Report on Child Abuse Finds Agencies Deluged

Last year in Los Angeles County, one child was murdered each week by his parent or caretaker, more than 2,400 babies were born addicted to drugs, and school officials found at least 1,800 children who had been sexually abused, according to a landmark study compiled by a county task force.

The report, which will be made public today by the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, is considered the most comprehensive study ever conducted on child abuse in Los Angeles. It paints a portrait of a social services system that is being overwhelmed by seriously abused children.

The study found that the county Department of Children’s Services received more than 114,000 reports involving abused and neglected children. The coroner, meanwhile, investigated 43 cases of teen suicide.

The very young were the most at risk, the report concluded. Of 48 abuse-related homicides, one-third involved victims under the age of 6 months. County health officials said that babies under 3 months accounted for 31% of the child abuse cases they saw.

“We’re in a whole lot more trouble than we thought,” said Dr. Michael Durfee, who serves on the council and runs the county Department of Health Services’ child abuse prevention program. “You can get a real headache looking at this whole thing.”

Said Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block, who chairs the council: “We are really a very violent community.”

The report took six months to compile and gathered statistics from 25 local, state and federal agencies, including child protection and health agencies, schools and law enforcement organizations. The council hopes to use the figures to persuade county officials to develop a far-reaching strategy to prevent child abuse, rather than simply respond after it happens.

“This is a call to action,” said Deanne Tilton, the council’s executive director. “We need to provide the kinds of support services and early intervention services that will avoid the crisis mode that we have been operating under. Otherwise, we continue to shovel quicksand. And the reality is that we are going to end up losing.”

Among the 48 homicides examined, the report cited the case of “Joanna.” The 2-year-old was killed by her stepfather, who buried her in the mountains. The Department of Children’s Services and police had been called “many times before the death,” the report found.

In another case, 5-month-old “Monica” died after her father threw her in the air because she would not stop crying. Her parents, who have fled, have been charged with murder. The two-volume report did not attempt to assess how public agencies have responded to the problem of abused and neglected children.

“The point was to acknowledge the nature and extent of the problem,” Tilton said.

The council found that while the number of reported child abuse cases declined slightly in 1989 from the previous year, the cases are becoming more serious. More children are being removed from abusive parents than ever before, more suspects are being arrested for child abuse and more cases are being prosecuted.

Statistics showed that both the Department of Childrens’ Services and the Department of Health Services handled fewer cases in 1989 than they did in 1988. But these declines, the council concluded, are not enough to signify a downward trend.

The study also found that drug and alcohol abuse are having a devastating impact on the county’s children.

Based on current and projected figures, the report said, Los Angeles public schools will begin the next century with at least 24,000 elementary school children who suffer the side effects of having been born addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Because there are no nationwide standards for reporting and tracking child abuse, it is difficult to compare the Los Angeles statistics to those elsewhere in the nation. However, Tilton said, New York City officials last year reported 89 fatalities linked to child abuse.

Although the Los Angeles report focused on 48 abuse-related homicides, it found an additional 110 child deaths that it labeled “suspicious.”

The council offered 24 recommendations to help stem child abuse and improve services to abused youngsters.

It recommended that county officials create a computerized data base to track child abuse. It called for a “child victim evaluation center” where abused children could be interviewed simultaneously by police, social workers and prosecutors.

The report also recommended that county agencies create new programs to help prevent the birth of drug-exposed children, and suggested establishing a specialized corrections facility for pregnant, drug-abusing women.

The council was founded in 1977 to promote coordination of child abuse services. Tilton said it has not been an easy task.

Government agencies, she said, rarely communicate with one another about individual child abuse cases--in part because there is no centralized computer system for reporting child abuse and domestic violence, and in part because strict confidentiality laws make authorities reluctant to share information.

The result is that children being served by one agency may suffer abuse while another agency could have passed along information to prevent it.

The report found that the Department of Children’s Services had open files on 26% of the children who died. In 21% of the cases, the department had confirmed reports of domestic violence in the household.

Sheriff Block said the findings show a correlation between domestic violence and child abuse. Perhaps, he said, youngsters could be spared abuse at the hands of their parents if police who respond to reports of domestic violence simply notify child protection agencies.

Durfee recounted the case of a parolee who sodomized and killed his girlfriend’s son. His parole officer knew he had been released from prison. The girlfriend’s social worker knew the boyfriend had moved back into the house.

But, Durfee said, “they didn’t talk to each other.”