User:Daniellam91/sandbox

I will be using this username to contribute and modify articles covering a vast array of topics for a sociology course at Rice University. I'm happy to contribute and help improve the quality of Wikipedia articles for everyday use.

=Acid throwing= It is defined as the act of throwing acid onto the body of a person "with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill.” Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones.[4] The long term consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scarring of the face and body,[5][6][7] along with far-reaching social, psychological, and economic difficulties.

History
Burning as a means of control and punishment towards women and children has roots as an ancient habit in South Asia. However, in the past few decades the use of acid as burning agents began to arise in many developing nations, specifically those in South Asia. The first reported acid attacks occurred in Bangladesh and India in 1967; Since then, research has witnessed an increase in the amount and severity of acid attacks. However, this can be traced back to significant under reporting in the 1980s and 1990s, along with a general lack of research for this phenomenon during that time period. Currently, research shows acid throwing increasing in many developing nations, with the exception of Bangladesh which has observed a decrease in incidence in the past few years.

Prevalence
Acid throwing occurs in many regions of the world, from Nigeria and Uganda in Africa to Jamaica in the Caribbean. Using data from the past two decades, researchers have shown that chemical assault accounted for over fifty percent of chemical burns in Jamaica, Cambodia, Bangladesh, and South Africa. However, South Asian countries display the highest incidence of acid attacks in the world.

Attacks in South Asia
[need to fix this section - come back to it later]

Bangladesh
Bangladesh has the highest reported incidence of acid assault in the world. According to the Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh, the country has reported 3000 acid attack victims since 1999, peaking at 262 victims for the year of 2002. Rates have been steadily decreasing by 15% to 20% since 2002, with the amount of acid attack victims for 2009 reported at 116. Bangladesh acid throwing shows the most gendered discrimination, with one study citing a male to female victim ratio of 0.15:1 and another reporting that 82% of acid attack survivors in Bangladesh are women. Younger women were especially prone to attack, with a recent study reporting that 60% of acid assault survivors are between the ages of 10 and 19.

Acid throwing is often referred to as a "crime of passion," fueled by jealousy and revenge. For the country of Bangladesh, such passion is usually rooted in marriage and relationships. One study showed that refusal of marriage proposals accounted for 55% of acid assaults, with abuse from husband/family member (18%), property disputes (11%) and refusal of sexual or romantic advances (2%) as other leading causes. Additionally, the use of acid throwing in dowry arguments has been reported in Bangladesh, with 15% of cases studied by the Acid Survivors Foundation citing dowry disputes as the motive.

India
Acid throwing in India, like Bangladesh, has a gendered aspect to it: analyses of news reports revealed at least 72% of reported attacks involved women. However, unlike Bangladesh, India's incidence rate of chemical assault has been increasing in the past decade, with a high 27 reported cases in 2010. . Altogether, from January 2002 to October 2010, 153 cases of acid assault were reported in Indian print media while 174 judicial cases were reported for the year of 2000. However, scholars think that this is an underestimation, given that not all attacks are reported in the news, nor do all victims report the crime to officials.

Motivation for acid throwing in India mirror those in Bangladesh: 34% of the analyzed print media in India cited marriage or love refusal as the cause of the attack and dowry disagreements have been shown to spur acid throwing. . Land, property, and/or business disputes accounted for 20% of acid assaults in India from 2002 to 2010.

Cambodia
Acid throwing in Cambodia is more gender neutral, yet still shows a slight discrimination toward women with 52% of its survivors women. As with India, rates of acid attacks in Cambodia have generally increased in the past decades, with a high rate of 40 cases reported for 2000 that started the increasing trend. According to the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity, 216 acid attacks were reported from 1985-2009, with 236 reported victims. Jealousy and/or hate is the biggest motivator for acid throwing in Cambodia, as 28% of attacks reported those emotions as the cause. However, such assaults were not only perpetrated by men - some reports suggest women attack other women occur more frequently than men do. Such incidents usually occur between a husband's wife and mistress in order to attain power and socioeconomic security.

Attacks in Africa
High incidence of acid assaults have been reported in some African nations, including Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Unlike occurrences in South Asia, acid attacks in this region show less gender discrimination. In Uganda, 57% of acid assault victims were female and 43% were male. A study focusing on chemical burns in Nigeria revealed a reversal in findings - 60% of the acid attack patients were male while 30% were female. However, in both nations younger individuals were more likely to suffer from an acid attack: the average age in the Nigeria study was 20.6 years while Uganda analyses shows 59% of survivors aged from 19-34 years of age.

Motivation for acid assault in African nations is similar to that of Cambodia. "Relationship conflicts" caused 35% of acid attacks in Uganda from 1985-2011, followed by property conflicts at 8% and business conflicts at 5%. . Disaggregated data was not available in the Nigeria study, but they reported that 71% of acid assaults resulted from an argument with either a jilted lover, family member, or business partner. As with the other nations, researchers believe these statistics to be under-representative of the actual scope and magnitude of acid throwing in African nations.

Victims
As previously discussed, women are at an increased risk of acid violence in certain countries, such as Bangladesh and India. Additionally, even countries with very similar acid attacks rates for men and women, women usually have a larger proportion of their attacks stemming from marital or family violence. For example, in Iran 51% of acid throwing victims were male while 49% were female; however, 50% of female victims were attacked be either their husband or relative, compared to only 12% of male victims.

Another factor that puts victims at increased risk for an acid assault is their socioeconomic status, as those living in poverty are more likely to be attacked. . Additionally, all three nations with the most noted incidence of acid throwing - Bangladesh, India, and Cambodia - are ranked 93rd, 114th, and 104th, respectively, out of 134 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index, a scale that measures equality in opportunities between men and women in nations.

