McMartin 1985 articles, cost of child abuse/neglect in US $33 billion yearly

describes crimes - Reporter's Notebook: 6 Months of California Case By Robert Lindsey Published: February 13, 1985 "Prosecutors say they intend to present as witnesses 41 former pupils of the school, almost all of whom, physicians testified at the hearing, showed physical evidence of having been sexually abused. The second of the children to testify at the hearing, a 10-year-old boy who attended the McMartin Preschool almost five years ago, has now been on the witness stand for nine days, including eight days under intense cross examination by defense lawyers who have been trying to find inconsistencies in his story. So far, often under rapid-fire questioning that might wither some adult witnesses, the child has stuck to his story with only minor contradictions. He described being sodomized or otherwise sexually molested by all seven of the defendants and asserted that children had been made to pose for pornographic pictures. The 10-year-old boy repeated under cross examination an account of how he and other children were taken to a church where he said adults wearing masks and black robes danced and moaned while Mr. Buckey went to the altar and killed pet rabbits, turtles and birds and threatened to kill the children's parents the same way if the children told of the alleged abuse. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/13/us/reporter-s-notebook-6-months-of-california-case.html

describes crimes - Boy, 7, Is Witness in California Child Abuse Case by Robert Lindsey January 23, 1985 A 7-year- old boy testified today that he had played ''naked games'' at the Virginia McMartin Preschool near here and that in at least one of the games teachers at the school had touched his genital organs....Prosecutors have asserted that more than 100 children were abused at the school in the past decade. All the defendants have denied the charges, which date from 1978....After pointing out his former teachers in the courtroom, the boy said he had played ''naked games'' at the school. Describing a game called ''Cowboys and Indians'' under questioning by Glenn Stevens, a deputy district attorney, the boy said the children playing the game were taken into a room. ''They'd put us in jail; they'd touch us in jail,'' he said. ''How did the teachers touch you?'' Mr. Stevens asked. ''In the penis,'' the boy replied....While Mr. Stevens appeared satisfied with the answers regarding the first game the child mentioned, he was less successful when questioning the child about two other games, called ''the Alligator Game'' and ''Naked Movie Star.'' In both games, the boy said, children were asked by other children to remove their clothes, but he seemed to draw a blank whenever he was asked to give details. ''I don't remember,'' the boy said repeatedly. The first grade pupil also testified that Mr. Buckey had cut the ears off rabbits and injured other pets in front of the children and had threatened to harm their parents if they told anyone about the alleged sexual molestation. http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/23/us/boy-7-is-witness-in-california-child-abuse-case.html


83,000 cases of child abuse reported in Texas in 2008 By Sandra Cason, News Messenger 4/28/09 National Center for Victims of Crime statistics show that a child was reported as abused or neglected every 34.9 seconds during 2008. In Texas last year, there were more than 83,000 separate allegations of abuse or neglect confirmed by Child Protective Services (CPS), a division of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)....The national estimate of children who received an investigation or assessment has declined from 3.6 million during 2006 to 3.5 million during 2007....Nationwide statistics for 2007 from 50 states indicate that the rate of children who were subjects of a screened-in referral (a report) and who subsequently received an investigation or assessment was 47.2 per 1,000 children. Individual state rates ranged from 8.4 to 127.4 per 1,000 children....The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization and accounted for the largest percentage of victims: children from birth to 3 years of age accounted for 30 percent of child victims....Of the victims who were sexually abused, 35.2 percent were in the age group 12-15 years, 23.8 percent were in the age group 8-11 years, and 23.3 percent were in the age group 4-7 years....The direct cost of child abuse and neglect in the United States totals more than $33 billion annually - a figure which includes law enforcement, judicial system, child welfare, and health care costs. When factoring in indirect costs, such as special education, mental health care, juvenile delinquency, lost productivity, and adult criminality, the figure rises to more than $103 billion annually. Victims of child abuse constituted 19 percent of the recipients of crime victim compensation in 2006. http://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/08/042809_web_childabuse.html