Child Abuse Cases Still on Rise, Experts Say

Despite the prevalence of child abuse prevention programs, substantiated cases of child abuse continue to grow at the rate of 10% a year, experts gathered at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel said Friday.

Of California’s 36,000 family day-care homes and 7,900 day-care centers, 150 were closed last year due to allegations of child abuse, according to David Corwin, a San Francisco psychiatrist and president of the California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, which is concluding its first conference today at the Westin in Costa Mesa.

This year, nearly 200 are expected to be closed because of abuse--about half the allegations involving sexual abuse--said Corwin, citing figures from the state Department of Social Services.

Heightened awareness of the continuing problem, which accounts for the increased reports, has stopped some incidents of child abuse, such as physical punishment of their children, Corwin said. But sexual abuse that is “irrational and emotional” continues unabated, he said.

In fact, now fearing exposure, some perpetrators may simply become more crafty, he said.

1 Million Cases

Cases of substantiated child abuse and neglect in the United States last year reached 1 million, said David Finkelhor, associate director of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire. Close to another million are suspected, he said, citing research from the American Assn. for the Protection of Children in Denver, Colo.

Even the recent Steinberg case, in which a New York attorney was arrested in the beating death of the 6-year-old girl he had adopted, is not rare, Finkelhor said. An estimated 1,400 to 5,000 children die each year as a result of abuse, Finkelhor said.

In an effort to combat the problem, members of Capsac are trying to inform fellow professionals--particularly judges--about the latest research in child abuse identification, treatment and prevention. The year-old society, which includes 600 members representing 16 disciplines, is developing guidelines that should be distributed in 1988, Corwin said.

Frequently, experts may not identify abuse or may mistakenly attack those trying to help abused children as a result of “bias, ignorance and the complexity of the problem,” said Corwin.

Experts gathered for a press briefing disagreed over one of the most controversial questions surrounding child abuse cases: do children lie?

Currently, the most common defense in child abuse cases is that children have been misled into making false accusations, said Gail Goodwin, a University of Denver psychologist. But her research has shown that children can not easily be misled, as was previously thought.

Asked False Questions

In her studies, children played with adults in videotaped sessions. Three or four months later, children were asked to recall the play time. Researchers asked leading and false questions, such as, “How many times did he kiss you?”

She said it was difficult to get children 4 years and older to agree to the false statements.

The only time children lie, she said, is when they are holding back information. She said she had not investigated whether children are influenced by the stories of other children.

Toby Tyler, a sergeant with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, said: “The reality is children frequently lie about sexual abuse, most often to deny what’s been done to them. There are people out there who do incredibly bizarre things to very young children. Their motivation is to make disclosure unbelievable.”

However, Sandra Smith, a municipal judge from San Joaquin County, said: “I’ve raised three children. I know they lie.

“In matters of child sexual abuse, they’re not incapable of lying and are less incapable as they grow older.”

But she agreed that judges and juries need help in understanding children’s limitations as witnesses in court.

“One half the courts are involved in cases that involve allegations of sexual abuse, often with very young children,” she said. Judges and juries need “meaningful, well researched information.”

“We recognize children are disadvantaged witnesses. Linguistically and cognitively they’re not as developed,” she said, adding that courts are ready to look at achild witness in the way they look at “a deaf person or a person who doesn’t speak English.”

Goodwin said her two-year study found that testifying in court is not necessarily damaging to children. “For some, it is actually helpful.”

Half of Cases Substantiated

About half the child abuse reports are substantiated, Corwin said. A recent Denver study of 576 cases of child abuse found 50% to be unsubstantiated, meaning a case could not be made. Only 8% of the cases were believed to have been fabricated and only 2% falsely initiated by children.

Corwin said his organization advocates knowledge, training and research.

“We want to improve our science so that (false accusations) become less and less of a problem,” he said.

Allegations of child abuse resulting from custody battles have recently been found to be lower than previously thought, Corwin said.

According to the National Assn. of Family Court Judges and Conciliators, only 2% arise from custody fights, he said. Of those, 80% were found to be reliable, he said.

Seeking help is a particular problem for in-family abusers where the parents are separated, he said, because the perpetrators believe discovery will prevent them from ever seeing their children again. Denial is so strong in such perpetrators that they will pass polygraph tests, he said.

No one knows exactly whether or how child abuse awareness and prevention programs, now prevalent in many schools, actually affect children, experts said.

“We don’t yet have the research base,” Finkelhor said.