L.A. County child homicides, suicides rose in ‘05, study finds

Child homicides and suicides in Los Angeles County were up slightly in 2005 from the previous year, though both numbers were still well below 15-year averages, according to an annual study released Wednesday.

The study, compiled by the Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect, paints a broad portrait of child abuse and deaths in the county. Most statistics, including child abuse and accidental deaths, were down from the previous year, and child deaths of an undetermined cause rose from 84 in the previous year to 109 in 2005.

The study mixed straightforward statistics with poignant, one-sentence explanations of how the children died. Four boys were struck by a car while riding their bicycles. One adolescent committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning when he placed a portable barbecue grill inside a closed vehicle.

And a 2-year-old girl who was at the edge of a wash fell in and drowned when her uncle let go of her hand to answer his cellphone.

County officials highlighted the 11 infants who were dropped off anonymously at designated areas in 2006, a record high since the state’s safe surrender law, which makes it easier for parents to safely surrender their newborns without criminal repercussion, took effect in 2001. Eight babies have been surrendered to date this year.

Officials said they were concerned about the increases in child homicides and suicides but did not yet see an alarming trend. Thirty-three children in the county were killed by parents, caregivers or family members, up from 30 in 2004. And 15 children and adolescents committed suicide in 2005, up from 13 the year before.

The numbers were significantly lower than in the early 1990s, when child homicides peaked at 61 and suicides at 44. Since 1992, the county has seen an average of 42 homicides and about 24 suicides per year.

Officials credited awareness campaigns -- such as warnings to parents not to shake their babies -- and the state’s safe surrender law for the overall declines in child deaths.

But, they added, the public should not be lulled into a sense of security.

“We certainly don’t want people to think this is no longer a problem,” said Deanne Tilton, executive director of the inter-agency council, in a news conference.

One statistic that puzzled and alarmed officials was the 25 children, many younger than 9 months, who died while sleeping with someone else, such as a parent or another child.

Officials said it appeared the children often suffocated in the sheets or a pillow when the person with whom they were sleeping changed positions. They urged parents to give children, especially babies, a separate sleeping area.

“We could save a lot of babies’ lives if we paid attention to the practice of safe sleeping,” Tilton said.

There were also 100 accidental deaths of children up to 14 in 2005, down from 110 deaths the previous year, the study found.

Drownings, which once accounted for roughly a third of accidental child deaths in the county, were down to 12 in 2005, a result, officials said, of parents’ understanding more about pool safety.

Child-abuse cases tracked by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were down to 3,308 in 2005, a decrease of 278 cases from the previous year. Though officials applauded the numbers, they urged people to be vigilant for signs of child abuse -- such as bruising or social withdrawal -- and report them to authorities right away.

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said the state should do more to track people with drug-abuse problems, especially methamphetamine use, because they can be more likely to abuse children.

“It’s time we acknowledged that drug abuse is not a victimless crime,” he said. “Often, there is a direct correlation to a crime of abuse of children or others.”

charles.proctor@latimes.com