Marin Advocates for Children

History

In 1976, Superior Court Judge David Soukup of Seattle,WA, saw a recurring problem in his courtroom:

"In criminal and civil cases, even though there were always many different points of view, you walked out of the courthouse at the end of the day and you said, 'I've done my best; I can live with this decision," he explains.

"But when you're involved with a child and you're trying to decide what to do to facilitate that child's growth into a mature and happy adult, you don't feel like you have sufficient information to allow you to make the right decision. You can't walk away and leave them at the courthouse at 4 o'clock. You wonder, 'Do I really know everything I should? Have I really been told all of the different things? Is this really right?'"

To ensure he was getting all the facts and the long-term welfare of each child was being represented, the Seattle judge came up with an idea that would change America's judicial procedure and the lives of over a million children. He obtained funding to recruit and train community volunteers to step into courtrooms on behalf of the children: Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteers.

This unique concept was implemented in Seattle as a pilot program in January 1977. During that first year, the program provided 110 trained CASA volunteers for 498 children in 376 dependency cases. Read the whole story

2005 Statistics

Each week child protective services (CPS) agencies in the United States collectively receive more than 50,000 referrals alleging that children have been abused or neglected. As referrals may involve more than one child, the total 2.6 million referrals concerned approximately 4.5 million children. Of these, approximately two-thirds (67.1% or an estimated 1,789,000) referrals were screened in and received investigations or assessments to determine whether the allegations of maltreatment could be substantiated.¹

An estimated 896,000 children were found to be victims of abuse and neglect in 2002. This means 12.3 children for every 1,000 children in the population were victims of abuse or neglect.²

More than half of all victims were White (54.2%); a quarter (26.1%) were African American; and one-tenth (11%) were Hispanic. American Indian/Alaska Natives accounted for 1.8% of victims, and Asian-Pacific Islanders accounted for 0.9% of victims.³ Read the whole story

¹ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families. (2004). Child Maltreatment 2002. Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Office. www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.


	An estimated 896,000 children were found to be victims of abuse and neglect in 2002. This represents 12.3 children for every 1,000 children in the population were victims of abuse or neglect.²