Dear Future President,

Child abuse is one of the worst things a child could go through. Approximately one in 20 children are physically abused each year, says Psychology Today. Worst of all, most abuse isn’t found out about which leads to deadly consequences. How can you, future president, put a stop to child abuse once and for all?

Abuse comes in many different forms: physical, verbal, emotional, and sexual (among others). One reason to end child abuse is because abuse can cause someone to become an abuser themself, and it can lead to many mental and social issues. According to Medicinenet, “Young caregivers who have had child-abuse, mental-health, or drug problems in their family of origin are more at risk for abusing children. Also, adults who have trouble understanding the needs of children and appropriate parenting skills, as well as those who are single parents, of low socioeconomic status, or have transient other adult caregivers in the home are also more at risk of becoming abusers.”

Another reason to end child abuse is because abuse happens to children younger than we think, and it happens to children with certain characteristics. These characteristics include social isolation of families, lack of family cohesion, and parental stress and distress, among others. According to Medicinenet, “Children under 4 years of age and those with special physical, developmental, or mental-health needs are at a higher risk for being victims of maltreatment.” Psychology Today says, “Although children are not responsible for the harm inflicted upon them, certain individual characteristics have been found to increase their risk of being maltreated.” This is like racism in a way: hurting people physically/emotionally/verbally/mentally, etc. because they are different than you. This is just cruel.

Lastly, we should end child abuse because it causes death. Yep, you heard me. Death. This is by far the worst outcome of abuse ever, and the next thing I share will shock you. According to the Centers for Disease Control Prevention, most deaths occur in babies younger than a year old, and children between 1 and 4 are the next age group with the most deaths. This is just sad. These children who did nothing wrong don’t get to experience life because someone else feels that they can abuse that child. What’s even worse is that these are babies: the most harmless children of all. When will it ever stop?

Now that you know why child abuse is bad, what are we gonna do? Sit around while abuse continues and children die? Or are we gonna put a stop to abuse once and for all and make this world a safer place?

Sincerely,

Hannah