Thank you so much for sharing these helpful links! I had not seen the Texas database. I spent some time looking through the database, and the Child Welfare Monitor.
Just looking at the numbers -- the Texas Public Radio database wrote: "More than 1,200
Texas children died from abuse and neglect between fiscal 2018 and 2023." The CWM wrote "At least 1,800 children die from abuse and neglect every year, and the total is probably considerably greater."
According to the U.S. census, 2023 estimates of children under 18 years old: ~73 million (out of ~336 million total population). If 1,800 children die each year, that is approximately 2.47 deaths per 100,000 children under 18 per year.
In Texas, with 1,200 children dying from abuse and neglect over six years, that would be 200 per year. According to the Texas Comptroller, about one of every 10 U.S. children lives in Texas, which puts the child population of Texas at 7.3 million (estimate). And then approximately 2.74 deaths per 100,000 children under 18 in Texas each year, which is above the national "average" of 2.47.
This makes Texas's child death rate from abuse/neglect is about 11% higher than the national average.
I also looked at the list of child deaths from the Center for Judicial Excellence, which looks at deaths (homicides, murders) in the specific context of custody disputes. So their list is significantly smaller / less.
For example, using the Texas Public Radio database, you can select from a drop down menu the different causes of death. In looking up "abuse" the case of A'Zari Williams came up. "The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and the child's cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma and the manner of death was determined to be homicide."
The father of A'Zari was charged. I see in other coverage he was also charged with assaulting a pregnant person, who we could reasonably guess was his wife. I believe we could reasonably extrapolate that the woman is in a controlling / abusive relationship. She simply had not left yet (or, may never leave). She did not yet become a "protective parent" as she hadn't yet left the abuser, and was trying to shield her kids from further abuse by the father / ex-partner.
At all junctures, the target needs help and interventions (plural intentional). What I'm tending to focus on is the stage of protective parenthood, where the target has realized the abuse and made the decision to leave. She often finds though (statistically, she) that the family court system is not prioritizing her safety, nor the kids safety.
Just thinking through the distinctions here, the timelines.
Excellent writing! Thank you for your dedication. Another variable could be the selection of judges and the incidence (or lack of) judicial discipline. In SC, which - call me biased, but I do think it has got to be the worst - the judges are hand-picked by the legislators. Only VA (one other state of 50) does similar. This effectively chokes out separation of powers. To make it worse, the SC constitution was written in such a way that the governor has very little power… essentially legislators run the entire state.
Break that down further, approx 1/3 of them are attorneys, and many of them are committee chairs determining what bills can even progress.
Essentially, one small group of rogue attorneys runs the entire state. There has never been an impeachment of a state judge… it’s like anything goes.
There’s also no reporting of judicial discipline, though just this week, they promise that would change in November… but it’ll have redacted names of the judges.
The elite who can afford a lawyer legislator often do so to arrange a backroom deal or at least “favor.”
There is also (rarely!) the judge who goes against a lawyer legislator… career suicide will often be quick and humiliating.
Seems there is no bar too low for a S.C. judge. A couple of years ago, one was ostensibly (?) doing lines of cocaine with an atty when the atty died… they still let judge Bentley price work the remainder of his term. No drug tests for judges here…
Truly, they are awful here! One judge Deborah malphrus does her dogs’ toenails in court while presiding over abuse and neglect cases. I have a recording of her saying - in my hearing - that she would not consider perjury bc there was not a court order barring my ex from committing perjury.
Thank you for your helpful and thoughtful comments. (And your kind words!) I was thinking about you in writing this post, as I remembered this was a question you'd posed earlier-- what might be state-by-state or regional differences amongst the family court systems.
Yes, you bring up an excellent point-- how the judges are appointed in the first place. The hiring practices, so to speak; how the courts are staffed and who makes the decisions. For the point about judicial discipline, I think perhaps that could be subsumed under #3 judicial immunity.
Huh... no court order restricting perjury? But then what's the point of taking the oath? SMH.
