A group of researchers presented a study in June that said military kids in North Carolina are twice as likely to die of severe abuse than their civilian counterparts. Appalling, I thought. But that figure made me wonder whether are kids are really at risk, or was this another one of those studies drummed up because military families are in the news?

So I called the author of the study, Marcia Herman-Giddens, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina. For over 20 years, she has treated and worked with children who have been abused. She told me that the study came about because some medical professionals suspected that child abuse is disproportionately high in military families.

The research was funded by the North Carolina Governor's Crime Commission and the North Carolina Child Advocacy Institute. Herman-Giddens and her group studied state medical examiner reports from 1985 and 2000. They found 26 counties had no child abuse murders for children age ten and under. In contrast, the two counties in which Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Camp LeJeune and New River Air Station are located had the highest rates of child abuse murders in the state.

The rate was about five deaths per 100,000 children, more than double the state average. Of 378 abuse murders, 35 occurred in military families. That seems like an awful lot. So what are they doing about it?

The researchers have called Pentagon officials to investigate the reasons children growing up in military households face such risks. And yet, before one dime is spent, don't we already know? You can go to a ton of websites, even those sponsored by the military, and find the characteristics of those families in which abuse may be more likely to occur. This one came from About.com:

Families who are isolated and have no friends, relatives, church or other support systems

Parents who tell you they were abused as children

Families who are often in crisis (have money problems, move often)

Parents who abuse drugs or alcohol.

Parents who are very critical of their child

Parents who are very rigid in disciplining their child

Parents who show too much or too little concern for their child.

Parents who feel they have a difficult child

Parents who are under a lot of stress

Sound familiar? The military knows that our young parents are isolated, are often in crisis, and are under a lot of stress. That is part of military life.

Without restricting the military to a never-abused, teetotaling , all single, all childless force, how are we going to reduce child abuse murders even further? Do we really need to fund more specific programs in order to prevent these murders? The military, more than other employers, already has many programs in place. Even the researchers call the military child abuse prevention programs “laudable.”

This study ought to be enough of a wake up call to the rest of us. The military child abuse murder rate in North Carolina is higher. It doesn't take a federally-funded researcher to be able to guess that rate is probably elevated in other military communities, too.

Herman-Giddens says that the children with the most risk are between one and two years-old. The killers are usually male. Shaken baby syndrome is a real problem. Let's run with that. The military is an employer that knows their people. We know whether a 19 year-old sailor or soldier has a baby or toddler -- or two, or three. We know whether a deploying Marine has complained about a baby who keeps crying and crying and crying. This is what makes us a community.

What is to prevent us from pulling that young dad aside for a second to ask about the wife and kids? To mention the time you felt like shaking that baby, but put the baby in his crib and drank a glass of water instead?

Something so simple, something so free, won't prevent 100 percent of child abuse murders. Child abuse is such a complex issue. But it may prevent one murder this year and two next year. It may make that young guy feel a little less isolated, a little more connected to his community, and a fraction less likely to use his fists or his feet on his baby.

We can act on this information -- whether those researchers get more funding or not. Because 35 military children killed by child abuse is 35 too many.

© 2005 Jacey Eckhart.

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