Kelley

Professor Barnes
ENG 1201
Nov. 24th, 2019
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I choose to do my research paper on wheter or not child abuse laws in Ohio are strong

enough to prevent abuse.There are a couple different reasons for picking the topic I did, but the

main reason I chose this topic was because I need to learn more about how a person ends up

doing such a thing as abusing or neglecting their child and how so many cases go unreported. For

me this topic is personal. Though they may never admit to it and may not ever have meant it, my

friend’s dad and mom were neglectful and emotionally abusive.

As a kid I watched my friend grow up a lot quicker than most kids do. By the time she

was twelve, she knew exactly what it felt like to be called worthless by her father. It has been

hard to watch her go through life not being able to shake the thought that she actually might be

worthless. Her parents fought all the time and it was always about her. Her mom tried her best to

get her dad to apologize when he misstepped, but it always ended in her mom leaving for awhile.

Meanwhile, she was left waiting for her to return and listening to her dad go on about how

terrible her mom was. It was painful to watch my friend change so much, her mom noticed the

change too. Although, it seemed my friend and her mom had differing ideas on how to handle

the situation. My friends mom chalked it up to my friend just being a hateful person and

recommended that she live somewhere else for a while. My friend just wanted her dad gone.

Things like this continued throughout her childhood and I was there to watch it all happen and be

there for her when it completely broke her. It was a very hard thing for me to watch her go

through. But don’t get me wrong, I do not think her parents are some terrible humans. They are

just broken people who haven’t figured out what needs to be fixed yet. Although I know that is
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true, I feel like there should have been a way for my friend to get out of the situation she was in,

yet there were no legal actions to do so. So, I want to explore the abuse laws in Ohio to get an

understanding and some explanation to understand where the line is in these situations and if

there are any gaps in the system.

This topic is one close to a lot of people’s hearts and it is important to know what causes

a person to become so broken that they are eventually abusive and neglectful. Not even simply

knowing how abusive and neglectful behavior is caused, but it is important to understand why

people are how they are as well as learn ways that you can prevent it or help prevent it.

Furthermore, what prevents children from being protected from these abusive home lives.This

topic is one that has been researched by several scholars before but is also a topic that has many

pieces overlooked when that research is presented. Child abuse and neglect is sadly a very big

problem that is popular to see or hear about in today's society. Since child abuse and neglect

have become such a “normal” thing in today's society the gravity of it is not fully grasped by a

large part of the population. It is already known that abuse is a very common and real thing

occurring all over the world, but people may not be aware that victims of abuse and neglect are

not being protected because the laws against abuse are not strong enough and the public is failing

to do their part in this issue.

Going into this research project more information needs to be discovered about what the

childhood of a person who is abused looks like, the laws currently in place for child abuse, who

is legally responsible for reporting supsected abuse, and the legal process behind child abuse

cases.This project will hopefully result in a better understanding of the legal side of child abuse
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issues as well as where and how the reporting of abuse falls short. The answers will most likely

begin to be found in the third or fourth article researched, that is when most useful information is

discovered. The first research question guiding this project will be: what is mssing in the current

legal set up of child abuse laws that is preventing the majority of kids from being protected from

abuse? The second question guiding the research project will be: who are mandated reporters in

suspected abuse situations and why is the public so uninformed of the significant underreporting

of abuse? Finally, the last research question guiding this paper will be: why is child abuse a topic

the general public is avoiding acknowledging and in return failing to help?