‘A simple child that lightly draws its breath, and feels its life in every limb, what should it know of death’?-William Wordsworth (1770-1850). There have been many cases in Florida that have been submitted as child abuse and/or child neglect. According to The Florida Child Abuse Death Review there have been 35 children who have died in 2003 because of either neglect or abuse. The review also published that the cases of neglect arose to 52%, in contrast, abuse was 48%. The numbers are gradually rising and the deaths are becoming numerous all throughout the state of Florida. Male deaths are up to 60%, while female deaths are up to 40%. 63% were white, 34% were black, 2% were Asian Pacific, and 1% was multi-racial. 42% of children were under the age of 1, 29% were 1-2 years old, and 15% were ages 3-5. Some risk factors in children that have died in child abuse cases are; one or more children in the family that are younger than 4, a pattern possibly in incidents of abuse or neglect, inability for caretaker/parents to provide immediate needs for children, and limited community visibility. Also, other factors include caregiver’s age, mental health, alcohol or substance abuse, affects ability to care. Those individuals may have a criminal history; conditions in home are hazardous to the child, parent/caregiver unwilling to protect their children, other children in home show neglect or abuse, and unrealistic expectations of the child or children.
The Florida Child Abuse Death review has announced that a majority of the child related deaths in Florida are never reviewed. A continuation of that information the deaths that are related to abuse can never be stopped, or future cases prevented from happening. In the Review’s website it explains that the parents/ caretakers have already had prior reports of abuse or neglect. If people could track down the people that are doing this, people can prevent more children from dying when the children are completely defenseless. What people need to do, according to the Review, is to hire multi-disciplinary staffing in any case that involves a child that is under five where the parents/caretakers have had more than 3 prior reports of abuse and/or neglect. Another way that people can help is to convince the Medical Examiner’s Commission to participate in sudden unexplainable infant deaths. Law enforcement agencies should also include a drug testing component with the researching of child abuse cases. Law Enforcement and the Training Commission should band together in finding a suitable protocol for investigating child abuse cases. Law enforcement and Florida’s Drug Endangered Children Alliance should form together to enforce that illegal drugs in a household can be charged for child abuse. Within the investigation, the Department of Children and Families will help further the investigation to see the parents/caretakers history of cases against them to help pin point what should happen next in abuse cases. The state of Florida should increase funding for the Healthy Families Florida (a proven prevention program for abuse and/or neglect in children or families). Continued public awareness should be performed, education and drowning prevention seminars should be released, especially for parents with children in risk. When a parent/caregiver threatens to neglect or harm a child, the case should be considered ‘High-Risk’. Florida should also help fund more in the program called Coping with Crying, which helps parents understand the risk they hold by shaking a baby when it cries endlessly. The Department of Children and Families should be more consistent through the state and should review their procedures and policies to make sure they are as thorough in investigations. The state committee should inform more people of the importance in placing their children to sleep on their backs, American Academy of Pediatrics and Back to Sleep programs, suffocation during sleep also proves to be a high possibility of death.
Everyone needs to band together as a whole and prevent these tragedies from reoccurring. The children of Florida are dying from aggravated death just for crying, needing attention, of being involved in domestic violence. For example, a father of a 9 month old baby placed her in the bathtub while he was waiting for the water to fill. He went to lie down and fell fast asleep while the baby was still stranded in the bathtub for nearly half an hour. The father awoke, and found the baby floating in the bathtub with the water still running. He was charged with aggravated manslaughter. Another similar case is where a mother and her 11 year old child were living in their house, mother and father separated. The father came to the house trying to move back in but the mother wouldn't allow him. He then proceeded to shoot the mother and the child. Cause of outrage was his blood alcohol level, and the father had a history of alcohol abuse.
If parents or teenagers truly care about children in their area they need to follow the recommendations and make the proper procedures to help these helpless children, if no one does, then who will? This is a tragedy not only for the state of Florida, but for families in general. Contact the Florida Child Abuse Death Review with any questions concerning this matter, http://www.flcadr.org/.