Dear, future President,

Hundreds of thousands of children are victims of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Children are being beat to death or have serious injuries. If a child is abused for a long of time, then they could have certain problems when they get older. The child could have depression, PTSD, anxiety issues, aggressive behavior towards others and so many more. According to the National Council On Child Abuse And Family Safety, most runaways, prostitutes, and delinquent’s report that they were abused when they were younger, and more than 2.5 million cases of child abuse each year are reported and hundreds of cases end with the child being killed.

James Crawford-Jakubiak, MD, is an expert on child abuse and neglect at The Center for Child Protection, and he said, “More than 3 million cases of child abuse and neglect were reported in the United States in 2003. Two-thousand children died in this country because of physical abuse. Twenty-five-thousand cases of physical abuse, sexual abuse and neglect were reported in Alameda County in 2003. The actual incident of child abuse and neglect is estimated to be 3 times greater than the number reported to authorities.”

This shows that people rarely report child abuse cases and we need to change something about that. If someone is positive that the child is being abused they need to report it, or they should talk to the child if they personally know the child.

The Fedral Law states, “The most severe cases of child abuse may carry felony lifetime sentences, while the least serious cases are considered gross misdemeanors with potentially no jail time. Punishment will typically be more severe if the offender has a prior record of criminal child abuse activity and greatly reduced if there is no prior record.” If someone hurts a child in any way by purposely physically harming them, even if it's the least serious case of abuse, they should be sentenced to prison for a certain amount of time. If people see that a child is being hurt in any way, they need to report it. If this happens, I believe that fewer children will be long term abused and also there will be fewer deaths of children from abuse.

We have talked about what these kids have gone through, and now it's time to make a change. If someone sees a child that seems like he’s being abused they must report it because they could save a life. Try to imagine waking up and your parent or guardian is physically harming you. These kids need to be taken care of, and there needs to be justice so these kids can go on with their lives.