The Epidemic of Child Abuse

This I Believe

Brenda Fite

Ohio Christian University

            I believe child abuse passes from victim to victim. Many have agreed and many have not on this subject. One thing that is known is that many times the person or persons doing the abusing was also abused when he or she was young and may still be living with abuse. We know that people normally do what he or she has taught as they are growing up. Does this mean that he or she cannot change their way of thinking? No it does not. It does however make it very hard to change and many times people don’t have a clue how to even start the process of change.

            A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds and more that 5 children die every day from some form of abuse. The number of deaths due to abuse in children has risen from 3.13 in 1989 to 5+ in 2010 when the research was written ( childhelp.org). Many of these children are very well known to the legal systems in their counties and towns. A lot of these children have been ignored by the legal system or replaced with the person or persons that did the abusing with the abuse being repeated and in many cases the child being murdered.

            How can we as a nation stop this terrible epidemic from taking over our land and destroying us? We as a people in whole must stand up and fight to pass laws to protect our children. These children are the future of America and we need to find a way to get help for the ones that are abused to help them heal and mend and be healthy productive members of society. We also need to have harsher penalties for the ones doing the abuse. If there are harsher penalties then maybe people with think twice about harming a child. If we as a whole could stop the cycle of child abuse then we could stop the senseless death of many of our children and the scares left in the minds, heart, and souls of the child abuse survivors. Stop the abuse to one child and help that child heal and you have stopped the abuse of their children, and their children’s children, and the list goes on. The countless children that will be saved just by saving one child are endless.