Child abuse is an ever-spreading problem in our society today. The number of cases that involve physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and physical and emotional neglect have all risen significantly in the last few years. Specifically, the number of physically abused children has gone up from 311,500 to 614,100 (a 97% increase) from 1986 to 1993(National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, 1993). There are three main views of child abuse quantitative, which is how wide spread the problem is and how many people it affects, qualitative, which is how a person is affected, and harm, which is the physical harm done to the child. The other issue that comes up with child abuse is ethics. Ethics are what is believed to be "crossing the line" and the point where it is felt that something has to be done to help a child being abused. The National Incidence Study will be used to illustrate the quantitative effects and statistics of child abuse. David Pelzer, author of A Child Called "It", went through some of the most outrageous things that I have ever heard of. His life stories will help describe the qualitative effects of child abuse.
             "'You've made my life a living hell!' she sneered. 'Now it's my time I showed you what hell is like!' Gripping my arm, Mother held it in the orange-blue flame. My skin seemed to explode from the heat." (A Child Called "It",1995)
             That is an example of just one of the punishments David Pelzer went through as a little boy. Can anyone even imagine how damaging this would be to a child? Your birth mother, the person who is supposed to love you more than anyone else in the world, is trying to burn you so you can feel what hell is like. The emotional abuse that has to accompany the obvious physical pain is so extreme I cannot begin to understand how anyone could deal with it.
             In the same book Pelzer's mother says, "If ...