Suspected Child Abuse Cases Rise 6%

The number of suspected child abuse reports in Orange County rose 6% in 1997 after a two-year decline, officials announced Wednesday.

“This increase in reports is very disturbing,” said Barbara Oliver, executive director of the Child Abuse Prevention Council of Orange County. “We, as a community, haven’t reached the level of outrage or emotion necessary to move us to make the prevention of child abuse an important social and political priority.”

A total of 36,808 cases were reported last year, up from 34,675 in 1996. Eight children died from abuse in 1997, down from 11 the previous year. Six of the children who died in 1997 were younger than 2.

The increase in reports is partly explained by new welfare rules that require reporting emotional abuse as a result of witnessing domestic violence, according to Michael Riley, director of the Social Services Agency’s Children and Family Services Department.

Abuse is broken down into categories of sexual, physical, neglect and emotional, exploitation and caretaker absence or incapacitation. Reports of emotional abuse rose 73% in 1997 while neglect was up 14%. But cases of sexual and physical abuse fell slightly.

Reports come from relatives, neighbors, physicians, school officials, officers of the court and others.

Experts are worried about another potential problem: a greater risk of child abuse as families face the difficult transition from welfare to work.

“We believe welfare reform will be beneficial to the community in the long run,” Oliver said. “But it has been documented that families under stress are at a higher risk of abusing their children, and this transition threatens, at least in the short term, to substantially increase the stresses on many families.”

Several services are needed to prevent abuse among those families, Oliver said, including affordable child care, parenting classes, home management training and adequate transportation.

“I’m worried that kids might get caught in the middle when welfare recipients are put to work,” said county Supervisor William G. Steiner, a longtime children’s advocate. “We need a safety net of child care services to prevent more children from being put at risk.”

Steiner said the Board of Supervisors has allocated $40 million for preventive programs. The board also committed $75 million for foster care and group homes, and $15 million for the Orangewood Children’s Home, the county’s only emergency shelter for abused and neglected children.

Still, child welfare advocates voiced concern that new state regulations on the placement and care of children under age 6 will strain the county’s already limited resources.

Among some of the new requirements, children younger than 6:

* Can’t be placed in a county facility or group home for longer than 30 days.

* Can’t be placed in a group home with more than six children, or in homes that house older children.

Oliver said the state mandates would be fine if they were funded. Instead, she said, the State Department of Social Services is making individual counties responsible for the money and other resources to comply with the new regulations. Currently, there are slightly more than 600 foster families in Orange County, Steiner said, but that is nowhere near what is necessary to meet the needs of the thousands of abused kids needing placement.

“If we could just get 200 or 300 more families who were willing to help, it would take tremendous pressure off of the county.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Abuse on Rise

After a two-year decline, reports of child abuse in Orange County rose 6% in 1997. A look at the trend:

Year: Number of Cases

1993: 36,721

1997: 36,808

Source: Orange County Child Abuse Registry

Researched by ERIKA CHAVEZ / For The Times