Child Abuse and Social Stigma

A Case Study on the Post Abuse Interactional Process

Abstract

Much of the discussion on child abuse is influenced by the medical andpsychological perspectives. Child abuse, however, is also a sociologicalissue. The purpose of this study is, by approaching the life-world of abusedchildren, to consider the stigmatization and psychological damage that isbrought on by the stigmatization. For children, and especially for abusedchildren, experiences in the family of orientation have very significantmeanings. When we think of the experience of abuse through a sociologicalperspective, we find there are important points in how the abused interpretshis/her experiences in the family, from which we can discover thepossibility of the stigmatization.
The first section is an introduction, from a sociological perspective, to the problem of child abuse. The second, which is a review of earlierliterature discussing the relationship between child abuse and stigma, formsthe overall perspective for this study. The concept of stigma is also reviewed.In the third, three cases of abuse are analyzed from the viewpoint of socialinteractionism. The data obtained from the cases is summarized in thefourth section, and the implications of this study are discussed in the last.
Oral life histories of abused children explain how stigmatizationoccurs and how the psychological damage is created (and occasionallyreduced) through interactions with others under the norm of familyaffection. This research may be quite significant as psychological damageis usually discussed within the medical and psychological perspectives, but not dealt with from the basis of social stigmatization.