PHOENIX, May 20, 2009
Child Abuse Spikes During Recession
Hospitals Across Country Seeing A Rise In Incidents, Severity Of Abuse Cases
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Play CBS Video Video The Recession Worries Children Seth Doane reports on the psychological impact of the recession on kids. Jennifer Hartstein explains to Maggie Rodriguez how to explain to kids about money concerns without worrying them.
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Video Spotlight On Child Abuse Calls to domestic violence hotlines are up 21 percent and, often, children are the victims. In an online survey of law enforcement officials, many cited the recession as the reason. Sandra Hughes reports.
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An x-ray from the Phoenix's Children's Hospital of an abused child's broken arm. (CBS)
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"We have seen an increase not only in the number of cases we have seen but in the severity of the cases," Terreros said.
Terreros and her team are being overwhelmed by a spike in the number of cases. In the first four months of this year, they've seen abuse cases increase 40 percent over the same time last year, from 45 in 2008 to 63 in 2009, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes.
"The numbers are going up and some of the families, what they are telling us tells me that the economy is playing a part in it," Terreros said.
The recession has hit especially hard in Phoenix. Housing prices have dropped 50 percent. Foreclosures have left neighborhoods looking like ghost towns.
"Recently two of the cases that I had, it was a father who was normally the one working who all of sudden lost his job and now he was the primary care taker of the child and he had never been in that role and then the children came in with injuries," Terreros said.
"And in that particular case, what was the explanation?" Hughes asked. "He just lost it?"
"There was no explanation," Terreros said. "It's still denial."
When caregivers' explanations don’t match the injuries, Terreros and her team work like detectives, looking at scans and x-rays to tell the child's story. And what they uncover can be upsetting.
"So this poor kid was walking around with a broken arm?" Hughes asked while Terreros was looking at an x-ray of broken bones.
"Well he probably wouldn't have been walking," Terreros said. "Go and look at the next slide. This is the other arm. Look at this new bone here."
"Two broken arms?" Hughes asked.
"Two broken arms," Terreros said. "This is his left leg and you can see here he has an old fracture and also on his right leg he did."
"Two, that almost makes me cry," Hughes said, her voice cracking.
The spike in child abuse cases isn't isolated to Phoenix. At children's hospitals across the country, there is growing alarm.Reporter's Notebook: Recession Puts Children In Harm's Way
At Boston's Children's Hospital the number of cases screened rose 20 percent last year. At Seattle Children's Hospital, a 27 percent increase in confirmed cases. In Beaufort, S.C., a 63 percent increase so far this year. All believe the economy is playing a major role.
These children are among the statistics. And this is their mother.
"Sometimes I have to walk away because I know that if I start to hit one of them, it probably wouldn't stop," said one abuser.
She's a single mother of four who doesn't want to be identified, and says after losing her home to foreclosure, she became abusive and gave her daughter a black eye.
"I went into her room with a spatula and spanked her," she said. "I had to hold her down on the ground to do it and I had to use more force than I've ever had to use on any of my kids."
She's now in counseling to control her anger, despite her financial situation.
Some experts say it's not economic stress leading to an increase in child abuse cases, but better reporting by hospitals.
But there is no denying that vital funding to prevent child abuse is drying up. Several states have proposed or already made cutbacks to programs this year, like the Crisis Nursery in downtown Phoenix, which must now turn away children in families considered to be high risk.
"We have a waiting list of probably 50 to 70 youngsters whose parents want their kids to be here," said Marsha Porter, the executive director of Crisis Nursery.
Eva Estes was awarded temporary custody of her granddaughters after the state separated them from their parents because of drug use and neglect - a claim their mother denies. Estes is worried about the girls going back to live with their mother.
"What's going to happen to my granddaughters when they do go back, if they go back?" Estes asked. "Is anybody from CPS going to check up on them once a week, once a month, if ever?"
She has reason for concern. Budget cuts forced a 15 percent reduction in Child Protective Services staff - that's 159 case workers. Now low-level complaints, often the first sign of abuse, will be ignored.
"No one is going to check out to make sure if those kids are OK?" Hughes asked Gary Arnold, with Arizona's Child Protective Services.
