An Awful Topic

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, so I might as well just write this post and get it over with. One of my main areas of specialization as an academic/researcher is children who die from maltreatment. I've been thinking that I should write a post about this topic for a while, awful as it is. I spend a lot of my time thinking, reading, writing about, researching, teaching, and presenting on fatal child maltreatment. I know it's not an easy topic. I'm with you. Even I need to take breaks from it from time to time. I hope that you can endure this post. There is so much that both the public and professionals need to know about this issue. I'll just give my readers some basic information and refer you to resources, if my readers are inclined to learn more. 

• Official statistics tell us that about 2,000 children a year die from maltreatment, but we also understand that this number is under-counted.
• Despite what is covered in the media, most children die from neglect, not abuse. Most of these deaths involve a lack of supervision - children drowning in bathtubs, falling out of windows, being left in vehicles, and the like. This is hard for the public to comprehend, because we mostly hear about physical abuse-related deaths. 
• Children who die from maltreatment are young. Very young. About 75% are under the age of 4; 50% are under the age of 1. Boys are slightly more likely to die than girls. Children who are described as being "difficult" are more likely to die/be killed.
• Caretakers who kill children or who are responsible for their children's deaths are most likely to be mothers, followed by fathers, and then mother's intimate partners. I know that the media tells us that most children are beaten to death by their mother's boyfriends, but it's just not true.
• Caretakers who are responsible for the deaths of their children are likely to be under the age of 30, likely to struggle with mental health concerns, to be unemployed, and to not understand child development. 
• Children who die are also likely to come from households that move a lot and that have non-family members living with them. 

There are other risk factors for fatal child maltreatment, but this is a good start. If you want to learn more about this topic, you can read a piece that I recently wrote for my university's magazine, the Bridgewater Review; look on p. 7. Here are some other good resources:

• The Book of David: How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives, by Richard Gelles, 1996; this book was revolutionary and helped to change federal policy; it is also extremely compelling and moving. 
• A Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder, by Karen Spears Zacharias, 2012; I have some trouble with this book; it doesn't go beyond the single incident of this child's death, and it perpetuates the myth that children mostly die at the hands of their mom's boyfriend; but, it does a great job of showing how children can be tragically hurt and ignored by the adults in their lives.
• We Can Do Better, is a graphic and compelling report of the faces of the children who died in the USA over the past decade; it is produced/published by Every Child Matters.  
• Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities 2010: Statistics and Interventions; this is a government document and gives "official" information; I do recommend it. 
• I'm also under contract with Springer Publishing to write a book called Death by Abuse and Neglect in the United States: Three Decades of Effort with Little Measurable Difference. This is how I will spend my 2013-2014 sabbatical. I presume that the book will come out in 2015. 

What can you do? It's hard to take action around this issue, because in truth, it doesn't happen very often, it doesn't touch us personally, and it's heart-wrenching. But, here are some things that you can do.

• Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors to inform them that most children die from neglect, not abuse. I think that it's very important for the public to know the causes of children's deaths.
• Even though we have some information about what places a child at-risk for fatal child maltreatment, there is still so much that we don't know. If you are inclined, please contact your state and federal legislators whenever you can to urge them to support research on and better tracking of fatal maltreatment. For example, we don't even know how many children die each year, because each state has a different definition of fatal maltreatment. We have taken a good start in this direction with the 2013 passage of the Protect Our Kids Act, which was co-sponsored by Senators Susan Collins of Maine and John Kerry of Massachusetts. Follow the implementation of this legislation and make sure that it is making a difference. 
• The organization Every Child Matters, has made fatal maltreatment one of their primary issues. They have a very liberal bent to their work, so it may not please everyone. That said, it's hard to ignore the good work that they are doing on this issue. 
• You could also work with your community to raise money for the children's memorial flag, an initiative to bring awareness to children's well-being, sponsored by the Child Welfare League of America.

There are so many issues that are good causes and need attention. I know that this is just one, but this one deals with thousands of children's lives. 

In my next blog post, I promise that Professor Douglas will take a back seat and I'll just go back to being Emily who lives on the Powwow. But, I have to say...aren't you glad that I didn't include pictures with this post?