Nationally, efforts to protect our children from harm receive considerable attention and resources.
Are these efforts having an impact on the societal problem of child abuse?
Updated statistics on child abuse are released each spring, tabulating the data from two years earlier.
Here is a quick scan of the most recent data as presented in “Child Maltreatment 2007,” issued by the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, that compiled information from more than three million reports made to child protective service agencies, reports that touched on the lives of nearly six million children.
In 2007, initial screening eliminated more than 38 percent of the reports. Of the investigations that were opened, more than 25 percent resulted in confirmed cases of abuse or neglect. These cases involved approximately 794,000 children.
Clearly, the reports of suspected child abuse exceed the confirmed findings of abuse by a large factor.
This is not a failure of the system. It is the way the mandated reporter law is designed to work. It is better to have reports that do not lead to findings of abuse than to have calls that were not made, with potentially catastrophic results.
Who is making the reports?
In 2007, nearly 58 percent of the reports were made by professionals. A professional is simply defined as someone who had contact with the child as part of his or her job.
In the Diocese of Tucson, this definition includes anyone who is ministering or serving in any capacity on behalf of the parish, school or agency.
In our experience, most reports are made by those who come into regular contact with children in their ministry or service. But, any person who is educated as to what to look for and motivated to act with courage can be the source of a report that might save a child from harm.
Although each state has its own definitions of child abuse and neglect, Federal law sets this minimum standard: any act or failure to act that results in or presents an imminent risk of serious harm will be classified as maltreatment, which is defined as neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment.
The most common form of maltreatment was neglect. In 2007, almost 60 percent of documented cases fell into this category.
Neglect may be associated with many causative factors and can be very serious in its consequences. More than 30 percent of child fatalities (the great majority in children under four years of age) were associated with neglect alone.
Physical abuse was the second most common form of maltreatment (more than 10 percent) and was also a major contributor to the death of the children.
Sexual abuse again ranked third (7.6 percent) among the four major categories of maltreatment.
Who is abusing these children?
Unhappily, nearly 80 percent of maltreatment was perpetrated by parents, almost all of them biological parents. Another 6.6 percent of abusers were other relatives.
For all of us in ministry in our Diocese, the lesson of these statistics is clear: your eyes and ears, your courageous willingness to act, may lead to the call that saves a child’s life.
What are we looking and listening for?
There is an old saying in health care, “common diseases are common,” meaning that health care personnel should be on the lookout not only for the more unusual diseases that might be misdiagnosed, but also for the common diseases that are most often the cause of symptoms and that might be overlooked in the fear of missing the more unusual diseases.
As you see from the statistics, the most common source of danger for a child comes within the family and will be recognized in signs of physical neglect, physical damage or remarkable changes in usual behavior. These statistics are supported by the experience of our parishes and schools.
If you would like more information, check out the related publication, “The Role of Professional Child Care Providers in Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse and Neglect,” available online at www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/usermanuals/childcare.
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