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. 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. Those numbers add out to be in the neighborhood of 1.54% of the nations children being abused daily. Child abuse also accounts for nearly 57.5% of fatalities to children under the age of five. Experts also say that 87.1% of abused children are abused by both the mother and father. Roughly 2.7% of child abuse occurs in foster care. The most abundant form of child abuse is neglect. Neglect accounts for 53.5% of child abuse nationwide. Neglect is defined as: child less than 18 years of age whose physical, mental or emotional condition has been impaired or is in danger of becoming impaired as a result of the failure of the child’s legal guardian to exercise a minimum degree of care in supplying the child with adequate food, clothing, shelter, or education or medical care. Neglect also occurs when the legal guardian fails to provide the child with proper supervision or guardianship by allowing the child to be harmed, or to be at risk of harm which includes when the guardian misuses drugs or alcohol him/herself. Children who fall victim to neglect feel that their parents have no time for them. The psychological aspects of this type of abuse is that the child or children affected typically try to get attention at school or somewhere away from home, are abnormally aggressive, and become somewhat maniacal when left alone for long periods of time. The second type of child abuse is physical abuse, which is responsible for 22.7% of total abuse cases that were confirmed. Physical Abuse is characterized by the infliction of physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking or otherwise harming a child. Sexual abuse is the third type of child abuse, which accounts for 11.5% of all confirmed abuse cases. Sexual abuse includes fondling a child’s genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, and commercial exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials. Many experts believe that sexual abuse is the most under-reported form of child maltreatment because of the secrecy that so often characterizes these cases. The final type of child abuse is emotional abuse. This abuse is responsible for about 6.2% of all abuse cases. Emotional abuse includes acts or omissions by the parents or other caregivers that have caused, or could cause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders. Several solutions are available to lessen the problem of child abuse, but there is no way to completely stop it. The sad part is that a child who is abused has about a 75% chance of becoming abusive as he or she matures into adulthood. A mother or father who was abused as a child is likely to abuse his or her children, and 87.1% of abused children are reportedly abused by both parents. My solutions differ from the experts, but I do think they have some great points to make. With a few changes in the said points, I think child abuse could be one day brought to a minimum. First, law enforcement agencies need to crack down extremely hard on these abusers. The standard penalty for a child abuser is having his or her children taken from the home. If the parent wanted the child there in the first place, then he or she would not have abused the child. When suspicion of mistreatment is present, I feel that there should be an immediate investigation and evaluations of everyone involved. This would be expensive, and a lot of people would object, but I myself would support it. Also, a very good point made by R. A. Caldwell is that all convicted child abusers would have some kind of proof of past abuse cases when they attempt to obtain a marriage license. Caldwell also added that a background check should be available to community leaders when a new person moves into that community. Automatic jail time needs to be placed on all convicted child sex offenders, as well as physical abusers. Our society today tends to lean toward mercy, and I don’t think it is a good thing. These people are hurting innocent children, and, in my opinion, there is no excuse to ever harm a child past the point of discipline. I also believe that there needs to be more organizations set up to relieve the pain that child abuse causes. Awareness programs need to be given in these organizations as well. First of all, parent awareness programs can be crucial to the way that a child is raised.