Lee, if you've seen other ways to evaluate states for their family court system, please forward to me. I'm curious.
And you should give the local reporting fellowship a shot! There's a salary for the year, and you'd be connected to ProPublica resources. If I could help with your application feel free to message me. You've got great depth of knowledge.
These numbers have not been verified, but I'm just experimenting with the data set from the Center for Judicial Excellence to try to draw out some insights.
Per-capita, these 5 states *might* be the highest for child deaths in the context of custody cases. The national average *might* be 3.23 child deaths per million people.
Another variable that can be considered is child deaths connected to custody disputes. According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, an NGO focused on the family courts, these are rough figures:
Alabama – 20; Arizona – 38; Arkansas – 6; California – 91; Colorado – 26; Connecticut – 7; Delaware – 4; Florida – 85; Georgia – 21; Hawaii – 2; Idaho – 13; Illinois – 42; Indiana – 22; Iowa – 5; Kansas – 6; Kentucky – 6; Louisiana – 14; Maine – 5; Maryland – 21; Massachusetts – 15; Michigan – 38; Minnesota – 11; Mississippi – 6; Missouri – 19; Montana – 7; Nebraska – 2; Nevada – 10; New Hampshire – 5; New Jersey – 19; New Mexico – 16; New York – 43; North Carolina – 21; Ohio – 39; Oklahoma – 21; Oregon – 22; Pennsylvania – 34; South Carolina – 22; Tennessee – 18; Texas – 95; Utah – 21; Vermont – 2; Virginia – 25; Washington – 21; Washington D.C. – 2; West Virginia – 3; Wisconsin – 17;
I’d love to investigate these things since I’m really curious about the answers.
Here’s one source of info I just discovered for Texas: https://www.tpr.org/news/2025-03-31/database-charts-more-than-1-200-child-deaths-from-abuse-and-neglect-in-texas-between-2018-and-2023
Also https://childwelfaremonitor.org has some state specific info
Hi Lauren,
Thank you so much for sharing these helpful links! I had not seen the Texas database. I spent some time looking through the database, and the Child Welfare Monitor.
Just looking at the numbers -- the Texas Public Radio database wrote: "More than 1,200
Texas children died from abuse and neglect between fiscal 2018 and 2023." The CWM wrote "At least 1,800 children die from abuse and neglect every year, and the total is probably considerably greater."
According to the U.S. census, 2023 estimates of children under 18 years old: ~73 million (out of ~336 million total population). If 1,800 children die each year, that is approximately 2.47 deaths per 100,000 children under 18 per year.
In Texas, with 1,200 children dying from abuse and neglect over six years, that would be 200 per year. According to the Texas Comptroller, about one of every 10 U.S. children lives in Texas, which puts the child population of Texas at 7.3 million (estimate). And then approximately 2.74 deaths per 100,000 children under 18 in Texas each year, which is above the national "average" of 2.47.
This makes Texas's child death rate from abuse/neglect is about 11% higher than the national average.
I also looked at the list of child deaths from the Center for Judicial Excellence, which looks at deaths (homicides, murders) in the specific context of custody disputes. So their list is significantly smaller / less.
For example, using the Texas Public Radio database, you can select from a drop down menu the different causes of death. In looking up "abuse" the case of A'Zari Williams came up. "The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and the child's cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma and the manner of death was determined to be homicide."
The father of A'Zari was charged. I see in other coverage he was also charged with assaulting a pregnant person, who we could reasonably guess was his wife. I believe we could reasonably extrapolate that the woman is in a controlling / abusive relationship. She simply had not left yet (or, may never leave). She did not yet become a "protective parent" as she hadn't yet left the abuser, and was trying to shield her kids from further abuse by the father / ex-partner.
At all junctures, the target needs help and interventions (plural intentional). What I'm tending to focus on is the stage of protective parenthood, where the target has realized the abuse and made the decision to leave. She often finds though (statistically, she) that the family court system is not prioritizing her safety, nor the kids safety.
