Natural State News

Recent upticks in reports of child abuse appear to show that COVID-19 restrictions prevented many cases of abuse from ever reaching the public eye, particularly as students who were receiving remote instruction return to school.

Arkansas had a steep decline in calls to the child abuse hotline in April of last year, a fact some have ascribed to educators having less interaction with their virtual pupils, according to coverage by University of Arkansas-Little Rock Public Radio. Yet, while the number of calls last April was down about 3,000 from normal, the preceding January and February had a higher-than-normal call volume.

"We did see an increase in calls made by delivery personnel or personnel who were making service calls," Dan Mack, administrator of the Arkansas State Police's Crimes Against Children hotline, was quoted as saying by Public Radio. "Maybe they were a cable provider, or maybe they were a plumber, or a maintenance person in an apartment complex."

In fact, delivery drivers were one group identified by the Children's Advocacy Centers of Arkansas as a potential way to spot abuse as victims were locked down with their abusers, Public Radio reported. 

And there seems to be evidence there was no actual reduction in abuse during 2020, despite the hotline receiving 10,000 fewer calls for the year than normal, Public Radio reported. 

"The other thing that we've seen in the short run, that we need to keep following forward, [is] the severity of cases over the calendar year of 2020 was higher than the severity of cases for calendar year 2019," Dr. Karen Farst, a pediatrician who specializes in child abuse cases at Arkansas Children's Hospital, was quoted as saying by Public Radio.