Title: Child Abuse Within Alabama and Georgia
1Child Abuse Within Alabama and Georgia
- An in-depth study of child abuse statistics,
preventive/protective organizations, and internal
state child abuse conflicts. -
2Defining Child Abuse
- United States Code Collection Title 42, Chapter
67 states - Child abuse/neglect is any recent act or failure
to act on the part of a parent or caretaker,
which results in death, serious physical or
emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation or - An act or failure to act that presents imminent
risk or serious harm to a minor.
3National Child Abuse Statistics
4Specific Areas of Concern
- State run organizations What system does each
state implement in dealing with child abuse - Protection/prevention agencies and their role in
state programs - Specific problems that each state has to deal
with in the area of child abuse
5Alabama and Child Abuse
6Alabama Department of Human Resources
- Child Abuse/Neglect Administration
- Manages and conducts administrative records and
reviews of persons involved in an abusive
incident - Keeps records of every accusation, conviction and
punishment given when abuse is reported and taken
to court
- Child Protective/Central Registry on Child Abuse
- Provides therapy for children and case follow up
- Administers the placement of children in state
homes - Applies for and monitors grants given to child
protect services - Aids in child protection/prevention and state
policy developments.
7Problems within the Child Protective and Central
Registry on Child Abuse
- 1. State allotted funds allow for extensive
therapy and counseling - Fact Alabama allows case follow up and
counseling services for 1-3 years after abusive
incident occurs. Studies prove that emotional and
mental effects of abuse can take decades to
surface. Most of the common effects (withdrawal,
denial) do not even occur until 4-6 years after
the abuse occurs. - 2. Licensed therapists and qualified employees
are allowed to determine when children can be
released from weekly/monthly therapy session. - Fact In 1997, 58 of patients seen by the
therapists in this organization were given
clearance from all counseling sessions after only
8 months. - 3. Case involvement and follow ups Cases will
be investigated and kept on file for at least 10
years prior to incident. - Fact During the past 3 years, 46 of child
fatalities that occurred due to some form of
abuse, had current or prior contact with state
child protective services.
8Child Fatality Agencies in Alabama
- The Alabama Child Death Review System was
established in 1997 to investigate
suspicious/wrongful child deaths. - This agency is responsible for reporting exact
causes (who and/or what) of wrongful child deaths
and implore the aid of other state agencies to
combat this problem.
- Child Death Review Teams are a relatively new
sub-division of the Alabama Child Death Review
System. - The review teams are responsible for taking the
information supplied by the ACDRS and
continuously search for preventive measures.
(physical/behavioral signs to look for, parental
behavior, etc)
9The Deadly Facts of Alabama Child Abuse
- In Alabama, on average, 3 children die per day
due to some form of abuse or neglect. - 85 of the cases involve children under the age
of 5 - 45 of the cases involved children under the age
of 1 - Nationally, Alabama is ranked 8 of states that
have children die due to abuse/ neglect.
10So What Is Alabama Doing To Combat These Pressing
Child Abuse Issues???
11Preventive and Protective Services
- As mentioned before, problems in this category
fall mainly under The Alabama Child Protective
and Central Registry on Child Abuse. What is
currently being done is the instillation of
progressive new programs that allow private,
child advocacy centers to aid state funded
institutions. By doing so, this allows more
volunteers, time and money to be spent on
accomplishing the goals of state institutions.
These goals include more licensed therapists to
provide counseling services for extended amounts
of time, as well as intensive and longer case
follow ups to aid in prevention and protection.
12Dealing with Abusive Deaths
- The Alabama Child Death Review Teams are now
branching out into counties throughout the state.
As of March 24, 2000, 28 counties have review
teams, with 10 more counties in the process of
establishing teams. - These teams are working to open the lines of
communication with local health officials and the
communities in an effort to investigate child
abuse deaths. In return, these teams will
educate the public on the severity of this
problem.
13In Review
- Alabama is like many other states in the nation
in that it is attempting to deal with child abuse
problems effectively. Unfortunately there is no
progressive legislation or agency that has
stopped abuse and neglect all together. However,
Alabama does have ever-evolving ideas and a
system that is growing and changing in an effort
to protect its children.
14Georgia and Child Abuse
15Organizations in Place
- The Georgia Department of Human Resources has one
agency in place that deals with abuse and
neglect. - The Department of Family and Children Services
serves as an all-encompassing organization that
records and investigates abusive situations,
provides counseling for victims, and catalogs
child deaths due to abuse.
16Protective/Preventive Services
- The Georgia Department of Family and Children
Services had more than 70,000 reports of abuse
filed in 1999. - This department is constantly facing case
overloads, insufficient staffing, not enough
counselors and therapists, and lack of funding. - All of these problems ultimately contribute to
the three major areas of child abuse concern
within Georgia neglect, sexual abuse, and
government funding.
17Neglect in Georgia
- Neglect by definition means children that are
inadequately supervised, poorly clothed, poorly
housed, do not receive health care and/ or are
not properly fed. - Often one of the hardest forms of abuse to
identify, neglect has risen 31 from 1999 2000. - In 2000 alone there were 23,703 cases of neglect
investigated, filed and taken to court.
18Sexual Abuse In Georgia
- As defined by the National Clearinghouse on Child
Abuse and Neglect Information, sexual abuse
includes, use, persuasion, or coercion of any
child to engage in, or assist any other person to
engage in, any sexually explicit conduct.. or
rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-family
relationships, statutory rape, molestation,
prostitution, or other form of sexual
exploitation of children, or incest with
children. - In 1999, 45 children in Georgia died from sexual
abuse. The majority of these children were under
the age of 12. - A common assumption is that girls are the only
ones that are sexually abused. In 1999, 47 of
sexually abused children were boys under the age
of 11.