Just thinking through the distinctions here, the timelines.
Happy to hear your thoughts!
https://whenhomeisthedanger.org/case/a'zari-williams/1368
Excellent writing! Thank you for your dedication. Another variable could be the selection of judges and the incidence (or lack of) judicial discipline. In SC, which - call me biased, but I do think it has got to be the worst - the judges are hand-picked by the legislators. Only VA (one other state of 50) does similar. This effectively chokes out separation of powers. To make it worse, the SC constitution was written in such a way that the governor has very little power… essentially legislators run the entire state.
Break that down further, approx 1/3 of them are attorneys, and many of them are committee chairs determining what bills can even progress.
Essentially, one small group of rogue attorneys runs the entire state. There has never been an impeachment of a state judge… it’s like anything goes.
There’s also no reporting of judicial discipline, though just this week, they promise that would change in November… but it’ll have redacted names of the judges.
The elite who can afford a lawyer legislator often do so to arrange a backroom deal or at least “favor.”
There is also (rarely!) the judge who goes against a lawyer legislator… career suicide will often be quick and humiliating.
Seems there is no bar too low for a S.C. judge. A couple of years ago, one was ostensibly (?) doing lines of cocaine with an atty when the atty died… they still let judge Bentley price work the remainder of his term. No drug tests for judges here…
Truly, they are awful here! One judge Deborah malphrus does her dogs’ toenails in court while presiding over abuse and neglect cases. I have a recording of her saying - in my hearing - that she would not consider perjury bc there was not a court order barring my ex from committing perjury.
Cannot
Make this up!
Dear Lee,
Thank you for your helpful and thoughtful comments. (And your kind words!) I was thinking about you in writing this post, as I remembered this was a question you'd posed earlier-- what might be state-by-state or regional differences amongst the family court systems.
Yes, you bring up an excellent point-- how the judges are appointed in the first place. The hiring practices, so to speak; how the courts are staffed and who makes the decisions. For the point about judicial discipline, I think perhaps that could be subsumed under #3 judicial immunity.
Huh... no court order restricting perjury? But then what's the point of taking the oath? SMH.
Lee, if you've seen other ways to evaluate states for their family court system, please forward to me. I'm curious.
And you should give the local reporting fellowship a shot! There's a salary for the year, and you'd be connected to ProPublica resources. If I could help with your application feel free to message me. You've got great depth of knowledge.
These numbers have not been verified, but I'm just experimenting with the data set from the Center for Judicial Excellence to try to draw out some insights.
Per-capita, these 5 states *might* be the highest for child deaths in the context of custody cases. The national average *might* be 3.23 child deaths per million people.
Top Five by Per‑Capita Rate
Arizona ~5.0
Colorado ~4.4
Michigan ~3.7
Florida ~3.6
Illinois / Ohio ~3.3
Another variable that can be considered is child deaths connected to custody disputes. According to the Center for Judicial Excellence, an NGO focused on the family courts, these are rough figures:
Alabama – 20; Arizona – 38; Arkansas – 6; California – 91; Colorado – 26; Connecticut – 7; Delaware – 4; Florida – 85; Georgia – 21; Hawaii – 2; Idaho – 13; Illinois – 42; Indiana – 22; Iowa – 5; Kansas – 6; Kentucky – 6; Louisiana – 14; Maine – 5; Maryland – 21; Massachusetts – 15; Michigan – 38; Minnesota – 11; Mississippi – 6; Missouri – 19; Montana – 7; Nebraska – 2; Nevada – 10; New Hampshire – 5; New Jersey – 19; New Mexico – 16; New York – 43; North Carolina – 21; Ohio – 39; Oklahoma – 21; Oregon – 22; Pennsylvania – 34; South Carolina – 22; Tennessee – 18; Texas – 95; Utah – 21; Vermont – 2; Virginia – 25; Washington – 21; Washington D.C. – 2; West Virginia – 3; Wisconsin – 17;