The Los Angeles judicial system handles many different criminal cases, including child abuse. Child abuse is an issue that the justice system deals with quite often, and for some people it is a very sensitive subject. There are many components that go in to dealing with child abuse. Some of these components are how do you know its abuse, is it report able, and how is the system going to handle it?

The Federal and state law describes child abuse as “any recent act, or failure to act on the part of the parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act, or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” There are many different types of abuse, for example, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It is very hard to determine when child abuse is present in the household. The children may just say that they had an accident in order to protect their parent, or perhaps the parent threatened them to tell no one. Personally, I don’t understand how you would want to defend someone who is causing you harm. I find no comprehension as to why you would want to protect them. In some cases, children do come forward, but the adults that they tell don’t always believe them. In the case of six year old Devon Bailey, he told multiple adults at his school that he was being abused. He told his teachers, his counselors, his nurse, and even some social workers about what was happening at home, and none of them reported anything. He was crying for help, and nobody was answering him. In July of 2009 Devon’s body was found battered and beaten in his home. Even when kids call out for help like they’re supposed to do, help doesn’t always come.

Los Angeles is a very diverse city. There are many different cultures and races, and in these cultures are different ways of thinking and living. According to a book called Beyond Behavior, Beyond Behavior  “A teacher is concerned when told by his student that she is made to kneel on uncooked rice when she misbehaves.  Upon bringing this to the attention of the administration, he is told that this is a common disciplinary procedure among low-income Hispanic families from the Caribbean islands.”  Some households even resort to spanking as a punishment. According to the system as long as there is no mark it is not considered abuse. As a result of the decisions made in court, there are many children in foster homes who sometimes rightfully belong there, and sometimes they don’t.
The justice system is trying very hard to take children out of unsafe homes. Los Angeles has the largest foster care system in the whole country. In a documentary called Slipping through the Cracks, Slipping Through the Cracks Documentary it states that “In 1997 the number of kids in the foster care system was over 52,000 and now it is only over 20,000”. It costs money to take children out of the home and place them in another temporary home. The money is provided by the government and it’s not enough to take every child out of their abusive homes and into a safer one. There are kids that are still out there cowering in fear over whether or not they will be beaten again. Some of these kids have no idea who to turn to and that’s when mandated reporters come in to play.
I know of a mandated reporter who used to be a teacher for Options Head Start. In the past she has told me about how there was a child in her classroom that went to school with bruises on her body. She told her supervisor about it and they reported it to child services. From there, Child Protective Services comes in and performs an investigation, and they determine whether or not there is a case. Once they determine that there is a case, they will take the child out of the caretakers care, and then the case will go to court. There the judge determines if the child can go back to the parent or if the child goes to foster care.

I don’t know about other departments, but in LA they have this program where the department tries everything they can in order to reunify the family. I see many issues with this because for one, in order to accomplish this, the caretaker has to go to parenting classes. These classes are mandatory, and if the caretaker just takes the classes, and doesn’t learn anything, then the child goes back to that abusive home. That child finally had a chance at a non-abusive life, but then there they go again, back to that same house where they get beaten for who knows how long. They are at risk once more of being beaten to death. In January 2008-2009, there was a reported 279 child fatalities, and out of that 279, 26 of those deaths were because of abuse/neglect, and 84 were homicides.
To me this is a problem that needs to be fixed. There should not be kids dying because they are not safe in their homes. A home is a place where you should feel the safest; it is a place where you can go when you have nowhere else to turn to. It is not a place you go to if you’re being beaten every day. If you no longer feel safe in your own home, then something needs to change. There are places you can go to in order to get help. These kids shouldn’t have to deal with it on their own. They should feel comfortable with talking to someone about what’s going on at home if anything is going on at home, and the adults need to take into consideration that what the child is saying is true, and report it in order to save the child’s life.