19Sexual AbuseThe ever-increasing statistic
201999 Total Tax Money Spent on Child Abuse
-
- Child
Child Child Mental Child - Total Child Abuse Neglect Sexual
Physical Abuse / Neglect Fatal
Medical Spending 4,400
12,600 200 200
Mental Health
50,800 42,800 98,800
100 - Victim Work/School Loss 18,500
54,900 10,900 11,000 - Public Programs 9,600
31,000 81,300 10 - Property Damage -
400 -
10 - Total Monetary
83,300 141,700 191,200
11,320 Quality of Life
794,200 920,300 840,600
27,900 - Total Comprehensive 877,500
1,062,000 1,031,800 39,220 - The Grand Total 3,010,520
- While this may seem like a large amount spent,
with increasing child abuse statistics, more
money is needed to provide efficient protective
and preventive services.
21Georgias Solutions
- First, Georgia has addressed conflicts within
protective and preventive services. - The state now allows outside institutions to aid
in abuse services. Prevent Child Abuse Georgia,
a non-profit organization, has taken over a large
amount of prevention work that used to be a
responsibility of the Dept. Of Human Resources.
This agency provides parent programs, childrens
programs, community involvement, strategic
partnership, professional education and advocacy.
- The Medical College of Georgia also offers
services to relieve the understaffed DHR. The
college offers a large staff of licensed
therapists, medical attention, and psychologists
that are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. - These organizations, along with several others,
have worked in conjunction with the DHR to cut
down work overloads, inadequate staffing, and
lack of medical needs. These agencies also work
at minimal-to-no costs in an effort to work with
the limited DHR funding.
22Combating Abuse and Neglect
- In October 1999, changes were made within the
Georgia Child Protective Services Systems
By-laws. These changes dealt with defining the
severity of child abuse neglect.
- The changes made were include
- 1.Child safety over preservation
- 2.Structured decision making
- 3.Attention to high risk cases
23The Amendments
- Child safety over preservation- This amendment
states that the judicial system and the DHR would
no longer emphasize keeping a blood-related
family together at all costs. This allows
Georgia officials to take more aggressive strides
when taking away parental rights for abuse and
neglect. - Structured Decision Making Historically, only
the specific case worker and their supervisor
were allowed to make decisions regarding an
abuse/neglect case. The new amendment states
that all case workers are permitted to
investigate and/or re-open a case. - Attention to High Risk Cases- Cases are now rated
as high, medium and low according to the amount
of risk that is involved for the child. This
allows case workers to determine what they are
dealing with and what avenues need to be
explored. Also, with this new system comes
increased contact with Child Protect Services.
The higher the rate a family or case is given,
the more contact it has with child services.
Since October when these amendments were made,
high risk family visits have tripled.
24Stopping Sexual Abuse
- The first progressive step Georgia has taken is
the Sex Offender Registry. This is a program
developed by child protect services and the
Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and has
been implemented state wide. - What this program entails
- -When a person is convicted of a sexual
crime, the GBI collects information including
name, fingerprints, photos, physical description,
places of employment and case status. This
conviction and information is kept on-file
permanently. - -The GBI and child protect services then are
allowed, by law, to provide this information to
the community. Neighborhoods, community centers,
churches, and area businesses are all notified
of the above information concerning the offender.
(All information is available to the public
except for any information concerning the victim) - This labels a sex offender for life. Every time
this person moves to a new location or applies
for a job, the information of being a convicted
sexual offender will arise. This is Georgias
way of protecting its citizens, especially
children. -
25Educating
- Georgia state officials, child protect services,
and school boards across the state have joined
together to present effective programs regarding
physical, sexual and emotional abuse, as well as
neglect. - These programs include video tapes, work books
and group discussions. This is all an effort to
educate young people on the warning signs of
abuse, who to turn to for help, and ways to
recover.
26Showing Child Abuse Services the Money!
- As previously mentioned, Georgia allotted
3,010,520 in 1999 for child abuse incidents and
victims. However, since statistically the amount
of abused children has risen, the monetary
compensation must also rise. - State run institutions are now imploring the
monetary aid of private child advocacy
institutions. Over 1,000 of these organizations
exist within Georgia and all have contributed
monetary support as well as program support. - Coastal Childrens Advocacy Center of Savannah
raised more than 25,000 dollars in child protect
revenue.
27In Review..
- It is a geographical fact that Alabama and
Georgia are closely related. It would seem to be
a fair assumption that these states would have
similar programs and problems when it comes to
child abuse. This presentation has proven that
to be true and false. - Both states share a common organization called
the Department of Human Resources. Each of these
departments have subdivisions within them that
deal with child abuse. Both Alabama and Georgia
have internal conflicts within their
protective/preventive services. However, there
are differences when looking at each state in
depth.
28In Review
- Alabama must concentrate on lack of case follow
up and counseling services in preventive and
protective agencies. This state must also deal
with an ever-increasing child abuse death rate. - Georgia is more concerned with case overloads,
insufficient staffing, and lack of funding. This
state must also handle rising neglect and sexual
abuse statistics and program funding. -
29THE BIG CONCLUSION!
- The end result of this study was that each state
is working towards establishing effective child
protective services. It is not clear which state
is in better shape or has more figured out when
it comes to preventing child abuse, seeing as
though they deal with different problems. What is
obvious is that each state puts child abuse and
neglect as a top concern and are continuously
working to alleviate this growing problem.