In the case of 9-month-old Brantley Farmer, who died this weekend of trauma to his brain, a familiar figure is under arrest: the mother’s boyfriend.
Just as the evil stepmother is a stock figure in fairy tales, the violent boyfriend is associated in the public consciousness with child abuse cases, those with experience say. At least three times in the last two months, Georgia authorities have laid a child’s death at the feet of a mother’s boyfriend, sometimes alone, sometimes along with the mom.
But that masks a tragic truth. According to a 2012 national report, by far the most likely person to cause a child’s death is the child’s mother, acting alone. The data are incomplete, but the picture is clear:
- Nationally, according to the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mothers acting alone were responsible for 27 percent of child maltreatment deaths;
- Mothers acting with someone else were responsible for another 13 percent;
- In 17 percent of cases, the perpetrator was the father;
- In 21 percent, it was the mother and father together;
- Unrelated boyfriends were the lone perpetrator in just 2.6 percent of cases.
A spokeswoman for Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services, Ravae Graham, was not personally familiar with the report but said it should teach a lesson: If you suspect abuse, “Please report it,” she said. “Even if it’s the mom.”
Seeing the numbers straight is important, advocates for children say. Only that way can the state design effective prevention strategies, rather than simply dealing with the fallout. Prevention includes identifying red flags, such as repeated hospital visits. It means intervening in families and building support for mothers, especially single mothers, before tragedy strikes.
“The statistic tells us we need to help mothers who are by themselves and support prevention, so we don’t have such a terrible figure,” said Nancy Chandler, chief executive officer of the Georgia Center for Child Advocacy.
Chandler, who sits on a panel that reviews child deaths in DeKalb County, said that unfortunately the figures don’t surprise her. The mom is the one who often spends the most time with the child, and single mothers especially are likely to be under stress.
“The mom is stressed beyond belief,” she said. “You have a lot of single parents, moms who suddenly have to take care of a kid. They’re not very emotionally mature themselves.” That’s bad enough, but then drugs and alcohol may join the mix.
But the numbers don’t go down easy. Even some first responders and judges found them hard to believe.
“No way — I never would have guessed that,” said Christopher Bish, a captain in the sheriff’s department of Morgan County, where the suspect in Farmer’s death is being held. In his 40 years of experience, he said, it was most often “the boyfriend that did something to the child.”
The federal report includes deaths from both physical abuse and neglect. Not included are accidental deaths, such as when a child is smothered while “co-sleeping” in the same bed with adults — unless the state determines that neglect was a factor.
Boys are a bit more likely than girls to be victims. African-American children are more likely to die (4.7 deaths per 100,000) than Hispanic children (1.7) or white children (1.6).
And the victims are usually so young they can do nothing to escape harm. The vast majority of the deaths, 70 percent, occur to children less than three years old.
“There is nobody there for them,” Chandler said. “It’s not like they can pick up the phone and call grandma — these are little bitty kids.”
The numbers are reported by states, and the report’s accuracy depends on how much detail each state supplies. Only 41 states, with a total of 1,172 deaths, reported enough detail to provide picture of the perpetrators.
In Georgia in 2012, mothers also led the list of perpetrators, said Ashley Willcott, director of the state’s Office of the Child Advocate. But in previous years, she said, it’s been boyfriends. She was not immediately able to provide precise figures.
The boyfriend scenario seems to make more sense to some, or perhaps to be more bearable.
Just this year, Judge Velma Tilley’s courtroom in Bartow County was the scene of a proceeding in the death of Journey Ann Cowart, who died at the age of 1 year, 11 days. Accused in her death are her mother, Brandy Ann Boyd, and Boyd’s boyfriend, Austin Levi Payne.
Attorneys for defendants in the Farmer and Cowart cases could not immediately be located.
Tilley would not speak about the Cowart case specifically, but she said in general, “If you have a boyfriend who is not related to a child, I think there’s a heightened chance that something will happen to that child.”
“Sometimes mothers can believe their child is imperiling their relationship with the boyfriend,” Tilley said. “Or on the other hand it can be the boyfriend doesn’t want the child around. Somebody has snapped.”
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