In Auckland District Court yesterday the 32-year-old father was sentenced to three years in jail with a minimum non-parole period of two years for the part he played in the abuse of his nine-year-old daughter.

In December the girl’s mother, who had earlier pleaded guilty to 25 child abuse charges, was sentenced to seven and a half years’ jail, with a non-parole period of five years.It’s understood she plans to appeal her sentence.

The young girl’s plight came to national attention when police found her hiding in a cupboard in her West Auckland house on November 15, 2010.

She was starving, dehydrated, bruised and was suffering from broken bones and anaemia from internal bleeding.

A police statement released a month later made public the horrific details of her abuse – including prolonged beatings and having her toe nails ripped off.

The girl had been in Child, Youth and Family (CYF) care most of her life after being taken away from her parents as a baby.

She returned to live with her parents in 2008 after being sexually abused while in the care of an extended family member.

In November the man, who has been granted name suppression to protect his daughter’s identity, pleaded guilty to two representative charges – one of assault, which included smacking, slapping and kneeing his daughter, and one of wilfully allowing her to be ill-treated and failing to seek medical treatment.

Yesterday Judge Brooke Gibson said the abuse started ”almost immediately” after the girl came to live with her parents, and while the man had not meted out the most violence, he equally had not done anything to intervene.

“You stood by and allowed those and many other injuries to be inflicted,” Judge Gibson said.

”You failed to prevent your partner’s wickedness and you failed your other children.”

The father also hit the child in a way that was ”unacceptable” and deliberately concealed the situation from the child’s school by keeping her at home when her injuries would have made it obvious that she was being physically abused.

Before Judge Gibson delivered his sentence, lawyer Brenda Donald said her client had tried to stop his partner from abusing the young girl but had become ”the meat in a sandwich, in a way”.

She said he was caught between trying to control his daughter’s ”disturbing behaviour” and getting through to his partner.

”It was a really bad time for him – things got out of hand,” she said.

The man rang an Auckland radio station before the sentencing and said he “regretted” what had happened.

“I feel sorry for the children who had to be put in such a difficult position,” he said.

Donald said her client was pleased that as a result of this case, CYF had put measures in place that would hopefully mean the same thing didn’t happen to another child or family.

Judge Gibson responded by saying that the girl had been subjected to ”the most appalling revictimisation” due to the couple’s contention that the abuse was a result of her ”difficult” behaviour.

”You continued to blame the child for what happened to her and I utterly reject that,” he said.

In sentencing the man, Judge Gibson said he wanted to denounce his conduct, deter others, hold the man accountable, protect the community and send a clear message to people who stood by and did nothing to intervene.

”It is clear that your daughter is unable to understand why she was tortured, and that is the appropriate word for it.

”You didn’t do your duty as a parent.”

Sensible Sentencing Trust’s Garth McVicar said the judge had ”virtually sanctioned” child abuse by handing down such a ”pathetic sentence” and called on him to add his name to the 25 agencies that had ”contributed” to the tragedy.

”No wonder New Zealand has such a high incidence of domestic violence and child abuse,” McVicar said.

”This judge had an opportunity to send a loud, clear message, 15 years at least, that New Zealand will not tolerate this type of offending but failed to do so.

”The Government can [commission] as many reports as it likes but until judges are held to account for the disastrous consequences of their actions nothing will change.”

In court, Crown prosecutor Lorraine McDonald rejected the man’s contention that he wasn’t at the house very often.

”Several witnesses say he was there during the beatings,” she said.

”[He] appears to have been playing Xbox in one of the rooms of the house during some of the beatings.”

She said the man had made a conscious decision to do nothing and therefore this was ”precisely” the sort of case that the courts could use to demonstrate that it took a failure to act ”as very serious indeed”.

The man’s lawyer said she was not yet sure if her client would appeal his sentence.

The couple initially faced 36 charges between them relating to the abuse of their nine-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son.

CYF operations manager Marama Edwards said yesterday that the girl and her siblings were ”safe and well in CYF care”.

”We are closely involved with them all and are ensuring they have the support they need.

”This has been a terrible ordeal for all the children and I hope today’s sentencing provides some closure.

”Considering what they have been through, they are doing very well.”

