THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 11, 1995 TAG: 9505110473
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
Reports of child abuse dropped a little in Virginia last year, bucking a national upward trend.
There were 35,889 reports of child abuse or neglect statewide in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1994, involving 52,734 children. That was down about 1.5 percent from the previous year, according to the state Child Protective Services office in Richmond.
Social workers verified the abuse and neglect reports in about 19 percent of cases. They found ``reason to suspect'' the reports were true in another 8 percent of the cases.
``Neglect is still our largest category,'' said Rita L. Katzman, state program manager for Child Protective Services. About 52 percent of the verified cases involved neglect.
That's one category that's increasing in Norfolk. Blame drug abuse, said Dorothy M. Fariss, a CPS supervisor in the city.
``We're getting more and more of those,'' Fariss said. ``A lot of grandparents have to step in and take (neglected children) in.''
Farriss said her office also is seeing more serious cases - more broken bones, burns and ``shaken-baby syndrome,'' which often kills and usually results in brain damage.
Twenty-seven Virginia children died from abuse or neglect in fiscal 1994, down from 43 the year before. Katzman didn't place any significance in the drop, because the numbers of deaths have fluctuated widely in recent years.
Abuse and neglect reports in Virginia rose rapidly at the beginning of the decade, then leveled off. In the year ending in June 1991, reports increased 13 percent over the previous year. Increases the next two years were 7 percent and 2 percent, according to the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse in Chicago, which tracks state figures.
Actual incidents may not have increased as much. Workers attribute many of the reports they receive to increased awareness of the problem - publicity campaigns like April's Child Abuse Awareness Month and educational programs in the schools.
``We get a lot of referrals from schools,'' Fariss said.
Nationwide, an estimated 3.1 million children were named in 1994 as suspected abuse victims, up 4.5 percent from 1993, the National Committee reported. Such reports across the country have increased about 5 percent a year since 1989, and 63 percent overall since 1985.
The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect last month reported to Congress that child abuse was a ``public health crisis,'' killing at least 2,000 children a year and seriously injuring more than 140,000. More young children - most under 4 - die from abuse and neglect in the home than from accidental falls, choking on food, suffocation, drowning or house fires, the report said.
The report also said that child abuse isn't tracked or investigated sufficiently nationwide. In Virginia, a committee to review all violent, suspicious or unexplained child fatalities. The committee, chaired by the state's chief medical examiner, will begin operating July 1 under a law enacted this spring. MEMO: The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: ABUSE CASES IN VIRGINIA
Child abuse in Virginia, July 1, 1993, to June 30, 1994:
35,889 reports involving 52,734 children.
34,226 investigations completed.
6,560 verified cases. Of those, 52 percent were neglect, 22
percent physical abuse, 13 percent sexual abuse, 8 percent mental
abuse, 4 percent other types such as educational or medical
neglect.
27 children died.
1,827 children went to foster homes.
82 percent of the offenders were birth or adoptive parents, or
stepparents; 55 percent were female.
KEYWORDS: CHILD ABUSE STATISTICS REPORT STUDY by CNB