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Age: 19
Birthday: 03 Oct 1990
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Child Abuse
When it comes to the topic on Crime & Punishment, the offence that I hate to see most is Child Abuse. In my views, I find it a much more serious offence than those capital felonies such as murder. This is because the victim has to suffer an extremely long and painful journey, which can result in the death of the victim. If death does not occur, the victim will still be traumatised emotionally and mentally for the rest of his life. Furthermore, such abuses usually occur on a child who is defenceless and the child is being condemned more than his wrongdoings.
Firstly, let me define what Child Abuse is. It is the cruelty to any child or young teenagers below the age of 16 years, involving acts of maltreatment by an adult thus resulting in unnecessary suffering or injury to the victim’s health or his well-being. Such abuse can occur in a number of ways: Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect.
It is no surprise to learn that offenders of child abuse, in their mitigation plea, will tell the court that their intention was to discipline their child for his mistakes. So, before we proceed any further, let’s look at the definition of discipline.
Discipline means to train or to guide their child from their mistakes, so as to make them a better person. The priority for disciplining is to make the child realise his mistakes, instead of punishing him. Punishment need not be necessary when disciplining a child. As long as he show that he realise his mistakes, that’s enough. Sometimes, punishments are inevitable. However, they should not be meted out due to anger, but instead, out of concern for the child’s future.
So what differentiates discipline and abuse? Discipline focuses more on realisation of mistakes and reforming, while abuse focus more on punishment. Discipline is carried out with a care and concern attitude (the discipliner is concerned for the child’s future). On the other hand, abuse is carried out with anger. If a punishment leads to injury, the punisher has gone too far. As long as the act caused injury, it is already considered abuse.
In my view, child abusers are the most impudent, insane, inhumane, incorrigible and pathetic monstrous organisms in the world. They themselves do not even deserve to be called animals or humans. They totally lack empathy for their victim and are terrible enough to resort to violence when handling their child. Firstly, if such parents have a low-tolerance level, they should consult an expert. It is extremely dangerous to have a child when either one or both parents have a low-tolerance level.
The main focus of this entry is about the crime which took place on 3 June 1999. This case was featured in True Files Season 3, with the title ‘Killed by his Mother’s Lover’. The unfortunate victim was a child named Kevin Wong, who was only 7 years old at the time of his death. He had over 100 injuries all over his body, face and private parts.
The offender, Chong Keng Chye, was arrested and charged for using a bamboo stick, a feather duster and a belt to assault Kevin; making him eat up his own faeces; forcing him to stay naked at home; and dripping hot wax from a candle on his testicles. His defence was that his intention was only to discipline Kevin and that he has a low-tolerance level thus not being able to control his temper. Although Kevin’s mother, Susan, was also involved in that case, tests revealed that she had a low IQ level of only 80 compared to the normal IQ level of 100. Hence, she readily believed Chong when he said that his actions were just to cure Kevin of his ailments. If I am not wrong, she was sentenced to 7½ years imprisonment.
The prosecution requested that Chong be punished with a long term Preventive Detention (A type of imprisonment whereby the prisoner has no hope of being granted a remission of 1/3 of the original jail term due to good behaviour, and the offender has to live alone in his cell). The defence counsel argued that passing a sentence of Preventive Detention is similar to a backdoor way of asking for Life Imprisonment. However, the aggravating factors have outweighed the mitigating factors in this case. Chong’s crime was so heinous that his defence was rejected. In the end, he was given a total of 20 years Preventive Detention (The maximum allowed by the law) and 12 strokes of the cane. However, on appeal, his caning was reduced to 9 strokes mainly because he has pleaded guilty on his charges.
It is extremely saddening to learn that such cases can still occur. Kevin should be considered as an innocent child, as he was very young at that time. No amount of mistakes committed by him should lead to him being punished in such a severe manner that it amounted to abuse. His father should have understood his low maturity level at that time and should have forgiven him. If Kevin had committed a mistake, he should be disciplined instead of being abused.