Source: Stuff

The shock figure was announced by American cardinal Joseph William Levada as he opened a conference on the wide scale phenomenon which has rocked the Roman Catholic church with cases reported all over the world.

Cardinal Levada, who is head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, described the figure as a ‘dramatic increase’ and came in the face of global indignation at the scale of the problem and which has forced Pope Benedict XVI to apologise for previous cases during papal visits as he meets victims.Addressing the conference in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University he also stressed that the Catholic Church had an obligation to report paedophile priests to the police and civil authorities – in the past there have been cases in Ireland and elsewhere that bishops ‘dragged their heels’ in naming offending clergy.

The event called ‘Towards Healing and Renewal’ is being attended by more than 100 senior bishops and clergy from all over the world – with Ireland’s leading Roman Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady among the delegates and it comes after Benedict ordered an Apostolic Visitation into the Irish Catholic Church following two damning reports on the extent of abuse there.

Cardinal Levada stressed the Pope had urged for a ‘profound renewal’ in the Church and that helping victims of abuse by priests should be its top priority and in a statement the Vatican added: ‘He (the Pope) asks the Lord that, through your deliberations, many bishops and religious superiors throughout the world may be helped to respond in a truly Christ-like manner to the tragedy of child abuse.

‘As His Holiness has often observed, healing for victims must be of paramount concern in the Christian community, and it must go hand in hand with a profound renewal of the Church at every level.’

However victim groups have hit and complained that it is nothing more than a ‘public relations exercise’ as the have not been invited and have again called on the Vatican to release its secret archive of documents which details thousands of cases and which it has so far refused to do.

Joelle Casteix, of support group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), said: ‘How many meetings will it take for Rome to learn that child sex abuse is a crime, predators must be made public and jailed and church officials who cover up molesters must be held accountable ?

‘Even after years of promises, meetings and empty apologies, the Vatican cannot do the simplest, cheapest, and the most child-friendly action possible: make public decades of secret files on clergy sex offenders and enablers.’

She also attacked Cardinal Levada and added: ‘Conference leaders say the purpose of the event is to create guidelines on how to handle reports of childhood sexual abuse.

Who will be leading the discussion? The very same experts and church officials who bear responsibility for the continued global cover up of clergy child sex crimes including Cardinal William Levada, who covered up criminal reports of child rape and sexual assault when he was archbishop of San Francisco and Portland.

‘True change and child protection comes through accountability from secular authorities. Until we have that, we must see Rome’s meeting for exactly what it is: cheap window dressing.’

The scandal erupted more than 18 months ago as hundreds of cases emerged in Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland and Germany with even Benedict being dragged into the scandal after he was accused of ‘dragging his heels’ when dealing with a paedophile priest when he was Archbishop of Munich.

Initially the Vatican took what was seen as a ‘defensive’ step but in recent months Benedict has been increasingly more open about the problem and has described how the Church is ‘truly sorry’ for the ‘grave errors’ it has committed in the past and he has met with victims in Britain and Malta, crying and praying with them.

The conference, which is being held behind closed doors, is due to finish on Thursday and will also hear from Irish victim Marie Collins, 64, who was raped and abused by priests when she was a teenager.

Earlier she had told Vatican Radio that it was important for abuser priests to ask forgiveness, somethings she has already granted but to hear church leaders own up to their roles in prolonging suffering by putting the reputation of the Church above the needs of children in their care.

Vatican sources later stressed the 4,000 figure referred to cases and not individual priests but it was still a far higher number than had previously been mentioned by Catholic Church officials.

Two years ago monsignor Charles Scicluna, the Maltese priest at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in charge of investigating paedophile priests had given an interview saying there had been ’3,000 cases of sexual abuse the last 50 years’.

He said that of these 300 cases involved allegations of ‘genuine paedophilia’ and most others ‘concerned homosexual attraction to teenagers’ and of these 3,000 cases, 600 priests had been defrocked while in other situations the offenders had been deemed ‘too old’ to punish but given other penalties such as bans on celebrating Mass or hearing confessions.

Source: Daily Mail

“We’re saying enough is enough,” community leader Morris Grifton said.

Grifton was outside Miramonte Elementary School in South Gate, California, around 7 a.m. with other residents concerned about how students are being treated in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

“We want cameras in the classrooms, in the hallways and around the school,” Grifton said.

