We Must Stop Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse is one of the most tragic problems in America today. Each year, over three million American children are beaten, neglected, or sexually abused by their parents or guardians. Infants only a few days old as well as teenagers are subject to child abuse. There are four types of child abuse: physical abuse, physical neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse. Child abuse is a serious problem that plagues America's youth and must be stopped.

Physical abuse is one form of child abuse. According to social agencies, beatings of children have multiplied

over the past twenty years. Physical abuse is any abuse that is harmful to the

child. This kind of abuse includes the physical discipline which results in

observable injuries on the child. It also includes use of a life-threatening

weapon, like a gun or a knife, against a child and any abuse resulting in death.

Any abuse which results in a sever injury requiring prompt medical attention,

that could be life threatening, that could cause mental and/or physical

impairment, could cause disfigurement, or chronic pain is too classified as

physical child abuse. Another form of physical abuse is any knowing or willful

mistreatment which in the opinion of a licensed medical doctor causes great

bodily harm and/or results in hospitalization for treatment of this injury or

condition; this may include physical injury sustained as a result of abuse or

conditions which result from a parent's willful failure to act to stop this from

happening to the child.

Physical neglect is defined as failure to provide for a child's physical

survival needs to the extent that there is harm or risk of harm to the child's

health and safety. Physical neglect includes these four things: inadequate

food, inadequate shelter, inadequate medical care, and inadequate supervision.

Forty-two percent of all child abuse reports involve allegations of physical

neglect. The inadequate food element includes a child intentionally or

deliberately not getting fed or given water. It also includes a diagnosis by a

physician of failure to thrive because of a parent's failure to feed the child.

Inadequate shelter includes prolonged and serious illness resulting from

exposure to the elements or to serious dangerous substances as evidenced by

serious injury. Inadequate medical care encompasses the child not receiving

medic...

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...ssaults, ignoring and indifference, or

constant family conflict. It also includes punishments like locking the child

in a dark closet. Sometimes such behaviors can cause serious mental disorders.

If a child is degraded enough, the child will begin to live up to the image that

is being communicated by the abusing parent or caretaker. This type of abuse is

the hardest kind to notice because it leaves no bruises. A child who is

emotionally abused may seem withdrawn, or act out frustration by abusing other

children, animals, or belongings.

Child abuse is a serious problem that plagues America's youth and must

be stopped. Physical abuse and physical neglect can hurt someone to the point

of having to visit the hospital or even death. Sexual abuse can cause injury

and scar someone for life with the memories of the act or acts of sexual abuse

the child had done to him/her. Emotional abuse can also scar someone for life

in the sense that it can change your all around behavior about the world and

everyone in it because of one incident or a series of acts that occurred in your

childhood. Child abuse must be stopped in order to have a normal and prosperous

youth of tomorrow.