Abused By The Abuse Preventers

Christian Party

Abused by the Abuse "Preventers"

Why would government workers file false accusations of child abuse?

	"Child Abuse Prevention" Costs $285 Billion per Year through 97 different federal sources.
	This phenomenal expenditure was followed by a quadrupling in child abuse rates!
	The fact that children in Father-only households are one fourth as likely as children in Two Parent Families to be murdered was concealed.
	3.1 million reports of child abuse are filed each year in the US.
	Dr. Sanford Braver estimates that 97% are "unsubstantiated".
	Carol Hopkins estimates that more than 90% of false allegations are filed by women against men.
	An average of $157,000 is paid over 3 years by the federal government for each child taken into custody by DHHS.
	1,111 children die each year as a result of child abuse, more than half of which occur after DHHS takes custody. (Data kept by DES, along with studies performed by or on behalf of DES 4 and memoranda by Child Protective Services (hereinafter "CPS"), personnel reflect 5 extensive violations of Plaintiffs' constitutional, statutory and regulatory rights, 6 resulting in a high incidence of neglect, abuse and molestation of children in foster 7 care while in DES protective custody.)
	12,246 children are hospitalized each year as a result of "child abuse".

This was caused by "CAPTA", or the Mondale Act, & it costs taxpayers $285 billion per year to achieve nothing but an INCREASE in child abuse. Unsuspecting or unscrupulous public servants participate because it is so profitable to lawyers, judges, psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, marriage counsellors, county workers, the police departments, etc.

Dr. Richard Gardner "The federal absolute immunity proviso must be significantly modified. Absolute immunity, like absolute power, corrupts and fosters irresponsible exploitation"
Damon Coffman, "CAPTA resulted in effects more far-reaching and consequences more devastating than the designers could have imagined"
John T. Oeffner on CAPTA
Gerald L. Rowles, Ph.D. "It is alarming to see a report produced and distributed by the United States Government that is as distorted and methodologically flawed as that produced by D.H.H.S."
Paul Craig Roberts, Washington Times "The monster stalking Americans is CAPTA, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974."
Paul Ford--Forum on Child Abuse
The Wenatchee Witch Hunt
Gabrielle's Personal Tale of Horror

The following release is from the very department which has done more damage to family stability in the US than all wars, pestilence, and civil unrest combined. It is specious and grossly in error. It is the personification of what is wrong with this nation. It proves that DHHS must be terminated. No attempt should ever be made to repair it.

HHS RELEASES NEW STATISTICS ON CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT AS CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT PREVENTION MONTH BEGINS

HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala today released new state statistics on child abuse and neglect and called on all Americans to help stop the growing harm inflicted on the country's children.

This statement fails to address the REAL harm to children, which is the destruction of family unity through divorce and illegitimacy. Government intervention precisely like that proposed in this release is a key factor in this destruction. Such programs break up families and themselves contribute to "the growing harm inflicted on the country's children".

The "Child Maltreatment 1994: Reports from the States to the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect" shows that 1,012,000 children in 48 states were victims of substantiated child abuse and neglect in 1994, an increase of 27 percent since 1990.

Missing from this statement is the number of "unsubstantiated" reports of child abuse, which is more significant than the number of "substantiated" reports. There were 2,124,540 unsubstantiated reports last year, an increase of 720% from 1976. During this time, the number of unsubstantiated reports as a percent of total reports increased from 35% to 67.7%. The damage done to family unity from just ONE false accusation is irreparable and unmeasurable. The damage done by 2,124,540 is monumental.

"It is an outrage that innocent children are brutalized and killed in a country that offers children the best hope for healthy and productive lives," Secretary Shalala said. "April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and we must all rededicate ourselves to even stronger efforts to save children."

True. But more children are "brutalized and killed" AFTER they are removed from their families than before? We the taxpayers need to know this--but she didn't tell us, did she? After children are removed from the most concerned humans on earth, their own parents, accusing parents of "child abuse", removing troubled children from families who care for them but must use 'tough love' to discipline them, then allowing them to be "brutalized and killed" by government agents, is ironic at the least. Often, after the family is destroyed and the children are released from CPS, they are placed in the custody of single-mother households, where they are seriously at risk.

If this happened just to just ONE child, this department would have seriously overstepped its bounds. It happens thousands of times each year. This is not the domain of government, it is not provided for in the US Constitution, and this practice must cease immediately.

The report found that 53 percent of maltreated children suffered neglect, 26 percent physical abuse, 14 percent sexual abuse, 5 percent emotional abuse and 22 percent other forms of maltreatment. Nearly half of the children abused or neglected were 6 years old or younger, while more than a quarter were 3 years old or younger.

"Neglect"? Is the US government better at defining "neglect" than a parent? Is the US government better at defining "neglect" than it is at running the post office, or waging the Vietnam War, or running the Department of Education (which spearheaded our nosedive to 27th out of 31 nations in education standing)? At least 53% of the above claims of child abuse are KNOWN to be real "taxpayers' abuse", which makes the remaining 47% highly suspect before even considering other flaws in this release.

