US Neglecting Child Abuse: More Kids Dying from Violent Injuries

At least 786 children died of abuse in a six-year period despite child protection agencies being aware that the children were facing violence and were in danger, according to a study undertaken by the Associated Press.

Many children died of starvation, drowning or beatings. The survey was undertaken across 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia. The report says collecting information was a tough task as most did not have the correct figures or did not want to reveal the true picture.

Most children who died under the watch of the system were below age four and their cases were being investigated for abuse and neglect.

Th report describes the case of a 10-week old baby who was flung so hard against a recliner by his father that he suffered a fatal brain injury. The baby had already been treated for a broken arm in his short life and emergency personnel had received 13 calls warning that the baby and his siblings were suffering abuse at the father's hands.

Child protective agencies receive nearly 3 million calls of child abuse in an year. Most of these calls are screened out due to lack of proper training on the part of the receiver of the complaints. There are not enough social service personnel to go through every case and the budget is  inadequate to deal with the enormity of the problems .

There is no proper classification of data about child deaths that occurred when under the watch of child protection agencies. Disclosure of child abuse deaths to federal agencies is voluntary and sometimes figures and information are inaccurate and in most cases states just do not want to share information, according to the report.

"We all agree that we cannot solve a problem this complex until we agree it exists," said David Sanders, chairman of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.

The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) statistics  from 49 states reported a total of 1,593 fatalities in 2012. This means a rate of 2.20 children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of four children dying every day from abuse or neglect. NCANDS defines "child fatality" as the death of a child caused by an injury resulting from abuse or neglect or where abuse or neglect was a contributing factor.