"And believe me it was gut wrenching decision to make, nobody wanted to make that decision, but it was necessary," Arnold said.
Back at the Phoenix Children's Hospital, when they see a child with cuts, they know exactly what those cuts could mean - and they feel powerless.
"A child is left in an unsafe situation and then they come in here, critically ill," Terreros said.
Her team can only heal the immediate wounds. The long-term scars will last far beyond the recession.
Where you can offer help if you're able, or receive help if you need it:
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 36 Commentssigned, child protective services
The solution is to recapture the rental value of land by instituting a fee on the privilege to title land. Land no Human created. This can be accomplished by taxing land values. Shift the property tax off property and put the burden on land value. Thomas Paine and Henry George should be required reading if you want to understand homelessness, not Marx and Rush Limbaugh.
Steve Tamas PO Box 268 Harrisville NY 13648 Tel; 315 543-2919
I can help
Most parents do not abuse their children...and the ones who do should not have their children, but did you know that children are more likely to be abused, sexually abused, neglected and killed in DSS custody then they are in their own homes.
I say this CBS Story does not look at the whole picture of the CPS system and child abuse, but instead has a very narrow view and ignores what is really happening to our children in this country.
Posted by tomanyt at 7:50 AM : May 21, 2009
Umm...what about this?:
Child abuse and neglect are defined by Federal and State laws. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) is the Federal legislation that provides minimum standards that States must incorporate in their statutory definitions of child abuse and neglect. The CAPTA definition of "child abuse and neglect" refers to:
"Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm"1
http://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/laws_policies/statutes/define.cfm
Schoolmarm - it's very comfortable in your world, isn't it? It's very easy to judge others when you have it all and have it sooo together.
Not all are blessed with the life you have. In addition, your Republican "Christian" president put us into this recession. Considering how much Republican "Christians" hate the poor but love to accuse liberals of "enjoying killing babies." You support war, torture, self-righteousness, pride, ego, lack of empathy and compassion, and you sit talking from a place where the poor do not live.
Of course, bad economies result in child abuse, crime, abortions, and every other evil, yet Republican "Christians" keep voting in their candidates to throw this country into a reccession EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Get the log out of your own eye before you judge others. You need to shut your mouths. You've done enough damage already.
Ain't nothing worse than sitting home unemployed in the double wide as you finish off that last can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and cabin fever begins to sets in.
Children, as young as 3 years old, should out there looking for a job instead of demanding attention 24/7.
But when was the last time you saw a child looking for a job? Never! It's about time the little rascals do something for their parents instead of just sitting on their butts telling everyone about their new toys or sing Sesame Street songs.
I'm glad that people are finally standing up to children.
Posted by PhilistineTheArtLover
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Its not their fault, years ago liberals enacted laws forbidding their employment! Gone are those happy days spent in factories for Americas non priveledge youth. I know my families company would gladly brings jobs back here from China if they could only employ children here in America.
In the 1950s, corporal punishment was the norm. I had my share of hairbrushes on bare backsides and belts to the leg. We no longer accept this as appropriate. We recognize the complete disparity of power between parent and child.
You raise the child as you want them to go from day one, primarily by example. You ask the child politely to hand you something, you thank the child for offering you something, you refuse to engage an hysterical child and always make time for a mannered child, you treat the child as a person - long before the child can speak his/her first word. You make it clear that timeouts are about THINKING and SEPARATION ('I really don't want to be around you if you are going to behave that way. Sit here and think about it and when you are ready to behave like a person, let me know.) Remember the limitation of the age (a timeout of longer than a minute or two with a toddler is meaningless and cruel.)
Finally, remember always that you are big enough to kill the child - and the child knows it. Do you really want to be the monster of your child's nightmares?
I think ADHD is far and away overdiagnosed. I think much of it is poor or distracted parenting coupled with loneliness and poor diet. Remember: negative attention is preferable to no attention so if the only way you spend time with a child is in correction/ discipline/ anger, then the child will find new and more deviant methods of acquiring that atttention (since, after a bit, each bit of naughtiness gets ignored due to parental ennui.)
As the the parent(s) of the children with broken limbs - eye for an eye time. Tether them in the public square and snap their limbs and leave them untreated.
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