Child abuse is the physical or emotional abuse of a child by a parent, guardian, or other person. Reports of child abuse, including sexual abuse, beatings and murders, have increased in the United States and some authorities believe the number of cases is underestimated. Child neglect is sometimes incorporated into legal definitions of child abuse to cover cases of starvation, abandonment, and insufficient care for the safety of a child. When reported, cases of child abuse are complex due to poor foster care services and a legal system that struggles to accommodate the sensitive nature of children (Child Maltreatment, 2015). Each year, more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States, involving more than 6 million children. The abuser's behavior was only partially successful and child welfare agencies are burdened (Lewitt, 2013). Recently, efforts have begun to focus on primary prevention of child maltreatment. Child abuse prevention must be implemented at several levels before it can succeed. Prevention plans at the social level consist of increasing the economic autonomy of families, discouraging corporal punishment and other forms of violence, making health care more accessible and inexpensive, intensifying and humanizing coordination of social services, improving the classification and management of psychological problems. Family-level prevention plans include helping parents meet their basic needs, identifying substance abuse and domestic violence issues, and educating parents about behavior, discipline, safety, and child development. child. Primary prevention involves both preventing disease before it occurs and reducing its incidence. In the case of child abuse, pri...... middle of document ......buse_neglect.htm “Child Abuse: Prevention Strategies” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Internet. May 15, 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/prevention.html “The relationship between domestic violence and child maltreatment” Prevent Child Abuse America 2012 Web. May 23, 2015. http://www.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/PCAA_DVandChild.pdfLewitt, EM. “Reported Child Abuse and Neglect.” Future Child, April 2013: 233-242. McKay, Michael. “The link between domestic violence and child abuse.” New York: Macmillan, 2010. American Advisory Council on Child Abuse and Neglect. The Shame of a Nation: Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States. Washington, DC: American Advisory Council on Child Abuse and Neglect. (1995). Rushton, Frank. “The Role of Health Care in Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect.” Pediatrics, March 2014: 133-136.