Child abuse is nothing new in this world, but recent scandals such as the Jerry Sandusky case have put child abuse in the spotlight.
The media attention on Penn State brings attention to child abuse on a local level. Lora Leigh Cockrell with the Lafayette County Department of Human Services says that child abuse cases are relatively small compared to the rest of the state, but they do exist. Part of this reason is the small population of Oxford and Lafayette County.
No matter the number of cases, the fact that child abuse is still prevalent in today's society is a problem. Oxford Police Investigator Jimmy Williams says that waiting too late to tell a child about the privacy of their bodies could result in abuse.
"Waiting until they are five or six years old... is way too late," Williams says.
The answer to combatting the rising number of child abuse cases is education, according to both Cockrell and Williams.
"We must educate our communities," says Cockrell. "A lot of people don't realize that this is a problem right here."
To learn how you can prevent or report child abuse, visit the National Child Abuse website.
No comments:
Post a Comment