Child homicides decline in Onslow, but still top state average, The Daily News – Jacksonville, NC

July 2012

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Child homicide rates in Onslow County are twice that of the state, something that a new report indicates is partially attributable to the area’s military population.

The new report from Action for Children North Carolina report, titled “Collateral Damage on the Home Front: Ten Years Later,” reveals the rates of homicide of a young child by a parent or caregiver (HPC) has declined statewide and locally over the past decade. But the a follow-up to the original 2004 report on the same topic specifically names Onslow and Cumberland County, home of Fort Bragg, as the counties with highest incidences of HPC.

The report states that between 2001 and 2010, there were 251 homicides by a parent or caregiver of a child from birth to age 10 in North Carolina, meaning there were 1.9 deaths per 100,000 children statewide. Eleven of the 251 homicides occurred in Onslow during the period — eight of those were in active duty military families — for a rate of 4.65 deaths per 100,000 children, more than double the state rate.

“Child maltreatment risk indicators include younger families (and younger children), those under economic stress, often a lower level of education, and isolation from extended family supports,” Tom Vitaglione, senior fellow for Action for Children, said via a press release Tuesday. “A large percentage of active military families have all these risk indicators. To those, add deployment(s), and the perfect storm for family violence is created.”

Although Onslow’s rate remains higher than the statewide average, the report notes that the numbers do show promise. Onslow’s military family HPC rate declined by 5.3 percent over the past decade and the civilian rate is down by 6.4 percent, something Camp Lejeune spokesman Nat Fahy said is no coincidence.

“We believe the positive progress outlined in this report adequately speaks to the growing effectiveness of our military family advocacy programs and the top-notch professionals that run them,” Fahy said in an email to The Daily News. “Our Marine and Family Programs staff has gone to great lengths … by aggressively implementing education and counseling programs for service members and their loved ones.”

The report noted that in both counties the military and local agencies have established high levels of cooperation, coordination and collaboration, with county-sponsored services made available to civilian and military families alike.

The report credited individual communities for the decline in HPCs, as well as national efforts put forth by the Department of Defense. However, the report also called for the DoD to implement a national study of all large military installations to determine the occurrence of HPC among both military and civilian families in the respective host communities.

As for Camp Lejeune, Fahy said the base plans to “continue to expend every effort and resources to reduce (the rate of HPCs) even further in the years to come.”