Research Methods and perspectives Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Methods and perspectives - Research Paper Example â€Å"Increasingly children serve as combatants or as cooks, informants, porters, bodyguards, sentries, and spies. Many child soldiers belong to organized military units, wear uniforms, and receive explicit training, their lethality enhanced by the widespread availability of lightweight assault weapons. Other children participate in relatively unstructured but politically motivated acts of violence, such as throwing stones or planting bombs. The use of children in armed conflict is global in scope-a far greater problem than suggested by the scant attention it has received. Child soldiers are found from Central America to the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, and from Belfast in the north to Angola in the south† (Wessells, 1997). Becoming a child soldier has a negative impact on the lives of children in three key areas. The first area deals with the upbringing of the children. Since the children are brought up in a violent and vicious environment, they tend to learn and adapt to environmental elements that are far beyond their age. The second area deals with the right of the children to spend their childhood as adolescents (Sarantakos, 2005). Child soldiers are not allowed to engage in some of the simplest activities that one would expect a child to engage in. Since they are brought up to be devoid of emotions the children grow up to become disoriented and dislocated from some of the most basic of emotions and feelings. The third aspect comes forth when the child soldiers grow up. At this point, the exposure to violence and irrational extremism that formed the roots of the children’s development comes into a sharp conflict with the requirements, expectations and presentations of the world around them (Robson, 2003). At this point, former child soldiers face significant difficulty in becoming a part of society and it is common to find cases in which they choose to revert