"President Clinton is committed to work with states and communities to stop this national tragedy," Secretary Shalala said. The administration requested $419 million in discretionary spending for Fiscal Year 1997 to protect abused and neglected children -- by encouraging parental responsibility when possible and when necessary securing the safety of children. Spending has increased from $355 million in FY 1992.

It is estimated that 170 different funding sources come into play when a report of child abuse is filed, and that the average cost to taxpayers (not including legal fees by the parents, loss of work, emotional instability, and other expenses to the parents) is $157,000 per case. If this applies to each of the 3,219,000 reports filed last year, this is a staggering $505.4 Billion (with a capital B) per year, which is 1,206 times the amount of the above request of $419 Million (with a capital M). Where does the other $544.9 Billions (with a capital B) come from, and why even go to the expense of putting out a press release regarding a paltry $419 Million (with a capital M)?

Loss of life is the severest penalty of child abuse and neglect. Forty-three states reported that 1,111 children died as a result of abuse in 1994. During the five-year period of 1990 to 1994, states totaled 5,400 children killed.

The fact that there are 911 times as many "substantiated" cases of abuse than there are child deaths raises a flurry of red flags. When something as ambiguous as "neglect" is now considered "child abuse" it is easy to create such cases out of thin air, whereas a child death requires a dead child, preventing such numbers from being easily fabricated. The ratio of injuries to fatalities in every major war the US has fought is 3:1, suggesting that the reasonably intelligent citizen might accept the number of actual "child abuse" cases to be around 3,333. Even giving "child abuse" to child deaths a ratio of 10:1, which is more than three times actual experience in wars, and ignoring the impact of the "unsubstantiated" cases, would make an absolute maximum reasonable number of only 11,110 "child abuse" cases per year. This is consistent with the estimate that 11,240 children are hospitalized each year as the result of child abuse. At least 1,000,890 "substantiated" child abuse cases per year highly suspect, if not outright fraudulent, particularly when considered in the light of the huge number of unsubstantiated cases.

Nobody wants to hear of children being abused, neglected, or killed, but 1,111 children dying as a result of "abuse" is miniscule relative to, in that same year, 44,000 citizens who died in motor vehicle fatalities, 400,000 who died from tobacco smoking, 734,090 who died from heart disease, 536,860 who died from cancer, and 32,410 who commited suicide. It also failed to note that the number of child deaths actually increased after this program was initiated, suggesting that this $505 Billion isn't even having a positive effect after all.

How many more lives would be saved if this $505 Billion were instead redirected to cancer research, heart research, or -- preserving fatherhood? How much better off would children be if they weren't thrust into the single-mother households -- financially underwritten by DHHS programs -- producing the children which led to our current social pathology?

Estimates of the actual extent of child abuse and neglect are difficult to obtain, according to Mary Jo Bane, assistant secretary for children and families. The estimates released today only reflect state-substantiated incidents. Other recent studies using different reporting methodologies have estimated that many more children are being abused than are ultimately verified by states.

Such a statement, in light of the above and of numerous independent reports, makes "Alice In Wonderland" seem like a reliable technical journal. It is logically inconsistent with the established fact that more than three times as many reports as can substantiated are filed, that this practice is destroying families by the millions, and that 1,000,890 reports out of 1,012,000 are so highly suspect that the only explanation can be that this flurry of paperwork is designed to employ unscrupulous government employees and p...ologists. Making such a statement is so far-fetched that she qualifies as an enemy to the state, as well as to the family.

Preliminary results from the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, for example, estimate that almost three times the state-reported number of children are maltreated.

"Maltreated"? As in "neglect"? Are these the children who dialed 911 when they were told to do their homework? Unless many more dead children and hospitalized "victims of child abuse" suddenly appear, this is the most specious, bogus, and unsubstantiated statement in an otherwise seriously flawed release.

"We must all take responsibility for the most vulnerable and denounce the damage and destruction to young lives," said Mary Jo Bane. "As part of our on-going effort to prevent any child from becoming a victim, we are providing much needed information to communities across the country."

The undermining of family unity perpetrated by DHHS does far more "damage and destruction to young lives" than any good that could come out of any federal program, other than national defense, and particularly one which ignores the damage done to family unity, using children as hostages.

The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, part of HHS, prepared the 1996 April Child Abuse Neglect Prevention Month Resource Kit which is now available. The kit, including practical suggestions, will be sent to 30,000 organizations to help individuals and groups better inform their communities on how to prevent child abuse. HHS is encouraging organizations to sponsor activities during the month and throughout the year.

The Burbank City Council now officially procliams that "giving the woman the silent treatment" constitutes "spousal abuse". If DHHS now applies this same standard to "child abuse" as well, it is respectfully requested that any and all future funding requested by this department be diverted to programs which are proven to strengthen family unity and the fathers' role in it. Any DHHS program which is even remotely anti-family should be exterminated. If US citizens are going to continue to be called upon to pay the highest taxes in the world, the least they deserve is the end of programs which are known to undermine their own families.

To request a copy of the kit or for more information, call the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information at 1- 800-FYI-3366 or write to P.O. Box 1182, Washington, D.C. 20013-1182.