Two teachers at the school were arrested last week. One is accused of taking bondage photos of more than two dozen students in his classroom, and the other is accused of lewd acts on children.

Tom Waldman, a spokesman for the district, said Miramonte will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday “to take a break.”

Waldman said both days will be “pupil free days,” but he did not say whether staffers will be in the building.

Although school was open Monday, many students were kept away by parents who were participating in the morning rally. Some of the parents planned to spend several hours outside the school to wait for a meeting scheduled for later in the day with school officials.

“We feel it’s time for officials to get out and start showing what they’re made of,” said Pedro Baez, the political director for the L.A. Urban Policy Roundtable. “This type of situation should not be allowed to be continued to go on,” he said.

In addition to adding cameras, Grifton said some rules regarding teacher personnel files needed to change.

Now, information in those files are held for 60 days. Grifton said he believes the information should be held for at least a year.

“They’re keeping it from the public,” he said. “Whether it’s insufficient for not, we want to have access to it.”

Baez, who carried a sign that read “protect our children,” agreed that there needs to be more transparency and urged local leaders to consider making changes.

He also thanked the pharmacy clerk who called police after seeing the disturbing photos.

“If it hadn’t been for him, who knows how many other victims may have fallen prey,” Baez said.

Teacher Mark Berndt, 61, is accused of taking the bondage photos, some showing suspected semen-filled spoons at the children’s mouths, authorities said.

The investigation into Berndt began in October 2010, when a CVS drugstore photo technician in Los Angeles County’s South Bay area told the Redondo Police Department about finding the images of blindfolded children in a processing order, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott said.

The case was turned over to the sheriff’s office, and after an initial investigation, investigators notified school authorities, who removed Berndt from his classroom in January 2011.

About 400 photographs collected by investigators show children blindfolded, with tape over their mouths, Scott said. At least 23 children in the images have been identified, while another 10 are unidentified, he said.

Some photos show female students with “what appeared to be a blue plastic spoon, filled with an unknown clear/white liquid substance, up to their mouths as if they were going to ingest the substance,” authorities said.

On Friday, a second teacher — Martin Bernard Springer, 49 — was arrested for allegedly fondling two young girls in the classroom.

Capt. Mike Parker of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said Springer’s arrest is “quite different” from Berndt’s.

Aside from the two teachers being assigned to the same school, “I’m not aware of any connection” between them, he said.

Berndt, a 30-year teaching veteran, is being held on $23 million bail: $1 million for each of the 23 counts he faces of lewd acts on a child.

On Friday, about 15 angry parents gathered outside the school, complaining that administrators failed to apprise them of the investigation into the second teacher.

One mother, Isadora Arrellano, said she would transfer her 5-year-old deaf son to another school at the end of the academic year.

“Right now, I’m really worried for my kid,” Arrellano said.

“I leave my son and I go home and I don’t know what’s going to happen to him,” she added. “He’s deaf, so he cannot speak, so that’s why I’m worried. I’ve lost all trust in this school.”

Source: CNN

Organizers say the four-day, closed-door symposium, hosted by Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University, includes bishops from 100 countries and representatives of more than 30 religious orders.

University Vice Rector Hans Zollner said the summit will include a vigil ceremony Tuesday in Rome’s Saint Ignatius church in which several religious orders embroiled in the church’s sex abuse scandal will publicly ask forgiveness from abuse survivors.

Pope Benedict has expressed shame and sorrow over abuse allegations that have rocked the church in the past decade. He has called on bishops to come up with common guidelines against pedophiles by May 2012.

The summit has drawn sharp criticism from victims’ groups who say they were not invited to participate. Italian media carried interviews Monday with critics who dismissed the symposium as a public relations maneuver.

The French news agency quotes the head of a Italian victims’ support group (La Caramella Buona) as saying the summit reflects the church’s unwillingness to hold “constructive debate” on the scandal. He said the church is, in his words, “too closed in on itself.”

The church in the past decade has faced accusations from thousands of people in Europe and the United States of sexual abuse by clergy, with some of the complaints dating back decades and longer.

