April was Child Abuse Prevention Month.
If the appearance last spring of 400 suspected cases of swine flu in the entire United States constituted a potential “pandemic,” what do you call something that impacted more than 2,347 children in San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Santa Barbara County last year? That “something” is called child abuse and neglect. But wait, you say. Child abuse isn’t an infectious disease.
Child abuse and neglect may not be infectious, but they are both spread through a well-understood cycle. We know that parents who were abused as children are likely to abuse their own children.
Child abuse, we now know, causes serious and long-lasting harm. Studies by Dr. Vincent Felitti at the Centers for Disease Control on tens of thousands of adults who experienced abuse as children show a direct correlation between the number of adverse childhood experiences and the state of adult health. Felitti has concluded that abuse and neglect are major risk factors for the onset of obesity, heart disease, and cancer, and are strongly implicated in drug and alcohol addiction and mental illness.
According to the most recent California Healthy Kids Survey, 30 to 40 percent of San Luis Obispo County 10th graders report using drugs or alcohol to get high within the last 30 days. How many of these adolescents are “self medicating” to mask the pain felt from abuse or neglect?
The good news is that we know how to prevent child abuse, and it doesn’t cost nearly as much to prevent child abuse as it costs to prevent and treat the swine flu. Inasmuch as people under the influence of drugs or alcohol perpetrate most child abuse, we have the technology to identify and treat children who are using drugs or alcohol, making them less likely to perpetuate the cycle of abuse upon their own children. Non-punitive random drug testing costs about $20 per year per student. We can use this tool not to punish or label, but to perform an early intervention and prescribe treatment. Random drug testing has reduced illegal substance use in the U.S. military by 90 percent. School districts that have employed Non-Punitive Random Drug Testing have experienced nearly identical results, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled favorably on random student drug testing for all students participating in extra-curricular activities of any kind.
With half of marriages ending in divorce and 40 percent of children being born out of wedlock, the most widespread and pervasive form of child neglect and abuse is “failure to support.” In California, a child living in a single parent home has only about a 50 percent chance of receiving any support whatsoever from the non-custodial parent. Emotional support from non-resident parents is often non-existent as well. The California Department of Child Support Services reports more than $20 billion in unpaid court-ordered support; $20 billion is probably only the tip of the iceberg. How many stressed out and intimidated single parents refuse to pursue court-ordered support for fear of reprisal in the form of a custody battle … or worse? How many children suffer sexual or physical abuse when unrelated individuals are invited into single-parent homes solely for financial stability?
The children of wealthy parents are as likely to be abused as those of poor parents. It is essential, however, to identify child abuse and break the generational cycle of violence that perpetrates it. The cycle can be broken through parent and child education, stronger enforcement of child support laws, widespread use of student drug and alcohol testing, therapeutic intervention, and broad social awareness of what child abuse looks like.
Ron Cuff is the co-founder of Partnership for Responsible Parenting, a nonprofit community organization dedicated to responsible parenting. Partnership for Responsible Parenting is a registered advocate organization with the California Department of Child Support Services and a member of the Coalition for a Drug Free California.
This article appears in May 5-12, 2010.