue if anyone did intercede on the behalf of the victim, it was likely to be an broad family member or a pastor, and the problem was unlikely to be reported. Children were seldom removed from any but the poorest families. Historic tout ensembley, authorities got involved only when madness resulted in severe physical injury or death. The passage of the first mandatory child abuse reporting laws at the state direct in the early 1960s began a transformation of the issue from a taboo family secret to a social problem worthy of donnish debate. As reports came in from doctors and teachers, the publics willingness to address the issue on a national level coalesced, and in 1974 Congress passed the Child aversion Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). The act, which earmarked federal funds for states that passed mandatory child abuse reporting laws, has encouraged the passage of such laws in all fifty states.