I just hope that parents will not resort to violence whenever they have to discipline their child. They should fully understand their rationale of having a child in the first place, which is mainly to bring joy to their lives or to carry on their generation. No sane parent will want to have a child so as to be able to pick on their defenceless body. So, if their child has committed a mistake, regardless of the severity, his parents should forgive him and focus on making him turn over a new leaf.
Firstly, let me define what Child Abuse is. It is the cruelty to any child or young teenagers below the age of 16 years, involving acts of maltreatment by an adult thus resulting in unnecessary suffering or injury to the victim’s health or his well-being. Such abuse can occur in a number of ways: Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical neglect and emotional neglect.
It is no surprise to learn that offenders of child abuse, in their mitigation plea, will tell the court that their intention was to discipline their child for his mistakes. So, before we proceed any further, let’s look at the definition of discipline.
Discipline means to train or to guide their child from their mistakes, so as to make them a better person. The priority for disciplining is to make the child realise his mistakes, instead of punishing him. Punishment need not be necessary when disciplining a child. As long as he show that he realise his mistakes, that’s enough. Sometimes, punishments are inevitable. However, they should not be meted out due to anger, but instead, out of concern for the child’s future.
So what differentiates discipline and abuse? Discipline focuses more on realisation of mistakes and reforming, while abuse focus more on punishment. Discipline is carried out with a care and concern attitude (the discipliner is concerned for the child’s future). On the other hand, abuse is carried out with anger. If a punishment leads to injury, the punisher has gone too far. As long as the act caused injury, it is already considered abuse.
In my view, child abusers are the most impudent, insane, inhumane, incorrigible and pathetic monstrous organisms in the world. They themselves do not even deserve to be called animals or humans. They totally lack empathy for their victim and are terrible enough to resort to violence when handling their child. Firstly, if such parents have a low-tolerance level, they should consult an expert. It is extremely dangerous to have a child when either one or both parents have a low-tolerance level.
The main focus of this entry is about the crime which took place on 3 June 1999. This case was featured in True Files Season 3, with the title ‘Killed by his Mother’s Lover’. The unfortunate victim was a child named Kevin Wong, who was only 7 years old at the time of his death. He had over 100 injuries all over his body, face and private parts.
The offender, Chong Keng Chye, was arrested and charged for using a bamboo stick, a feather duster and a belt to assault Kevin; making him eat up his own faeces; forcing him to stay naked at home; and dripping hot wax from a candle on his testicles. His defence was that his intention was only to discipline Kevin and that he has a low-tolerance level thus not being able to control his temper. Although Kevin’s mother, Susan, was also involved in that case, tests revealed that she had a low IQ level of only 80 compared to the normal IQ level of 100. Hence, she readily believed Chong when he said that his actions were just to cure Kevin of his ailments. If I am not wrong, she was sentenced to 7½ years imprisonment.
The prosecution requested that Chong be punished with a long term Preventive Detention (A type of imprisonment whereby the prisoner has no hope of being granted a remission of 1/3 of the original jail term due to good behaviour, and the offender has to live alone in his cell). The defence counsel argued that passing a sentence of Preventive Detention is similar to a backdoor way of asking for Life Imprisonment. However, the aggravating factors have outweighed the mitigating factors in this case. Chong’s crime was so heinous that his defence was rejected. In the end, he was given a total of 20 years Preventive Detention (The maximum allowed by the law) and 12 strokes of the cane. However, on appeal, his caning was reduced to 9 strokes mainly because he has pleaded guilty on his charges.
It is extremely saddening to learn that such cases can still occur. Kevin should be considered as an innocent child, as he was very young at that time. No amount of mistakes committed by him should lead to him being punished in such a severe manner that it amounted to abuse. His father should have understood his low maturity level at that time and should have forgiven him. If Kevin had committed a mistake, he should be disciplined instead of being abused.
I just hope that parents will not resort to violence whenever they have to discipline their child. They should fully understand their rationale of having a child in the first place, which is mainly to bring joy to their lives or to carry on their generation. No sane parent will want to have a child so as to be able to pick on their defenceless body. So, if their child has committed a mistake, regardless of the severity, his parents should forgive him and focus on making him turn over a new leaf.
Acknowledgements