58 child deaths

For the Sake of Our Children Trust has produced an analytical table identifying 58 "horrific" abuse and neglect child deaths at the hands of caregivers since 1990.

They comment:

Based on the 58 known cases listed,

51 cases identified child’s biological parents were NOT married. The perpetrator responsible for the death indicated 27 of the deaths tabulated had a ‘stepfather’ or ‘boyfriend/partner of

the mother being responsible or part responsible for the child’s death.

The remaining figures for the perpetrator was indicated the  mother or relative of the child or unknown.Many of the children killed were of Maori descent with 35 cases indicating ethnicity of child . The question New Zealanders need to ask is ‘What are our Maori Leaders doing about these staggering statistics?

...The research was unable to provide evidence of welfare dependency of parent(s) as this information is not stated in most of the cases. The Trust stands steadfast on its assumption that for many of the children born into a single parent home or

an environment where their parents were not married is

associated to long term welfare dependency, hence undermining marriage and breaking up families

A fair assumption given that around 87 percent of children who have contact with CYF appear in the benefit system very early in their lives.