Neglect And Abuse In The Foster Care System

The issues of neglect and abuse in the foster care system is a subject you do not hear about every day. However, this is a real problem that affects millions of children living in foster care or some kind of transitional care system. 75% of children in foster care prior to leaving the system will have experienced sexual abuse (Sexual Abuse: An epidemic in Foster Care Settings). According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 475,000 U.S. youth reside in foster care, close to 30,000 leaves the system annually (Braciszewski & Stout, 2012). Research shows that 1.5 million children in America live in families that have experience domestic violence and 7 million of them live in families that have experienced some severe form of domestic violence (Ogbonnaya, 2012). Even though research indicates that the identified incidents of child sexual abuse has declined 47% from 1993 to 2005-2006, this is an issue of concern that the public is not fully aware of the magnitude and effects it has on young people. While the public is not aware of the depth of this problem, child sexual abuse is a prevalent health problem children face with an array of consequences to follow (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics).