Rarely does a week go by that we, as a society, don't hear stories topping the news about children being murdered, beaten, kidnapped or otherwise mistreated. The stories are not only heartbreaking but also puzzling, as they leave one to wonder what is going on and why it doesn't stop.

As a society, we know it is wrong, and yet it continues on an alarmingly large scale. So what can we do to help address and prevent this issue that rocks the very core of our future generation? We start by learning the facts and what can be done. Recognizing the situation is the first step toward helping to prevent and address the issue.

"Child abuse prevention starts with improved awareness of the problem, through persistent community education," says Dr. Maria Kelly, a clinical assistant professor of general pediatrics at the University of Florida. "This awareness will facilitate protecting children at risk of abuse, allow for earlier identification of at-risk and affected children and, finally, help to promote healthy families."

While people don't usually set out to abuse their children, it does happen and it happens often. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), child abuse is common, so much so that there are more than 2.5 million cases of it reported each year, not even accounting for those cases that go unreported. Child abuse, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is defined as doing something or failing to do something that results in harm to a child or that puts a child at risk of harm.

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