Imagine being a young child. Picture that someone is mistreating you, and you are completely unable to retaliate in any way. Imagine what would be running through your mind, all of the fear and hatred that you can do nothing with except hold it all inside. The United States government defines child abuse specifically as "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation to any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm to any individual who has not attained the age of 18 years" (Petit 28). This is a serious problem that destroys the lives of innocent children every day.
Statistics show that 903,395 children were confirmed as being abused in the United States during 1997 alone, and there were 1,439,284 reported instances of abuse in the United States (Statistics of...). Those numbers add out to be in the neighborhood of 1.54% of the nations children being abused daily (Statistics of...). Child abuse also "accounts for nearly 57.5% of fatalities to children under the age of five" (Child Maltreatment). …
