U.S. has worst child-abuse record of any industrialized nation

Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.  A BBC investigation finds that the United States has the worst child-abuse record of all the industrialized nations. Child abuse rates in the U.S. are triple those of Canada and 11 times higher than Italy.  Every week, 66 children under 15 die from physical abuse or neglect in the First World, 27 of them in the U.S.  Every 5 hours a child dies from abuse in the United States.  The state with the worst record?  Texas.

Experts say teen pregnancy, high-school dropout rates, violent crime, imprisonment, and poverty are generally much higher in the United States and contribute to the problem.  In the US, when children are born into young families not prepared to receive them, local social safety nets may be frayed, or non-existent. As a result, they are unable to compensate for the household stress the child must endure.  The result tends to be abuse of the child.

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