Child abuse in Pennsylvania is worse than you think
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ver the past year, we physicians at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC -- one of the largest pediatric trauma centers in Pennsylvania -- have used our medical training to care for hundreds of children injured at the hands of the adults entrusted to care for them.
We have treated infants suffering from severe and often deadly brain injuries, tended to toddlers with multiple fractures and cared for older children beaten with belts, hangers and other objects.
Recently, the Department of Public Welfare reported that child abuse in Pennsylvania continues to decline. This is not what doctors like myself are seeing.
Physicians question the data and the state's definition of child abuse. We believe statistics about abuse and neglect of children in our state do not accurately reflect what our children are experiencing. And without reliable data, we cannot address the safety, health and vulnerability of Pennsylvania's children.
There are 2.8 million children in Pennsylvania. Last year, 3,508 were listed as victims of child abuse. This translates to a rate of 1.4 per 1,000 children -- compared to a national rate of 9.3.
Why is Pennsylvania so different?
One reason is that we have the narrowest definition of child abuse in the country. This impacts both our rates of investigation and substantiation.
More than 120,000 calls were made last year to Childline, the state child abuse hotline. Fewer than 25,000 resulted in an investigation. Pennsylvania investigates abuse at a rate of 8.3 per 1,000 reports compared to a national rate of 40.3.
About 15 percent of the investigated reports are ultimately labeled as child abuse, far less than the national average of approximately 35 percent. Also troubling is the perception that the other 85 percent are false reports. In fact, many of these cases would be considered abuse in any other state.
For example, if a baby suffers or even dies from abusive head trauma (e.g., shaken baby syndrome) but the perpetrator cannot be determined, the baby is not counted as a victim of child abuse under Pennsylvania's current definition. We can all understand why this case doesn't lead to a person being included on the state child abuse registry, but it defies logic to exclude this as child abuse.
First Published June 12, 2011 12:00 am
