The Persistent Menace of Child Abuse

The menace of child abuse has haunted the society for the longest time. This is so despite the various legal instruments which have been put in place to curb this menace. As a society, one cannot help but wonder about the resilience of these unpalatable incidents visited upon the young ones. Where something has a legal backing putting sanctions on its practice, there is usually an expected turn-around from such behaviour but when it comes to child abuse, this is not the case (United States: Events of 2016, 2017).

There seems to exist a resilience and unquenchable thirst to abuse children rights. However, this might not be in the everyday record we peruse due to the fact that most cases tend to go unreported. Consequently, this wrongly depicts a united front to curb such behavior while the sad truth is that the society seems to be mark timing at the stage of baby steps when it comes to this fight. It is estimated that 24% of children become are abused in their first year of life. In 2015, approximately 1,670 children succumbed to child abuse while child protective care centers received a rough estimate of 700,000 cases of child abuse (Co, 2017). Whether it is the society which has failed to protect its most vulnerable or such failure is attributable to the legislative arm of the government, this is an uncalled for debate.

There are in place numerous legislations in regard to children rights. These instruments range from those with international status bestowed upon them to domestic legislations which are specific to the United States jurisdiction. It therefore comes as a surprise that such volatile culture towards children seems to thrive amid such measures being in place (United States: Events of 2016, 2017). It is imperative to note that this is a positive indicator of the system’s failure to adequately protect the children. In order to address this issue conclusively, there is need to depart from the traditional view of whether there is in place sufficient laws to curb the menace. A new perspective of interrogating the root cause of the failure by the existing laws should be adopted for one to aptly decipher the persistent menace of child abuse.

The rights of children must be protected by all means and at all cost whether by the state or the society. Any blame game attributed to failure to undertake the necessary measures is an unacceptable culture. It is important to note that the duty of the government does not end at legislating the respective laws in this sphere. It is called upon to take all measures necessary to see to it that the particular legal instruments are given a breath of life (Co, 2017). This can be achieved by ensuring that there are practical and achievable measures in place to aid in implementing these. For example, it is prudent for the government to not only enact a certain legislature but also ensure public participation before such enactment can be done. It can positively be argued that public participation creates legal awareness and emancipation which may most likely reduce the current trend of child atrocities.

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