A newspaper story caught my eye a few weeks ago.
It was about child molester who had been arrested in Tennessee after hiding from authorities for seven years.
He had been convicted in Georgia and had fled after violating his probation by failing to register as a sex offender.
As described in the story, he literally recreated himself.
He established a new life in Tennessee under an assumed name. He worked at a retail store. He was a volunteer youth minister in a local Baptist church.
It is not known yet whether he harmed any children under his care at the Baptist church, but you can imagine the anxiety that the leaders of that church must have experienced when they learned of his background.
The story did not make clear whether the church had tried to do any kind of background check or how completely the fugitive had covered his tracks. He may have taken on not only a new name, but also a new Social Security Number.
That notwithstanding, it is likely that the “low tech” aspect of a background check, a simple set of phone calls, might have been enough to expose him.
I read this story with particular interest because it coincided with the completion of this year’s education video for our diocesan Safe Environment Program.
In the video, we listen to the chilling account by a child molester who specialized in church settings. He describes how he infiltrated churches, committing his crimes against children while hiding in plain sight.
The video helps us to understand that child molesters can look like ordinary people who work their way into the heart of a church community by being pleasant and useful.
As they gain trust, they gradually take liberties with the behavioral limits built into the policies – like the Code of Conduct and Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) of our Safe Environment Program – written for their particular ministry.
If they are not called on these violations, child molesters know that they are safe to act out.
They are a small percentage of all the persons who so generously give their time to carry out the ministries of churches, but that small percentage does untold damage if they are not detected in time.
The video – as does the newspaper story – also emphasizes for us just how critical it is to follow through on background checks for any person new to a parish or school community.
If you are an employee or volunteer at a parish or school, you will see the video during these next few months. I hope that it will encourage you to advocate for and follow the policies and procedures that your parish or school has put into place to protect those that our parishes and schools serve and those, like you, who provide the service.
If you are a parishioner or member of a school family, I hope this column will give you the confidence that the persons responsible for the care of children at your parish or school are receiving education that will help them to recognize child molesters and to respond to situations that put a child’s safety at risk.
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( 3 / 199 )Keeping children safe from harm is a concern that goes beyond our Diocese and the Catholic Church.
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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