NC child abuse deaths on the rise, highest rate in 10 years NC child abuse deaths on the rise
RALEIGH -- Last year, North Carolina saw the highest rate of child abuse deaths in 10 years, and experts say that’s unacceptable.
The non-profit group, "Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina," and the state medical examiner report that 37 children died at the hands of their parents or caregivers in 2005.
That’s a 20 percent increase from 2004, and the group says nearly 90 percent of those children were under the age of four.
In 2005, 37 children died at the hands of their parents or caregivers. That is a 20 percent increase in child abuse homicides since 2004 when 31 children died.
"In 2005, a child died every nine days as a result of child abuse. Nearly 90 percent of these children were under four years of age. This is a terrible tragedy for our state," said Jennifer Tolle Whiteside, CEO of Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina and co-chair of the NC Child Fatality Task Force.
According to data released by the NC Child Fatality Prevention Team, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, blunt force head trauma or abusive head trauma was present in nearly 60 percent of the deaths.
Causes of death included head trauma, battering, lack of newborn care, trauma to abdomen, asphyxiation, hyperthermia, hypothermia, drowning, stabbing, complications from malnutrition, and scald injuries.
"It is important to emphasize that approximately half (51 percent) of the children who died from abusive injuries showed physical evidence of prior non-fatal abuse," said Krista Ragan, Child Death Investigator of the Child Fatality Review Team/Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Child abuse and neglect continue to be an epidemic in the United States. Last year more than 5 million children were reported as abused or neglected nationally, while in North Carolina more than 111,000 children were assessed for maltreatment. Each year, an estimated 1,300 children die in the United States because of child abuse.
In 2005, five of the child abuse homicides were newborns. North Carolina's Safe Surrender law allows any parent to surrender their infant, less than 7 days of age, to a responsible adult with no ramifications as long as the child has not been harmed.
Many researchers believe that child fatalities due to abuse are underreported. Definitions of key terms such as "child homicide" and "abuse" can be vague and confusing. In addition, some deaths officially labeled as accidents, neglect, child homicides, and/or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) might be attributed to child abuse if more comprehensive investigations were conducted and if there were more consensus in the coding of abuse on death certificates. Since 1993, more than 370 children have died of child abuse in North Carolina.
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