Utcomes of Child Abuse

Criminal Justice
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Abstract
Child abuse is thought to affect all domains of development (emotional, psychological, physical, behavioral and social) (Widom, 2014). This paper is aimed to discuss some of the possible outcomes of child abuse and how child abuse contributes to substance abuse and violent actions at an adult stage. According to various research conducted on the matter of child abuse and neglect, it is believed that child abuse results in disordered psychological development and behavior problems even at an adult phase (Widom, 2014). Researchers have frequently linked maltreatment with internalizing behaviors such as being sad, feeling depressed, isolated and withdrawn. Studies have also associated child abuse with externalizing behaviors such as being hyperactive and aggressive throughout childhood and in some cases throughout adulthood (Widom, 2014). Longitudinal researchers have indicated that child maltreatment results in both internalizing and externalizing behaviors in children, adolescents and at the adult phase. Various studies have shown that the bond of attachment created by the child and the caregiver plays a vital part in the child’s life and even at his or her adult life (Widom, 2014).
Outcomes of Child Abuse
According to various research conducted regarding child abuse, approximately forty million children across the world are abused annually. Child abuse is experienced at any socioeconomic level, across cultural lines and all ethics, within all religions and every level of education (Widom, 2014).

It is evident that children opt to grow stable and responsible if they have developed “a strong and secure attachment bond with their caregivers.” A secure attachment bond helps the children to strengthen their ability to cope with stress, standardize emotions, offers social support and creates nurturing relationships (Widom, 2014). As it is believed, a child finds comfort from his or her caregiver. However, when a child is abused, he or she is likely to display disturbed forms of affection and unusual patterns of emotional response to the caregiver, which later appear as a hinder to the child’s adult life (Widom, 2014).
The disturbed forms of attachment usually affect the victims of child abuse even at their adult stage. Abused children tend to develop control issues as they reach their adult phase (Widom, 2014). Through developing control issues, child abuse victims opt to go to extreme extents to prevent themselves from feeling helpless and make them feel in charge. According to Statistics Canada, abused children are often defiant, disobedient and argumentative; these characters accompany them to their adult life hence, making them violent. An abused child experiences anger issues in his or her adult life; the victims of maltreatment may fail to relate peacefully with others and get pissed off quickly making them respond to any situation with violence (Widom, 2014). At the adult stage, the victims fail to control their emotions since they lacked a secured attachment bond with their caregivers while they were children.
Adolescents who have experienced child abuse, a considerable fraction of them suffer from depression, social withdrawal, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Moreover, adolescents who live in a violent lifestyle; tend to run from their homes to search for a place they claim to find peace. While discovering their peace, the young adults engage themselves in unusual and risky behavior such as drinking alcohol, smoking, early sexual practices, prostitution for the case of girls and gang involvement for the case of boys (Widom, 2014). Adolescents who have gone through child abuse suffer from Psychiatric disorders at their adult stage. Long-Term research that was conducted by Greeson and his team indicated that 80% of young adults, who have passed through child abuse, met the diagnostic criteria indicating the presence of psychiatric anarchy by the age of twenty-one (Widom, 2014).
Through a survey that was conducted in 1997 in the United States, it is indicated that victims of child abuse who were physically or sexually abused are more likely to use alcohol, marijuana among other substances (Widom, 2014). The study stated that twenty-eight percent of physically abused victims use drugs while thirty-six percent of the fractions are opting to use drugs. Children who are exposed to abuse and neglect tend to inflict pain on others and have developed aggressive and violent behaviors at their adult stage (Widom, 2014). A research that was conducted by the National Institute of Justice in the US indicated that neglected and abused children were 11 times more likely to be arrested for criminal behaviors at their adult phase (Widom, 2014). Child abuse denies the children the opportunity of developing a secured attachment bond with their caregivers; as a result, they grow displaying disturbed forms of attachment and unusual patterns of emotional responses.
Reference
Widom, C. S. (2014). Longterm consequences of child maltreatment. In Handbook of child
maltreatment (pp. 225-247). Springer, Dordrecht.