Blog Post #4 Child Abuse

Child abuse and child maltreatment  is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. There are four subtypes relating to child abuse which are physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. This is a serious issue given the fact that it can ruin a child's life .

Article 1. Worries About Abuse Are Changing Camps.

In this article, there are many concerns regarding new counselors at camps with children. There is fear that if one is not careful about how they act with the children of the camp there can be accusations of abuse . A structural perspective given in this article to help with the adult monitoring of kids at a camp was for individuals to be careful not to put kids in laps, tickle them, nor wrestle with them because you may be doing those very innocently  and anything can happen where you are accused of something you did not do. Trying to prevent certain accusations there has been changes in counselor training. Counselors are less warm to children and also less spontaneous with them.

Article 2. Boundary of Abuse Is Difficult To Map

In this article, it talks about what are the boundaries for certain things to be done between an adult and a child. There are certain things that certain cultures do that other cultures would find absurd. It discussed that in Scandinavian countries mixed sex and mixed age groups take saunas together in the nude but if it were to be in America there would be separate rooms for different gender  and different age groups. The article also discussed that touch is something that can accuse you of something you did not do.  The way you choose who your child can get close with in hugs and kisses. Depending on who they come into close contact with you will explain to them whether the person is a close relative or friend. The boundary of abuse varies between family in my opinion depending on who you want your child to get close with. One of the main reason parents worry about the children's interaction is with adults and other children is because of physical abuse. The structural perspective is the parent choosing how close their child should get to a certain individuals.

Article 3. A Model Child Abuse Prevention Program

In this article, the structural perspective is to give children the training to identify molesters and earn phone number off the top of their heads to help prevent the act of abuse. Children in the Tacoma schools  have been getting lessons for younger children to identify the signs of being approached by molesters. It demonstrates the appropriate touching of children's bodies so they know. This issue becomes frustrating  because it can make children afraid of their own parents to touch them and kids should be able to be touched by their parents so they can know and feel what love is. Yes children should be treated for their abuse but the abusers also need to be treated because they themselves were abused as a chlid and probably did not get the treatment that all the kids now are getting.

Activism/Acadmia/ Social Scientist .. Blog Post #2

Hey Y'all !  It time to express the sociological thoughts of Swaggy!!! After reading the collection of articles, the articles that caught my attention were "why academia and activism does not mix", "How Academics Can Become Relevant." "How Sociologist Made Themselves Irrelevant." Reading the first article I believe that academia and activism does mix. I feel like that without academia, which is the knowledge acquired, there can be no activism. Having academia can give you the topics or interest of what activist you want to become. They are both equally important in my opinion because they can help to better understand human and society. The difficulty involving both is educating the public in a sense that. Sociologist have become irrelevant in some sort which makes it difficult for them to educate the public. it will require a lot of attention seeking and much power on their side. Thinking sociologically can help with our everyday lives. Activism is said to be about the promoting of social change (Fabiorojas,2013) and since the point of activism is to bring about change I feel like academics can help with change because of the knowledge you may receive with academics in order to help with activism.

When trying to educate the public on sociological issues, sociologist tend to face roadblocks. One roadblock faced among social scientist are the fact that they can be biased. Most of the information a social scientist may present might include a lot of personal opinions which will have several audiences question why they should acquire the information coming from a social scientist. Social science should influence both debate and policy but more policy in my opinion.  It should influence debate that way the opinions of social scientist can be put out there which may help with the education of some people it just may not be guaranteed that you may win a lot of brains to think like a social scientist  but it should influence public policy because I think it would have a stronger outreach to the public in the knowledge of sociology and it could get many audiences to hear social scientists out. When it comes to anything social related in our world it would only make sense that social scientist would most likely have the answers to the "why" and "how" certain social concerns are happening and it might take time for other individuals to see it which is what  I think C. Wright Mills would say. Having a debate about this issue is not necessarily a bad thing but I feel like to a certain extent it is understood that without sociology we as human would not understand the cause and effect that happens in society and social scientist have the answers.

And that is all folks! Till next time on Swaggy Sociological Thoughts!!! 

Citations:

Jurgenson, Nathan. "How Academics Can Become Relevant." Cypborology. Retrieved September 12, 2017. (https://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2012/01/23/how-academics-can-become-relevant/). 


Rojas, Rubio. "why activism and academia don't mix." Orgtheory. Retrieved September 12, 2017. (https://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2013/03/31/why-activism-and-academia-dont-mix/).

 Anon. 2014. “How Sociologists Made Themselves Irrelevant.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved September 11, 2017 (http://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Sociologists-Made/150249/).

Sociology and how you might use it!

In my life, I grew up  around law and criminal aspects of life and the world because of my father. In Ghana my father was apart of an intelligence group known as BNI (Bureau of National Investigations ) and he would tell me all his stories when he was working in the unit. I became so interested in that life regardless of how dangerous some of his stories were. Every time he will be watching television it would either be on the News, Forensic Files,  Jeopardy, or anything pertaining to his field of interest. Through all of this, including my fathers stories, I became interested in the field of Criminal Justice and Sociology because I found it really interesting on how to solve certain crimes that a human committed and wondering why they made the decision to do this certain crime and also learning how an individual came up with a plan to execute the crime.  

I would define sociology as the study of the social life, changes, causes and consequences of human behaviors with the analysis of the communication between individuals as to the world. Sociological perspective is the point of view you have on human behavior and its connection to the world. Sociology is useful in the sense that it helps us understand  not only other people but ourselves, culture, and environment. It also helps us understand the world and why individual do what they do or think the way they think which can help me with my future endeavors. I plan on attending law school hopefully to get to the FBI. With the use of sociology, it may help with knowing why my client is in a given situation and it will also help with how I preset my case before the judge. Within the FBI sociology is a starting tool in solving crimes. The benefits of a sociological perspective is learning what other people think on the topic of sociology. It may help strengthening your understanding because of another individuals view it can also be used outside the academic walls in a sense of maybe understanding your friends personal issues with, for example, dating like why you chose certain individuals or why you are attracted to a certain individual and with that you maybe able to give great advice.