A 2009 report by an Irish commission on child abuse said religious authorities sexually, physically and emotionally terrorized thousands of children in reform schools, orphanages and other child care facilities for much of the 20th century. The commission headed by Irish High Court Justice Sean Ryan, said rape and molestation were “endemic” in boys facilities run by the Christian Brothers religious order, and said virtually no one took measures to protect the children.

Source: Voice of America

The three bills are Virginia’s response to child abuse allegations that rocked Penn State’s mighty football program and forced the November firing of its legendary head coach, Joe Paterno.Together, they place statutory requirements on coaches, recreation specialists, youth volunteers and others to report suspected child abuse to law enforcement and other authorities. The legislation also shortens the deadline from 72 hours to just 24.

One, by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, adds athletic coaches and leaders of private sports teams and organizations to the list of people the law requires to report abuse or neglect of children to the Department of Social Services.

Another, by Del. Rob Bell, R-Albemarle, specifically adds coaches at public or private colleges in Virginia to that same list.

And the third, by Del. Ed Scott, R-Madison, boosts the penalty for failing to report from a fine of up to $1,000, to a misdemeanor that carries up to a year’s jail time and a fine as high as $2,500. If sexual abuse to a child causes death or injury, failure to report it is a felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

House floor debate on the three bills is expected early next week.

The bills as originally presented Thursday defined the authorities and chains of command to whom abuse claims should be made, primarily the Department of Social Services and its hotline. Bell, who is running for state attorney general in 2013, offered amendments that would allow a simple call to the police to satisfy the reporting obligations.

“All of us are aware of what happened at Penn State and that’s providing the backdrop to this,” Bell said.

Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, 68, faces trial on felony charges that he sexually abused 10 boys over a 15-year span, with some of the attacks reported in the school’s athletic facilities. But the scandal widened far beyond Sandusky because of the silence that surrounded the alleged abuses for years.

Paterno, who won more games than any coach in major college football history, was fired Nov. 9 amid criticism that he never notified police officers of the attacks when he learned Sandusky had been seen sexually assaulting a boy in the showers. Paterno told his superiors, but Penn State’s trustees felt he should have done more. Pennsylvania’s state police commissioner said that Paterno satisfied his legal obligation, but not a moral one.

Besides Paterno, who died at age 85 of lung cancer on Jan. 22, Penn State fired its president, placed its athletics director on administrative leave and forced a senior official who oversaw the university police department to step down.

The three bills, expected to win easy House and Senate passage, expand the number of groups or professions required to report child abuse to 18. Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Henrico, questioned why it stops there.

“Is there a group of people in … Virginia who we do not want to report suspected cases of child abuse?” Morrissey asked. “Would we not be better off saying anybody 18 years old or older … should be reporting suspected cases of child abuse?”

With the list so narrow, he said, legislators will be forced to return perennially to add new categories.

In an interview after the committee adjourned, Bell said that while decency dictates that everyone report child abuse, “the question is where is the law going to punish those who don’t. We have done this group-by-group in the past, but we are reaching the point where it may be essential to bring in everybody else as well.”

Source: Washington Post

“Protect the kids, that’s what it should be about,” Sergeant Brotherton says. “The parents trust that we are all doing that. When someone fails to do that, it just loses trust in the whole system.”

Police say 44-year-old Susan Freeman, of Iowa City, is accused of not reporting allegations a teacher in her center’s program sexually assaulted a girl under 12. The Iowa City police and the Iowa Department of Human Services are conducting a joint investigation into the sexual abuse allegations, according to Brotherton.

“We have to protect the children, that is the goal of this ultimately, to protect the children,” she says. “That’s what everyone’s ultimate goal should be in any of our positions.” The child’s mother reported the incident on December 12th to Iowa City police, which then reported the allegations to the D.H.S.

Freeman was arrested Wednesday night for suspicion of failing to report child abuse, a simple misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $300.

By Mark Carlson, KCRG, Cedar Rapids

Source: Radio Iowa

Reuben Mulamba, 27, of Ellensburg faces two counts of second-degree child assault and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Ashly Eli, of Ellensburg, faces two counts of second-degree criminal mistreatment. The couple may face additional charges upon further medical examination of the children, according to a news release from the Ellensburg Police Department.

