Grand Jury Voices Alarm at Increase in Child Abuse

An “appalling” incidence of child abuse, worsened by drug addiction and the lack of a preventive network, threatens to overwhelm the resources of San Diego County, the grand jury concluded in a report released Wednesday.

The county received 82,437 reports of child abuse in 1989, contrasted with 67,583 in 1988, the report noted. And, during the past three years, 67 children younger than 4 died in San Diego County from what the grand jury called “confirmed or suspected” child abuse.

The report, which has been sent to Superior Court Judge Judith McConnell for review, makes a series of recommendations to local agencies, some of which are as follows:

* The County Board of Supervisors should “encourage legislation” for tougher penalties against people who sexually abuse children, mandatory prison sentences for second offenses and better supervision for released child molesters.

* All county school districts should improve teachers’ training in recognizing and preventing abuse, and provide drug and alcohol education in all schools, beginning in preschool.

* The County Department of Health Services should “make AIDS testing for child molesters mandatory. If the test is negative, follow-up testing should be done. If the test is positive, counseling should be provided for the caretakers and the victim.”

And, the grand jury noted, the department should “assume specific responsibility for child abuse as a public health issue.”

* The San Diego County Sheriff should “make drug education, child abuse prevention and treatment programs a first priority for the use of seized assets from drug arrests.”

Dr. Peggy Peelle, a pediatrician and a noted neo-natal specialist, who was as one of four grand jury members on the committee studying child abuse, said San Diego County ranks among the highest in the nation in incidence of crimes against children.

Peelle said California’s large transient population and the lack of extended families in the county contributes to the problem.

Another factor that “stunned” committee members was the high incidence of drug abuse in San Diego County, particularly the spread of crystal methamphetamine, said committee member Ruth Malin. Malin and Peelle said drug abuse “contributed greatly” to child abuse.

Malin said abuse brought on by neglect was found most commonly in parents who were too drug-addicted to realize they were hurting the child.

“Especially in some of the cases we looked at, it wasn’t that the mothers didn’t love their children, it was just that drugs had consumed their lives,” Malin said. “I don’t think they really realized . . . how damaging they’d become.”

The causes of child abuse ranged, in the report, from dissolution of the nuclear family to teen-age pregnancy to “isolation of stressed families” to “lack of skills in family and interpersonal relationships.”