"State child abuse laws define child abuse as any act (or failure to act) that: Results in imminent risk or serious harm to a child's health and welfare due to physical, emotional, or sexual abuse; affects a child (typically under the age of 18); by a parent or caregiver who is responsible for the child's welfare". This differs from discipline, which is the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience according to oxforddictionaris.com. Child abuse and disciplining a child both are totally different. Some people may be abusing a child and try to say they are only disciplining them, but they are wrong.

I can understand disciplining a child, but abusing them is inexcusable. Every year there are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States. We also lose about four to seven children a day behind child abuse or neglect. Child abuse and neglect are not the same, but they can go hand in hand sometimes.

Child abuse is truly awful because it can cause hurt to the child and sometimes-even lead to the fatality of them.
When a child abuse is reported to a helpline you immediately talk to a child protection worker, then the worker decides if an investigation is required. I don’t feel this is right I feel that if someone reports child abuse then the police should be sent immediately to check to see what’s going on. I feel this way because time never stops therefore the abuse wont stop until someone takes action, and if your still trying to decide if an investigation is required the child may still be in danger. The children who are being abused should be sent to a foster home because it wouldn’t be safe for any of their family members to take care of them. The foster home would be the best option because the child would be safe.

If the family would have cared about the child, they would have taken them into custody, but instead they let them get abused. The parents who abuse the children should be sent to jail no matter what with a minimum of five years. Now disciplining your child is a whole different story because when your disciplining your child you are doing this to help them stay on a straight path and to keep them acting right, but you don’t have to whoop them with a hard force because at the end of the day they’re kids, and no one is trying to seriously hurt them if they are a good parent.

The difference between abuse and discipline is that the child doesn’t get seriously injured behind being disciplined, and there is a reason. Sometimes when parents abuse children there is a reason though it may not be that serious, and so