Child Abuse

Child Abuse

The safety and security of home are comforts we all wish for no matter what age we are. Though some of us get our wish roughly three million children don't(United States Department of Health www.childrensrights.com ). Children who are battered and bruised, beaten, and in some causes sexually assaulted are constantly looking for an escape from the torture brought upon them by none other than their own parents. These children who average in age at only four years old (Jones, Smothers F8 ) endure more pain at their young age than most of us face in a life time. The crime hurts children physically, emotionally and in most cases the pain goes on for a life time. The memories of climbing into bed with your parents are replaced with memories such as your father's hand lashing your back for absolutely nothing because he is not in the right mind caused by all the alcohol. Making matters worse is that these children are too afraid to tell the world of the anguish and continue a life of hiding bruises and making excuses. As for the children who are brave enough to tell, they get it no better if not worse. They are recklessly thrown into foster home after foster home. They face such hard ships as limited space with an enormous amount of children. Throughout all this, they never learn the true meaning of family. Why is there a lack of effort put into this crime? One is left to guess for the reasons are far too hard to comprehend. With so much drama and war around the world, Americans would like to convey an image of security and safety, once doing so we tend to black out the horrible acts of abuse occurring against our own children, causing child abuse to be a very neglected crime.

"Having children makes you no more a parent, than having a piano makes you a pianist."(Levin, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/michael_levine.html) With that being said the United States continues to give parental right to drunks and abusers without realizing the ripple affect it has on all of us. These children whose minds are being wasted not by lack of effort but by lack of parenting and lack of care from the government, have the ability to grow and become future leaders, heroes, and peace makers of our world. Why not take the extra effort in making sure that our future is being looked out for in our present? Because it takes too much time, energy, and most importantly sympathy. Abuse is an increasing problem in our world and the reason why it continues to be a problem is because few people's care. Each year three million children are assaulted and though some might think that is a small number compared to the sixty-three million children in the country (United States Census Report) in order to help these children we must believe that three million abused children are three million too many. Imagine the pain and agony in every one of those children's eyes. You might be against abuse but you are equivalent to an abusive parent up until the moment you decide to take action. Why allow these so-called parents the power to corrupt the minds and feelings of children so young? That is something all people must ponder to realize the hatred the children are learning each day. "What is a neglected child? He is a child not planned for, not wanted. Neglect therefore begins before he is born. "(Buck, www.brainyquote.com/quotes/p/pearlsbuc150247.html) Amazingly those words have a stirring truth. Abuse in most cases starts for children as young as months old.

When looking into such a cruel subject one would wonder exactly why a person is capable of hurting their own flesh and blood, a person that they created. Though the most obvious answer is the idea that most are too drunk or stoned to notice, sadly that is not the only answer. Some of the abusive parents are not drunk nor are they addicts, they simply are aggravated, frustrated, and chose to take it out on their children. It has been shown that in almost half of these abuse cases most parents are poverty stricken and left to raise there children alone. Another sad statistic found about the parents of abused children is that in most cases they were abused as children themselves causing the problem to carry on from when generation to the next, slowly growing into a much larger problem because we chose not to deal with abuse when it was indeed a problem that only affected a small percentage of the population.

When talking about abuse, it is not completely far to say that our government has taken no action against the crime; however, they have not tried hard enough. Programs have been set-ups, people have been punished and most important, children have been saved. The government has taken some necessary action against the crime but have done very little to make the problem known to the people of the United States. Though you will see an anti-war or anti-smoking commercial during just about every show in the prime time schedule, are you able to recall the last time you saw a message spreading to the masses exactly what is being done to these children. We talk about how wrong the third world countries are for making their offspring endure the pain of child labor but cease to realize exactly what is happening to them here. Child labor is wrong but at least those children have the pleasure of feeling safe at night without wondering whether or not their dads and moms are close to coming after them. Let's all come to realization that our evil is equal to the evil of the owners of Chinese sweatshops, we just go about or torture in a different way. We force three, four, and five year olds to live with a burden caving in on them never making it clear that it is indeed okay to speak up against your parents.

The first step to solving this problem is getting the child to confess to the fact that it actually is happening, and very few people do something even as simple as that. Once the child has confessed about the problem they are in not all are home free, the lack of adoptive parents has children thrown into over-crowded and under-sized foster care homes where abuse usually stops but neglect worsens. Foster parents are paid to care for these kids. Adding money as an incentive for people to become foster parents make for a group of very poor and very greedy people who are obviously only after the money. Often foster parents take in three or four children at a time over their own children. The children are forced to share rooms with complete strangers and are commonly shuffled in and out of homes waiting for a family generous enough to adopt. These children are now not only abused but begin to feel unwanted as they are commonly removed from one home to the next. Raising awareness can draw more caring people allowing the children to be put in more generous homes with fewer children.Abuse