Minnesota Vikings player Adrian Peterson has recently been accused of beating his 4-year-old son with a switch and leaving the child with cuts and bruises. Peterson was deactivated from playing, but was reactivated the following day and will play this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints.
Peterson is charged with felony injury of a child.
“I’m not saying the NFL should take action, I’m just saying that as an employer sometimes you don’t want to pull a trigger on something until you have all the facts,” CEO of The Child Protection Center in Kansas City, Lisa Mizell said. “ And I’m not sure that relying on what we’re seeing in the media is giving us all the facts necessary to know what happened.”
According to The Child Abuse/Neglect Hotline Unit (CANHU), physical abuse, at least in part, is the major factor in fatalities in children ages zero to 18 in reported child abuse and neglect incidents in Missouri.
The Missouri Children’s Division Child Abuse/Neglect reported that the Southeast region has the third highest number of reports of physical child abuse, neglect and sexual abuse in fiscal year 2013 in Missouri. Saint Francois County had the highest number of reports in the region in all three categories.
The Southeast region reported 260 cases of physical abuse, 378 cases of neglect and 233 cases of sexual abuse in 2013. Saint Francois had a combined total 98.
In 2013, CANHU received more than 113,000 reports of child abuse in Missouri.
Incidents fell slightly in 2013 as compared to the previous year.
According to Mizell, there are 22 accredited child advocacy centers in Missouri.
“Most often we see children that are physically or sexually abused or have witnessed violence such as homicide or domestic violence,” Mizell said.
A majority of child abuse reports in Missouri were declared as neglect. Neglect can include lack of supervision, unsafe shelter, unsanitary living conditions and failure to protect. According to the report, 83.8% of neglect cases involved lack of supervision of a child. The second most reported cases were physical abuse. Bruising, welts and red marks were the most frequently reported.
Mizell advised for people to be aware of signs if they suspect child abuse or neglect. She said to be aware of unusual marks or bruising on a child. If a child is acting out or has sexual knowledge beyond their developmental age, those are the clear signs of sexual abuse.
In most cases, the abusers were a parent between the ages of 20-39. Caucasian females were the leading perpetrators in Missouri in 2013.
“Most often it’s someone that the child knows. In sexual abuse, it may not always be a parent or a family member, but it’s most often someone the child is acquainted with,” Mizell said. “There is a great myth out there that children are sexually abused by strangers... But it is not the norm. It is a rare scene.”
If child abuse is suspected, call the child abuse and neglect hotline.