Child Abuse Stats

I have child abuse and neglect stats on my brain today. April is Child Abuse Prevention month and since I work at the Kansas Children's Service League and we are the state chapter for Prevent Child Abuse America, it is consuming much of my time. This week I am doing a training on Child Abuse for the staff of the Wichita Children's Home, which is a little intimidating since they work with child abuse victims every day! I decided that to prepare I wanted to read up on the latest child abuse statistics so I could answer any questions they might have. So yesterday I read the 184 page release of Child Maltreatment 2005, a report issued annually that gives state and national statistics on everything you need to know about child abuse. Luckily it was lots of graphs and charts! I also looked at some data from SRS to give me some local statistics as well. Here's some of the facts I learned:

Nationwide there were over 890,000 children who were victims of child abuse or neglect in 2005. 63% were victims of neglect, 17% of physical abuse, 9% of sexual abuse, 7% of emotional abuse, and 17% other or unknown. An estimated 1,460 of those children died as a result of the abuse, with 77% of those children under the age of three.

In Kansas there were 2,775 children who were victims of child abuse and neglect. Nearly one-third (29%) of those were under the age of three. An estimated 6 children died in 2005 as a result of their abuse.

As of June 30, 2006 there were 5,428 children in out of home placement (foster care or residential/group home) in Kansas. This number is higher than the victims becuase victims looks at the number who became victims during the year, but out of home placement reflects children who may have been in the "system" for multiple years. Also as of June 30, 2006, there were 938 children awaiting adoption in Kansas, including 380 in Wichita.

The majority of perpetrators are parents. From my experience in working with parents who are at-risk for child abuse and neglect, I know that the vast majority of parents love their children and want to be good parents. But some families have more risk factors such as lack of support, isolation, lack of resources, and lack of knowledge about child development. When life gets really stressful and you have no one to call to support you, you are more likely to take your stress out on your children. That's why one of the things we do to help prevent child abuse is help families build their protective factors (the opposite of risk factors). We want families to have the opportunity to learn about appropriate child development (understand when is it appropriate for a child to walk so they don't get angry when the 8 month old isn't walking yet), we also want them to build positive support systems which can be done by helping them to connect with play groups, support groups, churches, etc. Helping educate them about community resources is helpful too, so they know who to call in a crisis.

Another exciting thing I have going on this week is the Foster Care Affair. This is an annual training event that we (a collaboration of area social service agencies) put on for resource parents (foster parents) and workers. It's always a fun event and this year my church is helping out in a small way with snacks which will be great! Should be a busy, but fun, week!