Cibola County Safehouse

Through teamwork, we will promote child safety and healing by expeditiously investigating all crimes against children to create a stronger and safer community.  

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If one ranks the 50 states based on how much money they spend to address child abuse and neglect (per child), with 1 being the highest doallar amount, then new Mexico ranks 46.  Right near the bottem!

That means that there is a great deal of room for improvement in New Mexico.

 

The Cibola County Safehouse will aggressively seek funding to expand services, and will diligently track our own data so that our MDT can improve the system for child victims and their families. 

 

Statistics:

In New Mexico during the state fiscal year of 2009, there were 31,088 calls alledging 37,206 incidents of suspected child abuse or neglect.  (CYFD)

 

 to report child abuse/neglect in New Mexico call 800.797.3260

  • 1 in 5 children are abused before they are 18 years old.
  • each year there are approximately 900,000 reports of child abuse or neglect in the US.
  • In the US, child abuse is reported every 10 seconds!
  • In the US nearly 5 children die every day due to child abuse or neglect or 1,740 a year!
  • In New Mexico, in 2008, there were 31,088 reports of child abuse and neglect.
  • Last year, New Mexico Safehouse, conducted over 2,120 child forensic interviews in cases of suspected child abuse; 40% of the children were under 7 years old. 
  • Younger children (ages 0-6) are the most vulnerable to abuse.
  • One in three girls and one in five boys will be sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 18.

Perpetrators are usually trusted family members, or family friends.  80.1% of all perpetrators were parents.  Of that number 90.9% were biological parents.  Another 6.5% were a relaitive.   95% of all victims know their perpetrators.

There are a large percentage of children who do not disclose abuse until adulthood, if ever at all.  If all cases were reported, what would the above numbers look like?

Some long term consequences of child sexual abuse include fear, loneliness, self-blame, poor self-esteem, anger, and mental health issues.

Disclosure of child sexual abuse is a process; many children disclose in stages. They tell some of the abuse and see how family members, adults, police and other professionals react; then they decide if they should tell more. It is estimated that only one in ten child victims disclose abuse. 
 

NO CHILD DESERVES TO BE ABUSED. 

EVERY ABUSED CHILD DESERVES A CHANCE TO HEAL.