Picture this. You hear a loud banging on a door, and someone is yelling at you to get up. You wake up sore, hungry, and bruised, sitting in complete darkness. The door opens, and your father glares down at you. “Get ready,” he says, “The bus will be here soon.” You frantically put on the same clothes you wore yesterday. They weren’t clean, but they covered the bruises. The bus honks, and you run to get on it before it leaves, happy to get away from the man that hurts you. For many kids throughout the U.S., this scenario is very real. “Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made, involving more than 6 million children”(“Childhelp”). By examining the problem, causes, effects, and solutions of child abuse, …show more content…
Sexual abuse is defined as any sexual behavior towards a child under 18 by someone in power. “It can be sexual intercourse, molestation, or other sexual treatment, often by a family member or authority figure”Connelly). It is unsettling to think that parents are trusting their kids to friends, when those friends might be abusing the kids. A type of abuse that goes along with sexual abuse is physical abuse. When people say child abuse, this is usually the type that they are thinking of. “Most laws define physical abuse as the infliction of injury on a person under 18 by a parent or legally responsible caretaker.” The infliction of injury refers to being beaten, being kicked, being badly bruised, being severely injured, having bones broken, being locked in a room for more than five hours or more, or being told that they would not have food for a whole day or longer(Connelly). It is important know the causes of all of these kinds of abuse so that we can prevent the …show more content…
Two other causes of abuse are stepparents and christian love beatings. “Children under the age of two were at least one hundred times more likely to be killed by stepparents. Stepparents are not only a key risk factor in parental child abuse and homicide, but are the biggest factor”(Tudge). Stepparents may treat their own children just fine when they are abusing their stepkids(Tudge). One way that people try to defend their abuse is by saying that it is part of their religion. “The authors of christian parenting books seem to agree that, as long as the stick is the weapon, the bare bottom is the place, and love is the motive, physical punishment is divinely sanctioned”(Elina). This practice is protected by the first amendment, because the parents can say that it is part of their