As of Wednesday morning, the 4-year-old girl was in critical condition and the 8-year-old boy was in stable condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Both children have lacerations, bruises and infected wounds.

The girl is suffering internal bleeding and her kidneys aren’t functioning properly, said Kittitas County Deputy Prosecutor Chris Herion during the couple’s first appearance hearing in Kittitas County Superior Court Wednesday.

Police were notified of the abuse Tuesday after Eli went to ASPEN, an organization in Ellensburg that assists victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Eli admitted to investigators that Mulamba hit the children with a belt all over their bodies up to 20 times when they misbehaved, Herion said in court. Eli told investigators Mulamba also pinched the children with a pair of pliers, struck them with wood and an electrical cord, Herion said.

In a statement given to police, Mulamba admitted to spanking the children with a phone charging cord, Heroin said, and to pinching the children with his fingers, but not with a pair of pliers.

Eli admitted to police that she intentionally failed to take the children to the hospital out of fear of getting the police and Child Protective Services involved, according to the EPD news release and statements read in court. Eli has an active nursing assistant certification that was issued in September, according to information on the Washington State Department of Health’s website.

The couple and the children moved to Ellensburg in late 2011 or early this year. At the time of his arrest by Ellensburg police officers Tuesday, Mulamba was out on bail for a case pending in Grant County. According to documents filed in Grant County Superior Court, Mulamba is charged with second-degree burglary and third-degree theft for allegedly stealing two video game controllers worth about $55 apiece from the Moses Lake Walmart. Eli drove the getaway car, according to court documents.

On Jan. 13 Ellensburg police officers responded to a domestic dispute at the couple’s home on North Walnut Street in Ellensburg, at which time Mulamba told police he was upset with Eli because she didn’t discipline her kids, Herion said.

Then on Tuesday the couple were arrested for the alleged abuse, which investigators believe took place over the past two weeks. Both children were taken into protective custody by EPD detectives and turned over Child Protective Services.

Superior Court Judge Scott Sparks found probable cause to charge the couple with assault and criminal mistreatment. Sparks set Mulamba’s bail at $1 million and Eli’s bail at $750,000. Both are scheduled for an arraignment hearing on Feb. 13.

Source: Yakima Herald

Atlanta, GA – infoZine – The report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published in Child Abuse and Neglect, The International Journal, looked at confirmed child maltreatment cases, 1,740 fatal and 579,000 non–fatal, for a 12–month period.The lifetime cost for each victim of child maltreatment who lived was $210,012, which is comparable to other costly health conditions, such as stroke with a lifetime cost per person estimated at $159,846 or type 2 diabetes, which is estimated between $181,000 and $253,000. The costs of each death due to child maltreatment are even higher.

“No child should ever be the victim of abuse or neglect – nor do they have to be. The human and financial costs can be prevented through prevention of child maltreatment,” said Linda C. Degutis, Dr.P.H., M.S.N., director of CDC′s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

Child maltreatment has been shown to have many negative effects on survivors, including poorer health, social and emotional difficulties, and decreased economic productivity. This CDC study found these negative effects over a survivor′s lifetime generate many costs that impact the nation′s health care, education, criminal justice and welfare systems.

The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment includes:
$32,648 in childhood health care costs
$10,530 in adult medical costs
$144,360 in productivity losses
$7,728 in child welfare costs
$6,747 in criminal justice costs
$7,999 in special education costs

The estimated average lifetime cost per death includes:
$14,100 in medical costs
$1,258,800 in productivity losses

Child maltreatment can also be linked to many emotional, behavioral, and physical health problems. Associated emotional and behavioral problems include aggression, conduct disorder, delinquency, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression, and suicide.

Past research suggests that child maltreatment is a complicated problem, and so its solutions cannot be simple. An individual parent or caregiver′s behavior is influenced by a range inter–related factors such as how they were raised, their parenting skills, the level of stress in their life, and the living conditions in their community. Because of this complexity, it is critical to invest in effective strategies that touch on all sectors of society.

“Federal, state, and local public health agencies as well as policymakers must advance the awareness of the lifetime economic impact of child maltreatment and take immediate action with the same momentum and intensity dedicated to other high profile public health problems –in order to save lives, protect the public′s health, and save money,” said Dr. Degutis.

