On investigating further by authorities they found that some of their kids were chained to beds, "in dark and foul-smelling surroundings," when suddenly an emergency phone call came from 17-year-old daughter who managed to escape from the house on Sunday.
The children’s parents, David and Louise Turpin, now face life in prison for multiple counts of torture, child abuse and false imprisonment that lasted for years. While describing the case, prosecutors revealed the Turpin children’s only freedom was writing in journals.
So, Is it really possible for parents to punish their own children as animals and starving them to death?
Answer is somehow dependent upon some conditions and one of the research shows that IT CAN HAPPEN.
The title of the research was "Child Torture as a Form of Child Abuse," the study includes cases in which children were given caustic substances as “punishment food”; so deprived of water they were forced to drink from the toilet; chronically starved, with all access to food in the house locked away; strangled until unconscious and stabbed with a knife; and struck over the head with metal objects and baseball bats.
The study, published in 2014 in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma, found that 36 percent of these children died as a result of their abuse, and the torture could last for up to eight years.
When and why this happens?
The authors of the study argue that torture contrasts with other forms of child abuse, which usually result from episodic unchecked anger or a loss of self-control in a person in charge of a child. Torture is more prolonged and designed to establish domination and control over a child’s psyche. Torture is carried out to physically and psychologically "break" someone.
One 14-year-old investigated in this research reported being forced to eat roaches, spiders, and other insects as a form of punishment, including an attempt by the family to force-feed her a dead mouse. Her father bound her hands behind her back, taped plastic bags over her head and torso, and threatened to drown her.
The authors of the study — Barbara Knox, Suzanne Starling, Kenneth Feldman, Nancy Kellogg, Lori Frasier, and Suzanna Tiapula — point out that the social isolation of the children contributes significantly to the circumstances facilitating torture.
Conclusion of the whole scenario comes out that if your doctrine doesn't fit with your children, you tend to scare them to follow your so-called torture rules.
These can be the side-effects of potential child abuse and torture on children:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Low self-esteem
- Withdrawn
- Dissociation
- Difficulty with making and maintaining relationships
- Experiences flashbacks
- Hypervigilant
- Persistent fear
Whether children witness or experience abuse, it can harm on their development. Children are at an increased risk for emotional behavioral problems regardless if they were directly abused or not.
Watch a Video on Child abuse and how to cope up if you had the trauma in your life:
References:Invisible Children. Meggan Goodpasture, V. Denise Everett, Martha
Gagliano, Aditee P. Narayan, Sara Sinal. North Carolina Medical Journal.
2013;74(1):90-94
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