Iowa Department of Human Services director, Charles Krogmeier says a report on child abuse in the state shows a step backwards. Krogmeier says the number of cases reported and confirmed cases had been trending down the last couple of years, but both reports and confirmed cases of child abuse went up 11% in the numbers from 2009. Krogmeier says there doesn’t appear to be any particular trend in the individual cases.

He says the overall percentages for each type of cases has remained about the same, with a lot of the cases involving neglect, such as not feeding a child properly. Krogmeier says case of physical and sexual abuse were a “relatively small part of the numbers.” The state investigated 25,814 reports of child abuse or neglect in 2009 and about two-thirds of the investigations showed that no abuse had occurred.

Krogmeier says the tough economic times are likely behind the increase in abuse cases. “The only thing that I think we can really point to, is the economic stress that families are under is probably spilling over into some additional instances of child neglect and child abuse that are being reported to us,” Krogmeier says.

READ MORE:  http://www.radioiowa.com/2010/03/04/dhs-says-child-abuse-cases-increased-in-2009/