ISSN: 26146169 @Center for Humanities and Innovation Studies 11 International Journal of Humanities and Innovation (IJHI) Vol. 3 No. 1, 2020 pp. 11-16 A critique of the social constructionist and relativistic cultural conception of child abuse Christopher O. Akpan 1 , Samuel Akpan Bassey *2 Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria * e-mails: samuelbassey15@yahoo.com Abstract Some social scientists and philosophers tend to think that 'child abuse' is a socially constructed and culturally relativistic term than an objective phenomenon. This stems from the divergent cultural views of what characterize abuses. This work argues that child abuse necessarily should not be considered as a social construct. Using the textual analytic and critical methods of philosophizing, the work explores a few relevant but intriguing facts of child abuse and more importantly the challenges connected with socially constructed and culturally relativistic conceptions of this phenomenon. The paper submits that; if humans could appeal to 'nature eye-view' they could perceive the natural bonding relationship which culminates in the congenial protection of the young by parents; hence, would agree that any aberration of such relationship would constitute abuse. This work would engage readers to understand child abuse as a prevalent cross-cultural reality, and to that extent, instigate them to condemn it wherever it occurs. Keywords: Child abuse; cultural relativism; social construct; nature eye-view. 1 INTRODUCTION Child abuse, as a concept, appears easy to understand in terms of straightforward meaning. But what constitutes the abuse evokes divergent social and ethical (philosophical) problems. Thus, child abuse becomes both a sociological and ethical issue. It is sociological because it occurs in societies and provokes social questions, problems, and sometimes condemnation and sanctions. It is ethical and philosophical because it evokes moral issues on the rightness or wrongness, or goodness or badness of such actions. Ordinarily, a child could be said to be abused when he/she is exposed to harm; or harmed physically or emotionally via any form of mistreatment either by the parent(s), guardian, or stranger. The Encyclopedia Britannica (2014) crowns this common conception of child abuse thus: "The willful infliction of pain and suffering on children through physical, sexual, or emotional mistreatment." This definition seems quite banal, clear, and perhaps direct to the point on face value. But given specific societal, cultural, organizational, and professional values and norms, the conceptualization and understanding of the phenomenon of child abuse throw up many conceptual challenges, to the extent that many social scientists do conclude that child abuse is socially constructed. By 'social construct,' it is meant that the society fixes 'abuse' or what constitutes abuse in question (Wallace & Wolf, 2012). In other words, whatever the community accepts as abuse would stand as abuse for them. This means that what may be regarded as abuse in one society may not be so in another society. This quandary makes child abuse appear as a non-objective or an unreal evil that could be universally understood and possibly condemned. It is this difficulty in the relative understanding of child abuse that this paper sees as the relativistic cultural disposition. Given this problematic, the paper sets out to argue that if humans were to appeal to the 'nature-eye-view' of the natural bonding relationship between parent and child, everyone would come to understand that what constitutes 'child abuse' is objectively real, no matter the society involved. Hence the phenomenon is not merely a socially constructed idea. The scope of this study spans 'child abuse' as a concept and as a fact of human history. In this regard, a few classifications of child abuse shall be explained, and its conceptualization from a few cultures exposed. Since child abuse is a cross- cultural or general phenomenon in diverse ways, it is difficult to pin down a specific geographical location as a universe of discourse. However, the work shall allude to a few developed and developing societies, respectively. 2 CONCEPTUALIZING 'CHILD ABUSE,' 'CULTURAL RELATIVISM,' AND 'SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM' 2.1 Child Abuse 'Child abuse' has been defined in several ways, depending on legal, societal, organizational, and professional conceptual schemes. For example, child abuse has been defined as "an act or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in the death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation of a child, or which places the child in imminent risk of serious harm." (legal-dictionary. The freedictionary.com). Here it could be seen that the emphasis is on the action or inaction towards a child that leads to serious emotional or physical harm or death. The implication here is that there is some harm that may not be adjudged by law as serious, hence it could not be taken as abuse. However, it should be noted that the interpretation of child abuse and sanctioning by-laws have often pitted the right of the child to be free from harm, on the one hand, and the right of parents or families' privacy and discipline of their children devoid of government interference, on the other hand. This then means that what the law sees as abuse may not be seen as such by the family, and probably the society in question. Meanwhile, the definition of child abuse by a United Kingdom-based organization - the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) would be instructive to us. They define child abuse as "any action by another person - adult or child that causes significant harm to a child. It can be physical, sexual, or emotional, but can just as often be about a lack of love, care, and attention." (www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-absue/child-absue-and-neglect). The organization further outlines various types of abuse to include-domestic abuse, sexual abuse/exploitation, neglect, physical abuse and bullying, emotional abuse, female genital mutilation, child trafficking wrong grooming, harmful