Financial Abuse
Financial abuse is a form of mistreatment and fraud in which someone forcibly controls another person's money or other assets. It can involve, for instance, stealing cash, not allowing a victim to take part in any financial decisions or preventing a victim from having a job. The issue tends to occur most often in domestic relationships, such as between a husband and wife or an elderly parent and an adult child. People don't always recognize the problem, because an abuser purposely might select an isolated, vulnerable victim who is unlikely to realize what's happening or who will feel too ashamed to report it. An example of financial abuse is an adult who has said that he will look after all his mother’s finances for her to help her out, and then actually he will be signing checks in her name to himself. People like this will try and cover up their abuse and say that he is doing it to help his mother however it is totally the opposite and it is stealing.
http://topics.wisegeek.com/topics.htm?elder-abuse-financial-exploitation
Neglect
Neglect is a passive form of in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for themselves, but fails to provide appropriate and adequate care to suit them. Neglect may include the failure to provide sufficient supervision, nourishment, or medical care, protection, shelter or the failure to fulfill other needs for which the victim is helpless to provide for themselves. One example of neglect is an elderly person in a care home not getting the right help that they need such as been washed everyday getting up out of bed been able to sit up and as a result they are getting bed sores, which are from staying in bed all day and not been washed properly by the staff because they think that they will be ok if they don’t do them for one day, which then turns into two then three and so on. Neglect is thought to be one of the worst sorts of abuse because it’s long and makes you feel so down that it’s just too much too cope with all the stress and the loneliness.
http://www.ct.gov/dcf/cwp/view.asp?Q=316956
Discriminatory abuse
Everyone has the right to be treated equally and express and practice their beliefs and values. Discriminatory abuse is when someone picks on you or treats you unfairly because something about you is different. This can include unfair or less favorable treatment due to a person's race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexuality, appearance or cultural background. It is the exploitation of a person's vulnerability, which excludes them from opportunities in society. One example of discriminatory abuse could be a young man who is interested in men, applying for a job at clothes shop. Once he gets to the interview and already he is judged on how he talks and how he presents himself. He doesn’t get the job because the manager thinks he would be annoying and slow at his job. This is discriminatory abuse because he is been abused because of how he is and the manager has put him into a category in his head already.
Factors which lead to abuse!
There are many factors which lead to abuse. Some people are more vulnerable than others. The people we are surrounded by and the daily hassles of stressful situations can effect the ways in which we behave, people tend to bottle up their anger because it is socially unacceptable and they then take it out on someone I.E a husband taking slack from his boss may go to the pub for a drink and then get home and abuse his wife/children. Personal problems cause frustration, things such as addictions to drugs and alcohol can modify behaviour and add to the bad feelings leading the individual to lash out and abuse someone. When activities are restricted, some people can get into ruts where they cannot find things to do to occupy their time- this can make people act differently because they're in a dark place so they take it out on the people around them. Usually if one partner in a relationship is earning more money the other partner will feel disempowered, also typically in men, if their wife/partner earns more than them it doesn't abide to the stereotypical view of the male being the breadwinner so they can become very aggressive and use financial abuse to make themselves feel better I.E Denying or stealing their partners money so they feel bigger and more powerful inside.
Regarding what makes a person more vulnerable to abuse, some of the following factors might be considered. An individual with a sensory impairment, for example, poor or no hearing or sight that might lead to communication difficulties. Meanwhile, individuals may lack the capacity to understand what is happening or that it is wrong, and example of this is sexual abuse on a child, they don’t understand that it is wrong. Also the Lack of capacity could be for a number of different reasons and could be long term or short term.
Individuals may be severely disabled, physically or emotionally weak and rely on others for care, such as an elderly person. They may have suffered brain injury and may not be able to communicate with others, be unconscious or anindividual being cared for at home who are reliant on another person for care and support. All these things make a person vulnerable to abusers because the abusers know that they have less of a chance getting found out and meanwhile it is also easier to abuse. This is why that elderly adults are more of risk of abuse not only because they are weaker but most of them by the time of 80 have a disability of some sort through old age, which means that abusers can take advantage easier than they could with someone who was like them.
http://www.alcoholpolicymd.com/alcohol_and_health/study_env.htm
Different types of environments lead to abuse. Any sort of abuse can happen in any environment, however some are more common than others. It can happen in your own home, community care, school, GP’s surgery, dentists, general health services. And the abuser can be anyone there, either a client, patient, student or staff anyone can be an abuser. If a child is brought up around his mother and father constantly drinking and arguing this is a bad environment for that child too grow up in however what he witnesses can have an effect on him in his later life. As he hasn’t had any love and support as a child growing up he has never had that feeling of a close bond and therefore as a result he could be very aggressive and impatient because he doesn’t know how to handle situations. This is purley down to the environment that he has been brought up around as a child, which he was neglected and now he is emotionally unstable and perhaps lonely. Many children who loose the bond with parents often grow up very lonely and are more likely to abuse in the future. Anyone at all can be an abuser, the nicest person in the world could be good at covering up there abuse. Many abusers bribe their victim and make them believe that it is their own fault that they are been abused!
Some examples –
Effects :
When abuse takes place there is either short term effects or long term effects. With physical abuse there are usually short term effects which include bruising and marks on the skin. These are short term because these are an immediate effect of been injured by someone abusing you. If you have been punched you would normally within hours show signs of bruising on the skin.
The short term effects of being sexually abused are physical injuries from where you have been abused. Usually victims of sexual abuse have bruises in certain places, these include between the thighs and on their arms. Many people often forget that sexual abuse can lead to STI’s which is a short term effect if you go and get checked out, however this will more than likely happen if you have been sexually abused because if you tell anyone they would recommend you too be tested for any diseases. Another effect of sexual abuse which could turn into long term could be pregnancy, within a couple of weeks you could find out that you are pregnant to your abuser and this could lead to depression and guilt. It could also have a knock on effect if you do keep the child and it looks like the abuser you may look at the child and blame them for your attack. Therefore, you could end up neglecting the child yourself which is also abuse. This could make the victims become very sick causing long term effects. Which include depression, some of the time victims become so caught up in all of the abuse that they start to believe that it is their own fault, they blame themselves and sometime even become self destructive and suicidal. This is very common in people who have been sexually abused, because they start asking themselves...why them? all the unanswered questions keep repeating in their head and its a big vicious circle. Other long term effects of sexual abuse is poor body image because it was the body that was the instrument used during the sexual abuse. Meanwhile, some victims may develop an eating disorder which could lead to anorexia or obesity. If none of the problems are helped and the victim of sexual abuse doesn’t start to slowly try and move on from the abuse, then long term this could lead to abusing themselves more by turning to drugs and alcohol because in their head this makes them forget for a while, it helps them become happy for a period of time, when the drugs or alcohol wear off then they want to take more to keep forgetting.
All of these are possible but its how you try and prevent them from becoming worse which could be life saving. If the victim is open about the abuse then speaking to someone could really help get all their feelings and emotions out. A problem that you have seems to improve a little when it is a problem shared. This way the victim knows that people are there to help them. The best people to speak too may be a a member of their family or a councillor, they can reassure you on the situation and try and prevent the victim from becoming depressed or emotionally unstable.
short term effects
