Every year, hundreds of "thousands of children suffer the pangs of childhood's most common, and certainly its most dangerous, disease. The symptoms may be invisible, or they may be bruises or broken bones. The result is often death or permanent brain damage. For those who survive, the effects usually remain for a lifetime. The disease that sends them to a hospital at age five also puts them in a reformatory at age fifteen and in a state penitentiary by age twenty. It is the rare delinquent in juvenile hall who did not at one time or another suffer from this disease. Think of as many notorious criminals, international despots, and assassins as you can, and you will find that almost all of them were afflicted with this disease as a child. This disease is child abuse. Child abuse is epidemic, In the United States, some 300,000 cases are reported each year, but all the experts agree that this is merely the tip of an immeasurable iceberg.
Please click the above PDF icon(s) to view or download the full Magazine Article in PDF format.