Child Abuse still too prevalent

When I speak to churches and groups across Kentucky describing the prevalence and severity of child abuse and neglect in our state, I usually clarify my comments by telling the audiences these are actual cases in Kentucky.  The stories I tell are real, not a minister’s illustration stretched to make a point.  The crimes against innocent children I describe did not happen in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or Dallas.  They actually happened in Kentucky and not necessarily in Lexington or Louisville, but from across the Commonwealth.  Child abuse is ubiquitous.  Children of all races and socioeconomic strata are victims.  They live and suffer down the street from our homes, churches and businesses. 

Calen McKinney, staff writer for Central Kentucky News Journal reports in the Sunday, April 22, 2007 edition, “The number of reported child abuse cases in Taylor County is up considerably.”  The 2000 census lists the total population of Taylor County at 22, 927 (almost the population of the Virginia Tech campus) with an average of only 85 people per square mile (Kentucky Atlas and Gazetteer).  Taylor County is anything but urban but the instances of reported child abuse and neglect, according to Heather Barnes, victims advocate at the Taylor County Attorney’s Office, has increased significantly the first three months of 2007.  Ms. McKinney’s article quotes Ms. Barnes reporting, “in January, February and March, there were 48 cased of reported child physical abuse and 15 reported cases of child sexual abuse.  For the same period last year, Barnes says, there were 11 reported child physical abuse cases and seven reported sexual abuse cases.”

This is not to suggest Taylor County is a dangerous place for children to live.  It is to suggest child abuse and neglect is as pervasive in Kentucky as it is everywhere else in our great country.  Kentucky averages 70,000 cases of abuse and neglect annually with over 7,000 children living in out-of-home care.  These statistics beg a basic question, “Why is it so difficult to get state houses and church houses to focus adequate attention and resources on these innocent, young victims among us?”