If I wanted to fight with HTML, it would look the way it should

An adage chides, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In instances of child abuse, this expression hits the mark exactly. Child abuse is a problem across cultural lines, economic classes, religions, and education levels. Programs that intervene rather than prevent child abuse occur after the child was affected by maltreatment. These types of programs, including police intervention, mental and behavioral health treatment, medical attention, change in custody, and out of home care can be costly ineffective and create new problems. These problems indicate the need for expansion of preventative measures such as education, community support, mental health and rehabilitation services for parents, and elevation of living conditions. Going forward, prevention should be the first choice in approaching child abuse.
Child abuse is severe mistreatment of a child by an adult through physical violence, neglect, sexual abuse, or emotional cruelty. Every day approximately an average of 2,450 children are abused. Of those cases, 60% are victims of neglect, 20% experienced physical abuse and 10% are sexually. While children can be victimized at any age, 75% are younger than 3. Every day 2 children die of abuse and neglect.


Risk Factors
Child abuse can occur within every economic, ethnic, cultural or religious group, and at all levels of education. Some groups, however, have challenges that may increase the likelihood of abuse. Some indicators are:
•Families who are isolated, with fewer friends, relatives, religious or other support systems.
•Parents who were abused as children.
•Families often in crisis (have money problems, move often).
•Caretakers who abuse drugs or alcohol.
•Adults who are critical of their child.
•Parents who are rigid in disciplining their child.
•Adults who show too much or little concern for the child.
•Parents who feel they have a difficult child.
•Families under heavy stress.

Prevention and Protection
When possible, prevention methods can do the most good in terms of child welfare, community well being and long term cost. Protection and intervention methods often occur after the abuse, which may have already endangered a child’s physical and emotional well being. Additionally, protection and intervention programs are costlier, considering medical expenses, foster care, legal and court expenses and future criminality.
Child based education teaches children to identify abuse, understand that abuse is never acceptable recognize/ avoid potential dangers, communicate boundaries, and how to report abuse. One example is Boss of my Body, which helps children understand sexual abuse. Another program is the SAFE kids program focusing on managing healthy relationships, bullying, anger management and online safety.
Parental education programs approach prevention by training parents to recognize appropriate discipline patterns, anger and stress management, set boundaries appropriately, and build relationships with their children.
Community education programs create awareness using PSA’s, posters and brochures. Additionally, they work closely with members of the community to recognize at risk families and youth, mediate and provide guidelines for reporting abuse.
Parental supports can alleviate some conditions that can lead to abusive and neglectful situations through efforts to ease poverty, improve living conditions and work related skills, rehabilitate addictions, provide safe after school care, respite programs, and mental health assistance. Some examples are Boys and Girls Clubs, who provide inexpensive child care, food banks, the Federal Food Stamp Program, housing assistance, and recreation centers.
At times, a situation can become so dangerous that intervention becomes necessary. Some interventions include perpetrator removal from the home, family counseling, visits to the home, and removing children from home. The outlook for children in foster care is bleak, with high abuse rates, criminality, and feelings of guilt, isolation or abandonment. Problems in the foster care system have gained national attention, and community leaders struggle for solutions.
Counseling and victim advocacy can alleviate some negative effects of child abuse by helping victims cope with emotions, improve self esteem, create boundaries and develop healthy future relationships. Counseling can also provide the opportunity to detect problems early and maximize treatment possibilities.

Long Term Problems for Abused Children
Child abuse and neglect affect victims while they are young and throughout their lifetime. Abuse can trigger poor academic performance, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, risky sexual behavior, physical and mental health problems. It may even shorten life expectancy by heightening the risk of chronic and infectious disease. Likeliness of being arrested, committing suicide, killing or harming the abuser, or becoming a perpetrator is higher in those abused as children. Child abuse is also highly correlated to homelessness, divorce rate, and future income.



Outcomes
Reports of maltreatment are rising each year, except in sexual abuse cases. In a March 3, 2004 USA Today editorial, sociologist David Finklehor reported a 42% decline between 1992 to 2001 in child sexual abuse cases. Finkelhor identified possible causes for the decline: that many children have received preventive safety classes in school, making them potentially less-amenable targets, and that parents and organizations have become more educated and aware, making it difficult for child molesters to operate with impunity. Another possibility includes the national sex offender registry, created in 1994.