Three-quarters of Americans have at some point in their lives thought they knew of a child being abused – but only 12 percent of them actually decided to report it to authorities, a first-of-its-kind survey shows.
A disturbing 78 percent said they suspected seeing abuse, but 33 percent kept silent because they didn’t want to get involved, according the national survey released by Safe Horizon, a Manhattan child-advocacy group.
Yesterday, it launched “Hope Shining,” a nationwide campaign to get folks involved in detecting and reporting abuse.
In New York City, only 10 percent of the roughly 60,000 child-abuse complaints investigated by the Administration for Children’s Services originated from the general public. The majority came from mandatory reporters – teachers, cops and hospital workers.
“We need to have a sense of urgency now – not a sense of regret later,” said Anne Williams-Isom, the Administration for Children’s Services’ deputy commissioner for community and governmental affairs.