Children in America may spend their evenings doing homework or watching television, or some teenagers may have jobs. This is normal for people under the age of 18 in America. Yet right now, in other parts of the world, children are bought, sold and recruited into armies, where their fates and their evenings are left in the hands of their leaders. Many people wonder why children are so often drafted into armies and what happens to them once they are drafted. Many different variables, including so-called push and pull factors, can play a role in the process of turning a child into a soldier. The term “push factor” is used to describe any external source of pressure to enlist or be recruited. These factors may include traumatisation, brutalisation, deprivation, institutionalized violence and socio-cultural factors. A study was conducted on children living in an underdeveloped, war-torn country, and the results indicated that each child exhibited an average of four war-related stressors (Somasundaram). These war-related stressors include malnutrition, abuse, and displacement. Many times, people who experience a great deal of trauma feel numb to their surroundings. It would be easy for a strong man to take advantage of these vulnerable children and take them as slaves or soldiers. Institutionalized violence, or government-distributed violence, occurs mostly in countries that enlist child soldiers. This can refer to laws that do nothing to stop the recruitment of children, to officials who publicly abuse their citizens, or to laws that go so far as to provide loopholes for those who recruit children. For example, there is a loophole in Kenya's constitution that does not ban all forms of slavery. Banis... middle of paper... tice 24 (nd): 276-83. Network. 6 March 2014.Flock, Elisabetta. “Child soldiers are still used in more than 25 countries around the world.” Washington Post. The Washington Post, March 14, 2012. Web. March 20, 2014. International Decisions. 106 809. International Criminal Court. N.d. Web. March 6, 2014.Gray, Stephen. “Two African Child Soldiers: Kourouma and Dongala Kimmel, Carrie E. and Jini L. Roby. “Institutionalized Child Abuse: The Use of Child Soldiers.” International Social Work 50 (2007): 740. Sage. Web. March 10 . 2014. Odhiambo, EOS, J. Kassilly, LT Maito, K. Onkware and W.A. Oboka “Kenya's Constitution and Child Trafficking as a Security Threat.” 6 March 2014. Somasundaram, Daya context".. 2014.