Safe Passage is utilizing public case records to analyze child fatalities in Minnesota since 2015. To date we have identified over 80 murders of children by caregivers.
In the first record we reviewed, one father had four additional years of ongoing access to a child he started sexually abusing at age 5, despite a no-contact order. Another father had four domestic violence charges, four convictions, and five violations of no-contact orders prior to killing his 13-day-old son. The parents were never required to get help despite four official findings of child maltreatment. Child protection finally removed the surviving children a year after the infant’s murder due to the mother’s drug addiction, first documented nine years earlier.
Based on our involvement in a similar study, we expect more such stories.
When child protection gives parents chance after chance, children have no chance.
This is true–and difficult! Children’s safety must be first! Yes, family connections are important, but not more important than offering a child a safe passage.