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Hernando Today

Breaking The Cycle Of Child Abuse

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By KYLE MARTIN

Hernando Today

Published: October 5, 2008

Kids get hurt all the time.
Between the soccer matches, bicycle tumbles and wrestling mishaps, most children have an assortment of cuts and bruises.
It's part of growing up.
What's not natural are cigarette burns on the hands, welts across the backside, a child's explicit understanding of sexuality.
"Child abuse" is a broad tern applied to the physical and emotional mistreatment of children under the age of 18. But the root cause of abuse and the long-term effects on its victims make this crime unlike any other, experts say.
"It's so much different," said Special Agent Edie Neal, a crimes against children investigator for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

A detective with basic skills can solve a fraud or homicide. With one arrest, "you've solved the problem," Neal said.

But there's a reason law enforcement agencies dedicate detectives solely to child abuse. Investigating a bank robbery takes a different set of interview skills than speaking with a child rape victim, Neal said.

The medical field is recognizing that as well. For the first time, child abuse is gaining the same acceptance as a pediatric specialty as a field such as cardiology. Just like with law enforcement, a general practitioner might be asked to diagnose a runny nose then examine another patient who has just been beaten.

There's a need for specializing because "the knowledge base is so huge," said Dr. Kelly Ferrigno, chief physician for the University of Florida Child Protection Team (CPT).

Recognizing Child Abuse

Child abuse, like domestic violence, was kept behind doors for years and did not become a public issue until the 1970s and 80s. Studies on child molestation were unheard of until the 1920s and the first national estimate of child sexual abuse cases was printed in 1948.

A lack of recognition meant many child victims didn't receive the therapy they needed. While research is spotty on exactly how many abused children grow up to become abusers, experts estimate between 40 and 95 percent.

Stopping that cycle takes a team effort, just as diagnosing abuse requires a group of experts. That's why, child abuse "is more than allegation," Ferrigno said.

Said Ferrigno: "It's a multi-discipline issue and it needs a multi-discipline approach."

Start with the diagnosis. The CPT is a network of doctors and registered nurses that assists law enforcement by clinically documenting child abuse. In other words, their testimony will prove the bruises are not a result of a child falling down the stairs.

The CPT is funded by the Legislature and serves a 16-county area in north Central Florida with a population of 250,000 children under the age of 18. In Brooksville, physicians do forensic interviews and medical exams at a collection of doublewide trailers called the Child Advocacy Center.

But the solution is more than an arrest. In Hernando County, substance abuse and domestic violence play a role in almost every child abuse case, says Sunshine Arnold, clinical supervisor for the Fifth Judicial Circuit.

Locking up abusers without providing therapy so they can work out their issues is not going to fix the problem, Arnold said. That's why counselors provide drug counseling, anger management and a host of other services to the abusers and their families.

"They need help, too," Arnold said.

The idea behind the CPT is to give children the help they need now so that they don't perpetuate the cycle. Even if they don't become abusers, 80 percent of young adults who had been abused met the criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder; 25 percent were likely to be come teenage mothers; and 28 percent to be arrested as adults, according to 2006 statistics cited by childhelp.org.

The Average Child Abuser

Child abusers come from all walks of life.

"You can't profile a child abuser," Ferrigno said.

But there are several common threads between child abusers. Many are in positions of trust. In Neal's experience as a child abuse investigator, she has arrested a police chief and clergy.

The Tampa Bay area has seen a rash of teachers sleeping with students, but it really shouldn't be shocking to the public, said Arnold. Child abusers seek out places where they can be surrounded by children.

"It really makes sense, sadly," Arnold said.

But even more common are family members. Nearly 80 percent of child abuse perpetrators in 2006 were parents, according to research by the U.S. Department of Health and Family Services, 29 percent a relative other than parents and 10 percent by non-caregivers - the "people in positions of trust."

It's "very common," Arnold said, for abuse to be treated as a family issue. But when grandpa molests his grandchildren, parents will remark after an arrest that he did the same thing to them when they were growing up, Arnold said.

Better reporting methods is helping child abuse gain wider recognition. Children are educated in schools on what's not appropriate touching and how to tell someone that they are being abused.

Despite what children suffer at the hands of their relatives, few want to leave their home. Ferrigno can count on one hand the number of children who have told her they hate their parents.

"They just want the abuse to stop," she said.

Reporter Kyle Martin can be reached at 352-544-5271 or kmartin@hernandotoday.com.

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