Child Abuse has Many Impacts

Child abuse has many impacts towards the child and can cause a long term defect for the child's future. Nationwide over 2 million children suffer from child abuse, some will even die from neglect or by unmeasurable physical abuse. The supreme court does not have a constitutional law against child abuse, but they hold each state accountable to make their own child abuse laws (D.O.). Most of the laws set by each state have the same proposal about what is considered child abuse, but each state has allotted variant consequences towards those who are convicted with child abuse.

Many argue that the current system is not effective in preventing child abuse and punishing those who break this law. Some are seeking a better way of punishing those individuals. The current system of laws set by each state is ineffective, but changes can be made in order to improve it. First, we must point out what the current laws state about child abuse and what consequences each state has placed for criminals. For example, the state of Kansas declares, ... child abuse as inflicting mental, physical, or emotional injury that harms the well being of a child. (Reuters). Additionally, the abuse to a child is to knowingly torture, beat, or inflict any child under the age of 18 with inhuman punishments (Reuters).

This is mostly the same for other state, but the similarities end there. The state of Kansas has different ways of convicting someone with child abuse. For example, abuse of a child is a severity level 5 person felony, you could be charged with battery or homicide (Reuters). On the kansas sentencing grid a person could go to prison between 2.5 and 11 years and have a fine of $300,000 (Reuters). Endangering the child is a class A person mistimenner and can be charged with one year in prison and a $2500 fine (Reuters). Aggravated endangering a child is a class 9 person felony, that can be punished for 5 to 17 months and up to a $100,000 fine. These sentences are served consecutively with any other sentences (Reuters).

Kansas law also legally requires different groups to report child abuse. Those include,...doctors, teachers, firefighters, nurses, EMT's, cops, and any person who has a service towards the state (Reuters). Kansas law also states, other individuals can to choose to report abuse to help save the life of a child, but aren't legally required to. (Reuters). Although, the law does help bring justice to those affected, yet child abuse is still a problem in America. Second, we have to address why others say the current system is not working. According to the National Children's Alliance, about 700,000 children are abused in the US annually an estimated 1,670 children die from abuse (National). There has been an increase in the amount of cases reported. In 2015, 3.4 million cases were investigated and 2.3 million received child prevention services (National). Most children that die are overwhelmingly young (about).

The average age of children abused is between 6-12 years (about). Additionally, some say that the reason child abuse it still a topic of discussion is, that child abusers come all walks of life virtually anyone who has access to a child is in a position to mistreat the child (Lyness). Child abusers mostly avoid themselves and the child from being in public. Others argue that the law needs to change so they can better locate child abusers before any damage has been done. For example, they might look for signs that the child may have been choked, bruises that show if they were physically abused or signs of emotional problems (Lyness). Others have argued that child abuse has not been dealt with the current laws are not effective. In my opinion, the current laws did have an impact in bringing the child's abusers to justice, but i feel that the rate of child abuse has not decreased over the passed years. One reason that child abuse is still occurring is mostly from the parent themselves.

According to the National Childrens Alliance, about 56% of people today were said to have been abused as a child (Child). This can lead them to abuse their own child in the future.This shows the continuous cycle that has been going on for a long time.I suggest the supreme court to create a constitution banning child abuse and making it unconstitutional. Most americans have listened to what the constitution says and making everyone see child abuse as something morally wrong will help lower the occurrence and end the vicious cycle. Additionally, the government should have services that control what type of people are having children and help out those who have already been affected not to suffer more.

The current laws have not been effective but improvements can be made. In conclusion, child abuse has many effects towards the child and their future. Most children nationwide are being abused. The supreme court has placed the responsibility to the states themselves. Even with the laws that are placed today, child abuse is still increasing and putting more children's lives in danger. People are arguing that the laws placed by the states do not affect with the chances of it occurring. One pattern seen in child abuse is that the people that are convicted are the parents themselves. One change that the government can make is to create a constitutional law that declares child abuse as unconstitutional.The current system of laws set by each state is ineffective, but changes can be made in order to improve it.

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