One Year of Child Abuse and Neglect Produces 35,000 Future Violent Criminals, 250 Murderers, Says Bipartisan Group

5/5/2003

From: Phil Evans: 202-776-0027, ext 109 Clay Wilkinson: 202-776-0027, ext 108 both of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids

WASHINGTON, May 5 -- A bipartisan group of prosecutors and mothers of crime victims today released a report from an anti-crime organization showing that year of child abuse and neglect turns at least 35,000 of its victims into violent criminals and 250 into murderers.

The report also presented new research showing that most child abuse and neglect among high-risk families can be prevented.

Kings County (Brooklyn), N.Y. District Attorney Charles J. Hynes said, "the evidence is now conclusive. Instead of just waiting for the next horror story to splash across the news, Congress needs to invest now in programs that prevent child abuse and neglect, prevent crime and save lives, now and in the years ahead."

Rep. Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), a congressional champion of programs to prevent abuse and neglect, said, "I'm pleased to join with law enforcement officials across the country to call attention to the proven effectiveness of programs funded with the Social Services Block Grant (the principal federal program providing states with funds for child protective services) and the real danger that there won't be enough of those programs if full funding is not restored this year."

The report, New Hope For Preventing Child Abuse, was prepared by Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national, bipartisan, non-profit, anti-crime organization of more than 2,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and victims of violence. It was released at a news conference on Capitol Hill.

As an immediate priority, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids' members said the Senate Finance Committee, when it considers state fiscal relief on Thursday, should assure that adequate funds are set aside for the Social Services Block Grant so that financially-strapped states can take critical steps to prevent abuse and neglect and protect children.

Besides Hynes and Levin, the speakers were, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids president Sanford Newman; Dr. Randell Alexander, Director of the Center for Child Abuse at Morehouse School of Medicine; Denver District Attorney William Ritter: Marquette County, Mich., Prosecutor Gary Walker: Fairfield County, Ohio, Prosecuting Attorney David Landefeld; and two mothers -- Polly Franks of Richmond, Va. and Brendina Tobias, of Newport News, Va. -- whose children were the victims of crimes committed by persons who had been victims of abuse and neglect as children.

Alexander said that his "research shows that abuse and neglect can turn some children into ticking time bombs. We must prevent abuse and neglect or risk explosions of violence across America for years to come."

Tobias said the persons who fatally shot her son, Devon, were "cold-blooded killers" who currently are serving time for at least six other murders. "There can never be any excuse for what they have done," Tobias said, but she acknowledged that the murderers were neglected as children. "If those boys families had the kind of interventions we are talking about here today, my son might still be alive." Tobias said.

Franks' three daughters and other children in their neighborhood were molested by a chronic sex offender, Joseph Smith, who broke into homes and attacked girls as young as five. She said Smith's parents were alcoholics and his father abused the children in the family. "If these proven programs keep one person from growing into a Joe Smith, or keep one child from being assaulted, beaten or killed, that's where I want my tax money to go."

The report shows that the number of cases of abuse and neglect in America far exceeds the 900,000 confirmed cases and 1,300 deaths reported to the government annually. The real toll is an estimated 2.7 million cases of abuse and neglect, and at least 2,000 children killed each year.

Among the research cited in the report as effective means of abuse and neglect prevention were studies of:

-- The Chicago Child-Parent Centers, a pre-kindergarten program for three and four-year-olds with a strong parent involvement component. A long-term study showed that child abuse and neglect was cut in half in families that participated in the program compared to similar at-risk families that did not participate.

-- The Nurse Family Partnership, which randomly assigned at-risk mothers in Elmira, N.Y. to receive home visits by nurses providing coaching in parenting and other skills. A rigorous study showed that there were 80 percent fewer incidents of child abuse among families in the program, compared to those not enrolled. Children from families not in the program had twice as many arrests by the time they were 15 compared to children whose mothers received coaching.

At the federal level, the biggest source of general funding for child abuse and neglect prevention is the Social Services Block Grant, which can be used by states to fund parenting coaching and other effective prevention programs. Unfortunately, this block grant has been cut by 40 percent over the last five years, Newman said.

Meanwhile, the federal government1s principal pre-kindergarten program, Head Start, remains so under funded that it is forced to leave out four of every ten eligible children from poor families.

In addition to immediately allocating substantial state fiscal relief funds for the Social Service Block Grant, the members of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids urged Congress to:

-- Permanently restore the Social Services Block Grant funding to its authorized level of $2.8 Billion from its current level of $2.1 billion. -- Provide an extra $8 billion a year in childabuse prevention and child protection funding and an extra $15 billion a year for Head Start and other pre-kindergarten programs.

Newman, Alexander, Hynes, Walker, and Ritter were authors of New Hope for Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect, along with Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca; Northeastern University Criminologist James Alan Fox; University of Wisconsin child development expert Arthur Reynolds, Riverside County District Attorney Grover Trask, Wayne County, Ohio Prosecuting Attorney Martin Frantz; Tulsa, Okla. Sheriff Stanley Glanz; Catawba County, N.C. Sheriff L. David Huffman; and William Christeson, research director of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.