Spotlight on Child Neglect Cases Increases Public Concern : Abuse: Experts disagree on whether incidents are on the rise or media attention has spurred awareness. They welcome focus on a long-ignored problem.

A West Hills woman is arrested before a cheering crowd on charges she left her baby unattended in a car while she shopped. A Simi Valley couple could face charges for leaving their four children home alone while they traveled upstate.

Four small children are taken into protective custody after they are found wandering in the rain, looking for their mother, at their Lancaster apartment building. A Los Angeles woman is convicted of child endangerment after her 8-year-old boy was forced to beg door to door for food.

Child neglect, a problem that gained national attention when the parents of two girls were charged with leaving them unattended in Illinois while they vacationed over Christmas in Acapulco, has been thrust into the public eye.

Many experts contend that the phenomenon has dramatically increased in the past several years. Others argue that, although it is a serious problem, it has not become worse recently but it has gained media attention in the aftermath of the Illinois incident.

Whatever the case, both sides say they welcome increased concern over a problem that has long been ignored.

Officials of the Los Angeles County Children’s Services Department say the number of children removed from their homes--at least temporarily--because their parents or guardians left them unattended tripled from 1986 to 7,451 in 1991. In the 11 months ending in November, the number jumped to 13,883.

Saundra Turner-Settle, a department administrator, said those increases largely reflect the weak economy, the spread of poverty and the high cost of child care. The most common instances of children being left alone, she said, involve latchkey kids who must fend for themselves after school while their parents work.

Not only are instances of child neglect rising, “but they’re becoming more severe,” said Peter Banks, training coordinator at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Arlington, Va.

“Kids are left alone all the time, but now they’re being left for longer periods of time and under more horrendous circumstances.”

Some child abuse specialists argue that the statistics can be misleading. At the Ventura County Children’s Protective Services division, the number of reports of child abuse and neglect has risen over the years.

“Does that mean there’s more abuse and neglect?” asked the division’s program manager, Frank Ferratta. “Not necessarily.”

The numbers could instead reflect improved reporting methods and greater public awareness, Ferratta said.

Lt. Joe Surgent, head of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs’ child abuse unit, takes issue with the view that strained family finances have fueled the problem. “People say that child abuse is increasing because of the economy,” he said. “I’m not seeing that.”

What’s happening now is “a media phenomenon,” he said.

“When I was working patrol, we’d break into a car window once a week to get a child” who was locked inside alone, he said.

Deputy City Atty. Gary Geuss recently prosecuted a Van Nuys woman who was sentenced to 90 days in jail for leaving her two young children home alone in a squalid apartment. He said he has prosecuted dozens of similar cases that have received little or no public attention. “There have always been these cases. It’s just that people are noticing them now.”

Whether or not the problem is getting worse, some hope that the Illinois case might become to child neglect what the McMartin case was to sexual molestation. Although the McMartin case--which involved allegations of sexual abuse of children at a Manhattan Beach preschool--ended in a hung jury, it brought molestation cases to the front pages of newspapers and into the forefront of the national consciousness.

“Even though the prosecution failed,” said Deanne Tilton, executive director of the Interagency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, an agency in El Monte, “there continued to be a heightened concern for children.”

Tilton also compared the Illinois incident with the Lisa Steinberg case in New York, which drew attention to physically abused children. Lisa’s adoptive father beat her so severely that the 6-year-old died in 1986 as a result of the injuries.

If the recent publicity surrounding child neglect produces a heightened sensitivity to the problem, said Robert Rainey, a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles, it could bring attention sooner to cases involving physical or sexual abuse. “You look at these cases that come through and say: ‘Why didn’t someone report this a year ago, before the child dies?’ ”

Some observers suggest that the current media stir is being aided by law enforcement officials. Lt. Robert Klamser of the Simi Valley Police Department issued a press release about the parents who left their children alone while they traveled to Northern California. Why? “Because we were aware at the time that it was a newsworthy issue,” he said.

Surgent offered another reason: “I’m a human being too. I want to let the public know what’s going on out there.”

The deputy said that recent press reports could have been a factor in the reporting of the West Hills woman who left her baby in a car while she shopped at a Costco warehouse store. It was another shopper who notified a store security guard that the baby was alone and crying. The mother has been charged with child endangerment.

“Would citizens have called, would they have applauded when she was arrested, had it not been for the Illinois case?” Surgent asked. “I don’t know, but I’d say it had an impact.”

But police and prosecutors caution that punishing parents is not always the answer.

In fact, prosecutions are rare and California laws involving child neglect are intentionally vague because distinguishing what constitutes criminal child endangerment can be highly subjective except in egregious cases or instances when children are injured.

Most cases are handled solely by children’s services agencies. Rather than urging prosecutions, caseworkers often require parents to receive counseling, attend parenting classes and prove that they can provide child care. If the situation does not improve, the children might be removed from the home.

The Los Angeles County Children’s Services Department has dealt with the increased caseload of child neglect and abuse cases over the past several years by adding 200 social workers to its total of about 3,000, increasing overtime and targeting resources in inner-city areas.

“Hopefully the public concern can be channeled into more than just cheering when someone gets arrested,” Tilton said. “It can be channeled into helping when a parent is under stress, or offering to become a volunteer or advocate for children.”