Brooklyn Boy's Death Sparked Uptick In Child Abuse Reports

NEW YORK CITY — The deaths of Jaden Jordan, 3, and Zymere Perkins, 6, have sparked an sharp uptick in child abuse reports, investigations and Family Court hearings, a new report found.

New York City’s Independent Budget Office found that the highly publicized death of Jordan and Perkins — both beaten to death by men who had previously been reported to child services — spurred a 20 percent jump in substantiated child abuse reports, from 19,980 in 2016 to 23,981 in 2017.

“The media focus on the cases of Zymere and Jaden triggered more reports of suspected abuse and neglect,” analysts wrote. “Their reports are also more likely to be substantiated.”

Administration for Children’s Services staffers filed twice as many abuse and maltreatment petitions in Family Court, from 9,566 in 2016 to 14,207 in 2017, and that ACS spent almost $128 million in 2017 on employee salaries, as opposed to just under $111 million the year before, the the report found.

But the IBO analysis also found that the number of children separated from their families declined, with the number of court-ordered foster care placements dropping in 2017. Family court judges opt instead to have at one parent care for their child with court-ordered supervision, according to the IBO report.

"This implies that Family Court judges have not changed how they handle abuse and maltreatment petitions in response to the public pressure that follows high-profile deaths of children known to the child welfare system," the report concluded.

"ACS does appear, though, to have reacted to these factors, by spending more money on investigating abuse and maltreatment allegations and bringing a larger share of cases to Family Court than before. "

Read the full report here.

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