ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
STATISTICALLY, THE RISK is greater, the federal study indicates, for poor children and children with only one parent at home.
Abuse and neglect of America's young nearly doubled between 1986 and 1993, a federal study says.
The study by the Department of Health and Human Services says the estimated number of children abused and neglected rose to 2.81 million in 1993 - up 98 percent from 1.42 million in 1986 when the last report was published.
The estimated number of seriously injured children nearly quadrupled from 141,700 in 1986 to 565,000 in 1993.
The report said those statistics ``herald a true rise in the scope and severity of child abuse and neglect in the United States'' rather than an increase only in cases being reported.
It is unreasonable to suppose that so many more seriously injured victims of abuse and neglect existed at the time of the last report and somehow were not noticed by community professionals, the report says.
Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala released the report at the National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. She also announced $23 million in state grants to community organizations that will teach parenting skills and provide other services aimed at preventing abuse.
While the occurrences of abuse grew during the seven-year period, the report says the number of cases state agencies investigated remained constant. As a result, the percentage of cases that state child protective services workers investigated fell from 44 percent of the total in 1986 to 28 percent in 1993.
``This picture suggests that the child protective system has reached its capacity to respond to the maltreated child population,'' the report says.
The congressionally mandated report is based on a sample of 5,612 professionals in 842 agencies serving 42 counties.
Researchers also obtained data on children seen by community professionals at places such as schools, hospitals and mental health agencies. All used the same definitions of child abuse and neglect.
The study also found:
* The number of abused children rose 107 percent from an estimated 590,800 to 1.22 million; the estimated number of neglected children rose 114 percent from 917,200 to 1.96 million.
* Children of single parents had a 77 percent greater risk of being harmed by physical abuse, an 87 percent greater risk of being harmed by physical neglect and an 80 percent greater risk of suffering serious injury or harm from abuse or neglect than children living with both parents.
* Children from families earning less than $15,000 were 22 times more likely to suffer maltreatment than children from families with incomes above $30,000. They also were 18 times more likely to be sexually abused and 22 times more likely to be seriously injured.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 linesby CNB