BY BILL REAGAN
There are five ways to abuse a child: physically, sexually, emotionally, by physical neglect and by emotional neglect.
According to Childhelp, a national organization working to prevent child abuse, a report of abuse is made somewhere in the United States every ten seconds. That’s 3.6 million referrals per year.
On average, five children are lost every day to abuse or neglect. Seventy percent of these children are two years of age or younger. Eighty percent of child deaths involve a least one parent as perpetrator.
Physical abuse is the most prevalent. Twenty-eight percent of child abuse cases involve physical abuse. About twenty-one percent of cases involve sexual abuse. Emotional neglect accounts for fifteen percent of cases. Emotional abuse and physical neglect account for ten percent each.
Child abuse can lead to a lifetime of hurt. Two thirds of people in treatment for drug abuse say they were either abused or neglected as children. The percentage of incarcerated people who were abused as children is double the national rate. Neglected and abused children are about nine times more likely to be involved in criminal activity than those who were not abused or neglected. Patients who report six or more incidents of abuse die twenty years younger than the general population.
These are hard facts to read – much harder to live.
Child abuse is a crime. It is the duty of citizens to report crime to the authorities. Some say that family matters are no one else’s business. Children cannot speak for themselves.
We have some great organizations in Cameron County helping to serve the victims of child abuse, Maggie’s House and Monica’s House, Blue Sunday Child Abuse Prevention, Sunny Glen Children’s Home and Valley Haven. Our District Attorney has a special Child Abuse Unit to deal with these heart breaking crimes.
Call the national child abuse hotline 1-800-4-A-Child to report abuse or neglect.
Bill Reagan is executive director of Loaves & Fishes of the Rio Grande Valley.
