One of the biggest problems for children living on the streets in Guatemala is the police abuse that they suffer. Many of the children living on the streets greatly fear the police and fear for their lives. There are many incidents of police abuse every year. The police will often steal the street children's money and make the children give them their jewelry and watches. Police abuse is sometimes so severe that children need medical attention for their injuries. Children's beatings are sometimes so bad that they come to the doctor with burst bladders, broken ribs, bruises, or health problems resulting from police forcing the children to swallow bags of glue. The police also beat the children for no particular reason at all except for their pure enjoyment. The girls are also subject to getting forced to have sex with the police officers or rape. The police threaten that if the children do not do as they are told then the police officers will find a means to arrest the children, such as placing some marijuana in their bag or something along those lines. One incident that was very bad was when two Guatemalan police officers tortured and killed five children. When the children were found their eyes had been burned out and their ears and tongues cut off and were all shot in the back of the head. Though most police abuse is not as brutal as that, almost all street children report that the police routinely abuse them. Police abuse is a major problem for street children in Guatemala, but is getting less common each year. Also, much of the police abuse is not done by the actual Guatemalan police. There are many private police officers in Guatemala who no longer work for the government, but work privately who commonly abuse street children. Also, it is often the police officers who are still on the force from the civil war who abuse the street children. These officers worked at a time when police abuse was accepted and practiced by government police, and their tactics have carried over to the current time. Police abuse in Guatemala is one of the big problems that street children face, but it is getting less over time.