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No child is should go up in a home where they live in fear. There are too many reports of child abuse. The number of child abuse cases are tremendous. Especially when you take into consideration that 2,700 children will be abused today. Another 2,700 will be abused tomorrow and the next day and the next day. In one day, three children will die of abuse. These children will never make it to their fifth birthday.

Every 10 seconds there is a report of child abuse. An estimated 906,000 children were victims of some form of child abuse in 2003 alone. The problem is that the abuse is happening, but the authorities are doing little to help prevent it. Most kids will not tell that they are being abused. They have been told by the abuser that he/she will kill them or their siblings or the rest of their family.

These children are also afraid that they will get worse abuse if they tell someone. A child can tell you that everything is fine. That is when we need to look at the signs and effects of child abuse. These children maybe telling us that they are being abused in a nonverbal way. Many of these cases were reported to the police and to the Departments of Children and Family Services. While the initial report may have been investigated, but Department of Children and Family Services could not find enough evidence to remove the children from the homes.

These children ultimately pay the price. There are four main forms of child abuse. They are physical, emotional, neglect, and sexual. The most common form of abuse is neglect. When a child is being sexually abused more than likely they are being physically abused as well. No form of child abuse is the child's fault. All forms of child abuse are detrimental to the child's physical, social, mental, and psychological development.

Recently in the news, a 13 year old girl is being charged for shooting her father to death. This girls suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father for years. Her brother also suffered the same abuse at the hands of her father. The authorities were called and did nothing to prevent any more abuse from happening to these two children. She shot her father in the face knowing that it was the only way to get out of this violent situation.

Another case that recently hit the new was a 3 year was raped by her uncle. This girls uncle has a history of sexual abuse. He was living in the same house as the 3 year old and injured her so bad that she had to be hospitalized. Her mother found her abused and bleeding in his room. If the authorities do not find significant evidence on the first visit, then maybe they should be putting surveillance cameras or digital room recorders in the home.

These surveillance cameras or digital room recorders would give them the proof. Closing the case after the first visit is not an option. They may need to visit the home unannounced a couple of times to get a true picture of what is going on. We have all heard of child abuse cases that we have heard about on the news. When we hear the news of a child dying or being seriously injured because of abuse, we are appalled. We want to know where the authorities were in this case and how this child slipped through the cracks.

The public has all these questions for the authorities when this happens but no answers from them. The public then drops these questions when those same authorities say that they are investigating the abuse and what led the abuse to get so bad that it winds up in serious injury or death to the child. It is time we start protecting all children and asking these questions. Do not let another child slip through the cracks of our system.