US cuts will perpetuate child abuse

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/28/us-cuts-perpetuate-child-abuse

The US leads the world's richest democracies in child-abuse fatalities, yet child services are being drastically cut.

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Three million reported cases of child abuse and neglect result in 2,000 deaths in the US annually. Since 2001, 30,000 American children have been killed in their own homes, taken their own lives or been murdered in their own neighbourhoods. This doesn't even account for the fact that up to 60% of child abuse goes unreported. Why does the US lead the world's richest democracies in child-abuse fatalities, with death rates that are three times higher than Canada's and 11 times higher than Italy's?


The ongoing financial crisis is leading to budget cuts of as much as $89bn (£61bn) next year, which will effectively cut child services in more than 40 states. In Hawaii, funding for a child abuse reduction program was slashed so much that two years after serving 4,000 families, it can afford to serve only 100. In South Carolina, five state-run homes for children were closed


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But the blame doesn't lie with one organization. In fact, the single best predictor of child abuse is poverty. Children raised in families with annual incomes of less than $15,000 are 22 times more likely to be abused. One in five American children, more than 14 million, live in poverty.


California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed discarding California's welfare-to-work program to tackle a $19bn budget deficit, effectively eliminating aid for roughly 1 million children. Thousands of parents in the state would lose access to federally funded subsidized childcare, forcing them to give up their jobs and be thrust deeper into destitution.


If the most prosperous country in the world can afford to fight two wars, battle terrorism in far-off lands and bail out Wall Street by the billions, why can't it offer its most vulnerable and voiceless citizens anything but bureaucratic red tape?


Children are the only investment with guaranteed dividends. Our refusal to make our childrens' wellbeing a priority foreshadows a terrifying future that perpetuates the miserable cycle of brutality.

[Hannah Bell]

1. worth repeating: "the single best predictor of child abuse is poverty."