Effects
The most notable effects of an acid attack is the life-long bodily disfigurement. However, acid survivors must face other far-reaching effects on their live, affecting their psychological, social and economic viability in communities.

Medical
The medical effects of acid throwing are extensive. As a majority of acid throwing is aimed at the face, several articles thoroughly reviewed the medical implications for these victims. Though not exhaustive, their findings included:
 * The skull is partly destroyed/deformed and hair lost.
 * Ear cartilage is usually partly or totally destroyed; deafness may occur.
 * Eyelids may be burned off or deformed, leaving the eyes extremely dry and prone to blindness. Acid directly in the eye also damages sight, sometimes causing blindness in both eyes.
 * Nose can become shrunken deformed; the nostrils may close off completely due to destroyed cartilage.
 * The mouth becomes shrunken and narrow, and it may lose its full range of motion. Sometimes, the lips may be partly or totally destroyed, exposing the teeth. Eating can become difficult.
 * Scars can run down from the chin to neck area, shrinking the chin and extremely limiting range of motion in the neck.
 * Inhalation of of acid vapors usually create respiratory problems, exacerbated restricted airway pathways (the esophagus and nostrils) in acid patients.

In addition to these above-mentioned medical effects, acid attack victims also face the possibility of septicemia, renal failure, skin depigmentation, and even death.

Psychological
Acid assault survivors also face many mental health issues upon recovery. One study showed that when compared to published Western norm for psychological well-being, non-Caucasian acid attack victims reported higher levels of anxiety, depression, and scored higher on the Derriford appearance scale, which measures psychological distress due to one's concern for their appearance. Additionally, the women reported lowered self-esteem according to the Rosenberg scale and increased self-conscious, both in general and in the social sphere.

Social
In addition to medical and psychological effects, many social implications exist for acid survivors, especially women. For example, such attacks usually leave victims handicapped in some way, rendering them dependent on either their spouse or family for everyday activities, such as eating and running errands. This dependency is increased by the fact that many acid survivors are not able to find work, due to impaired vision and range of motion. This negatively impact their economic viability, causing hardships on the families/spouses that care for them. As a result, divorce rates are high, with abandonment by husbands found in 25% acid assault cases in Uganda (compared to only 3% of wives abandoning their disfigured husbands). Moreover, acid survivors who are single when attacked almost certainly become ostracized from society, effectively ruining marriage prospects.

Treatment
Treatment for burn victims remains inadequate in many developing nations where incidence is high. Medical underfunding as resulted in very few burn centers available for victims in countries such as Uganda, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. For example, Uganda has one specialized burn center in the entire nation which opened in 2003, likewise Cambodia has only one burn facility for victims, and scholars estimate that only 30% of the Bangladeshi community has access to health care.

In addition to inadequate medical capabilities, many acid assault victims fail to report to the police due to a lack of trust in the force, a sense of hopelessness due to the attackers' impunity, and a fear of male brutality in dealing with their cases. Most of the female victims suffer more because of police apathy in dealing with cases of harassment as that of a safety issue as they refused to register a police case despite the victim being attacked thrice before meriting police aid after an acid attack. These problems are exacerbated by a lack of knowledge of how to treat burns: many victims applied various types of oil to the acid, rather than rinsing thoroughly and completely with water to neutralize the acid. Such home remedies only serve to increase the severity of damage, as they do not counteract the acidity.

Proposed solutions
Research has prompted many solutions to the increasing incidence of acid throwing in the world. Many countries look to Bangladesh, whose rates of attack have been decreasing, as a model, following their lead in many legislative reforms. However, several reports highlighted the need for an increased, legal role of NGOs to offer rehabilitation support to acid survivors. . Additionally, nearly all research stressed the need for stricter regulation of acid sales in order to combat this social issue.

The role of NGOs
Many NGOs have risen in the areas with the highest occurrence of acid throwing. Bangladesh has its Acid Survivors Foundation, which offers acid victims legal, medical, counseling, and monetary assistance in rebuilding their lives. Similar institutions exist in Uganda, which has its own Acid Survivors Foundation, and in Cambodia which utilizes the help of Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity. All NGOs provide rehabilitation services for survivors while acting as advocates for social reform, hoping to increase support and awareness for acid assault.

In Bangladesh, the Acid Survivors Foundation, Nairpokkho, Action Aid, and the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee's Community Empowerment & Strengthening Local Institutions Programme assist survivors in Bangladesh. The Acid Survivors Foundation in Pakistan operates in Islamabad offering medical, psychological and rehabilitation support. The Acid Survivors Foundation in Uganda operates in Kampala and also provides counselling and rehabilitation treatment to victims of acid attacks, as well as their families if need be. Additionally in Cambodia, LICADHO, the Association of the Blind in Cambodia and the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity all assist survivors of acid attacks. The Acid Survivors Trust International provides specialist support to its sister organisations in Africa and Asia through its specialist team who work across the organisations transferring medical, psychological and social rehabilitation skills whilst supporting knowledge sharing and best practice.

Indian acid attack survivor Shirin Juwaley founded Palash Foundation to help other survivors with "psycho-social rehabilitation". She also spearheads research into social norms of beauty, speaks publicly, and blogs regularly at Do I Look 'Normal'?. In 2011, the principal of an Indian college refused to have Juwaley speak at her school for fear that Juwaley's story of being attacked by her husband would make students "become scared of marriage".

Regulation of acid sales
A positive correlation has been observed between acid attacks and ease of acid purchase. Therefore, many organizations call for a stricter regulation on the acid economy. Specific actions include required licenses for all acid traders, a ban on concentrated acid in certain areas, and enhanced system of monitoring for acid sales, such as the need to document all transactions involving acid. However, some scholars have warned that such stringent regulation may result in black market trading of acid, which law enforcements must keep in mind.