Several programs have demonstrated reductions in child maltreatment and have great potential to reduce the human and economic toll on our society. Several examples of effective programs include:

Nurse–Family Partnership, an evidence–based community health program. Partners a registered nurse with a first–time mother during pregnancy and continues through the child′s second birthday. http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/ link

Early Start, provides coordinated, family–centered system of services: http://www.dds.ca.gov/earlystart/ link California′s response to federal legislation providing early intervention services to infant and toddlers with disabilities and their families.

Triple P, a multilevel parenting and family support system: http://www.triplep–america.com/ link Aims to prevent severe emotional and behavioral disturbances in children by promoting positive and nurturing relationships between parent and child.

If you know or suspect a child is being abused, contact the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1–800–4–A–CHILD or visit the Childhelp website www.childhelp.org

Source: InfoZine

Mark Berndt appeared in court today on charges that he committed lewd acts on 23 boys and girls, ages 6 to 10, between 2008 and 2010. The Miramonte third grade school teacher was arrested Monday at his home in Torrance and is being held on $23 million bail.

His alleged crimes include gagging students aged 7 to 10 with tape, putting 3-inch long Madagascar cockroaches on their faces and in their mouths and forcing them to taste semen.Some parents complained yesterday that officials at the South Los Angeles school should have notified them when photos depicting the abuse were found in 2010.

The L.A. Times has reported that the acts Berndt is being charged with happened between 2005 and 2010 but they also said that school officials weren’t notified until January of 2011. Berndt wasn’t removed from classroom soon after but not fired until the following month and the majority of parents were not notified until yesterday.

Gloria Polanco, the mother of two children at the school asks why, if the principal knew this in advance, he didn’t he inform parents. “How long has he been doing this?” asked Polanco. School district officials say they were forced by law enforcement investigators to keep the case quiet so as not to cross-contaminate any evidence.

The probe began after the film processor, who is required by state law to report suspicions of child abuse and molestation, turned over some 40 photographs to authorities in October 2010. About 400 photos were found at Berndt’s home and at the photo lab during subsequent searches. It’s not clear how many different children were pictured.

Source: KPCC

The findings reveal the financial burden of child abuse is just as high or higher than that of costly health conditions, including Type 2 diabetes.

“No child should ever be the victim of abuse or neglect — nor do they have to be. The human and financial costs can be prevented through prevention of child maltreatment,” said Linda C. Degutis, director of CDC′s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.In 2008, there were 1,740 confirmed cases of fatal child abuse, and 579,000 nonfatal cases of child maltreatment, which include physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse and neglect, according to the report.

The cost of health care, child welfare and other services for each victim who survived their abuse will be $210,012 over the average victim’s lifetime, which is higher than the lifetime cost of stroke ($159,846 per person) and Type 2 diabetes (between $181,000 and $253,000 per person). The costs of each death due to abuse are even higher, according to the report.

Child maltreatment has been shown to have many negative effects on survivors, including poorer health, social and emotional difficulties, and decreased economic productivity. These negative effects over a survivor’s lifetime generate many costs that deleteriously affect the nation’s health care, education, criminal justice and welfare systems.

The estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment includes:

$32,648 in childhood health care costs
$10,530 in adult medical costs
$144,360 in productivity losses
$7,728 in child welfare costs
$6,747 in criminal justice costs
$7,999 in special education costs

The estimated average lifetime cost per death includes:

$14,100 in medical costs
$1,258,800 in productivity losses

The emotional and behavioral problems associated with child maltreatment include aggression, conduct disorder, antisocial behavior, substance abuse, intimate partner violence, teenage pregnancy, anxiety, depression and suicide, according to the report.

Better solutions to prevent childhood maltreatment must be found, the CDC said. A parent’s or caregiver’s behavior is influenced by a range of inter-related factors, such as how they were raised, their parenting skills, the level of stress in their life, and the living conditions in their community.

“Federal, state and local public health agencies as well as policymakers must advance the awareness of the lifetime economic impact of child maltreatment and take immediate action with the same momentum and intensity dedicated to other high-profile public health problems in order to save lives, protect the public’s health, and save money,” Degutis said.

Source: Vitals