Family Violence :: essays research papers

In his book Wounded Innocents, writer Richard Wexler recounts the testimony of eight- socio-economic class-old Mary Ellen Wilson in the first U.S. court case concerning child abuse. The year was 1874 Mama has been in the habit of whipping and beating me almost every day. She used to whip me with a twisted whip, a raw hide. The whip ever left a black and blue mark on my body. I have now the black and blue marks on my head which were do by mama, and also a stroke 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 before the court by the American Society for the measure of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Although there had been laws enacted as early as colonial times to prevent child abuse, in practice the legal system had mostly ignored the print. In Mary Ellens case, the ASPCA successfully argue d that the girl was protected under laws barring 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 electric razorren sprang up around the country, and many states passed laws making child abuse illegal. However, public awareness of the riddle wavered over the next eighty years, and child abuse remained a largely unacknowledged fact of life in America. Most communities continued to expect the family itself to deal with the issue if anyone did intercede on the behalf of the victim, it was likely to be an extended family member or a pastor, and the problem was unlikely to be reported. Children were rarely removed from any merely the poorest families. Historic anyy, authorities got involved only when violence resulted in severe physical injury or death. The passage of the first mandatory child abuse reportage laws at the state level in the early 1960s began a transformation of the issue from a taboo family secret to a social problem worthy of academic 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 Abuse 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.