Law Blog

Recently, a 10-year old boy named Seth Ireland died.  He was, allegedly, beaten to death by his mother’s boyfriend. The death occurred near Fresno, California, an area hard hit by unemployment and a down market economy. Increased financial stresses, are translating to increased incidents of child abuse.[1]  But, how do we protect our children?  We protect them through increased awareness and via support for those families going through hard economic times.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (U.S.D.H.H.S.), during fiscal year 2007, an estimated 794,000 children were victims of child abuse or 10.6 children for every 1,000 children in the population nationally.[2]  Not surprisingly, during the past five years, over 3,500 customers have consulted LegalMatch in an effort to find an experienced personal injury attorney to help them bring suit against a child abuser.

Child abuse ranges from physical neglect (59%), physical abuse (10.8%), sexual abuse (7.6%), and psychological abuse (4.2%), to being medically neglected and multiple categories of neglect.[3]  While the majority of children abused were under age 11 (75%), 25% of children were age 11 to 17 and there was a near equal split of gender.  Slightly more female children (52%) were abused than male children (48%).[4]

But, just who are these perpetrators of child abuse? 

The majority of perpetrators of child abuse, according to U.S.D.H.H.S. were parents, step-parents or adopted parents, accounting for 86.5% of all child abusers.  While this may sound surprising, LegalMatch.com data bears this out (see Figure below) with about 62% of perpetrators reported as being “in the family.” 

The majority of family members reported are the biological parents; abusers are fathers and mother alike. This is no different than national data.[5]  Unlike national data, LegalMatch customers also report a high percentage of family friends or acquaintances (17%) being responsible for child abuse.   This is echoed in the story about Seth Ireland.  Despite movies like “Doubt,” priests/pastors, doctors and other professionals count among the smallest category of child abusers; but they still do count.  Moreover, there is no socio-economic level immune to child abuse.[6]

Makeup of Perpetrators of Child Abuse on LegalMatch.com

Victims of child abuse suffer life-long consequences from being substantially more likely to become abusers of drugs or alcohol than non-abused children, to suffering from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder to becoming perpetrators themselves.[7]  It takes considerable courage and a heavy emotional toll for the child-victim or the parent or guardian of the child to report abuse.  But, count on the toll being much heavier for all concerned if the abuse continues unspoken and unreported.  

To report child abuse, contact your state Department of Child Protective Services. LegalMatch can also help you find an experienced personal injury lawyer to assist you in bringing a private lawsuit against the individual being charged.  Or, if you, yourself, are being accused of child abuse, LegalMatch can help you find a seasoned criminal defense attorney to help. 

Related Links:

• Child Welfare Information Gateway
• Child Help National Abuse Hotline

[2] U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Dept. of Children’s Services, Child Maltreatment 2007

[3] U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Dept. of Children’s Services, Child Maltreatment 2007

[4] U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Dept. of Children Services, Child Maltreatment

[5] U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Service, Dept. of Children Services, Child Maltreatment 2007

[6] Child Help National Abuse Hotline

[7] Child Help National Abuse Hotline

In the past 12 months LegalMatch.com has received tens of thousands of customers seeking child custody attorneys. I was curious how the majority of these customers were related to the children involved in these custody disputes. After looking into our database, this is what I found:

• 48% were the child’s mother 
• 44% were their father
• 5% were grandparents
• 2% listed themselves as “other”
• Less than 1% were step-parents

Not too much of a surprise there: the vast majority of these people are the child’s parents.

These statistics also closely match a Census data footnote reporting that as of 2007, more than 6% of children were living with their grandparents. Hopefully the courts hearing these child custody cases from grandparents are not unfairly giving them less benefit of the doubt due to preconceptions of what a family is “supposed” to be. The rise in “grandfamilies” and grandparents contesting child custody may be based on the modern realities of single parent households according to the Wall Street Journal.

But wait a minute… are the WSJ’s terribly lit pictures and ominous statistics supposed to indicate that grandparents raising kids is some kind of bad development? (Not necessarily; the point instead seems to be bemoaning the economic hardships facing senior parents.) I would welcome more involvement of grandparents in child rearing. Half of my family is one generation removed from a non-western social model where this kind of family was the norm. The household was mom, dad, their mom and dad, maybe even their mom and dad, and the kids.

In my view it is unfortunate that the American nuclear family is a one generation family.  Will times like this make Americans reevaluate our own social engineering? Probably not, but it can’t hurt to establish a dialogue about it. Although the nuclear family encourages mobility and individualism, (and thus buying more stuff) creating cohesive family units and support structures may be more important now than it has been in a while. I’m not peddling some cryptically hidden “family values” social agenda, but if you’re a young professional or a young newly married couple thinking of making the big move away from mom and dad, give it a second thought. Extended family networks, rather than things like day care and babysitters, could come in handy.