(The Center Square) — The Senate Select Committee on Women and Children heard from various department representatives concerning child sexual abuse investigation procedures, juvenile sex tracking cases and the increase in arrests and convictions based on new programs set in place throughout the state.
According to the National Children’s Alliance, Louisiana had 5,268 alleged offenders in 2023, and 1,635 of those offenders were parents of the children. The total number of children served was 6,144. Of those, 4,105 were for reported cases of sexual abuse. 1,383 children were between 0-6 years old, 2,378 were ages 7-12, and 2,381 were 13-18.
The fight has been ongoing to address the rising issue of sexual abuse cases and trafficking cases concerning children. Louisiana established a task force in 2024 to investigate child abuse throughout the state.
In 2023, parishes with the highest number of reported trafficking for youth victims were East Baton Rouge (13%), 10% unknown, Caddo (9%), Orleans (9%) and Jefferson (5%). There were 1,743 trafficked cases served in 2023, with 83% of those being victims aged 17 and under. 86% of those served were sex trafficking cases.
Senate members raised concerns about the lack of progress seen with the funding allocated to these programs that are set in place.
“We are dedicating money, and it just might not all be going where it should be going,” said Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek.
Last year, a major issue was the time that passed before anything was done for those who were in sexual abuse situations, including children left in homes for extended time after sexual abuse was reported. Sen. Katrina Andrews, D-Monroe, noted a case where a child had reported to three different sheriffs’ departments on a trafficking issue, and the child remained in a home for two or three years.
One new implementation the Department of Family Services is working on is having a member of their team present with law enforcement at the forensic interviews conducted.
New procedures from the Louisiana State Police show they are working directly with the Office of Juvenile Justice on their intake process to better determine mental health cases, sexual abuse cases, and family background. They’ve also started using rape kits.
The Senate questioned state police representatives and family services on what they are doing differently with procedures and investigations to ensure these cases are falling through the cracks as they are reported.
“These cases touch all of our hearts. We basically have been wringing our hands at how to be better at protecting the children from the evil that we have seen,” Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, said.
A recent procedure implementation was rape kits to better help track sexual abuse cases and make convictions of abusers in the state. While the rape kits are going to be a tremendous help in the future, according to Captain Belinda Murphy, state police, she does feel it is still too early on to make determinations.
Murphy estimated that next year they could start to see the benefits of tracking the rape kits as data collects. The investigation data will better determine where the cases are happening, who is involved in these cases, and the prosecutions happening from the cases.
Arrests and convictions are going up, according to Murphy, as laws have changed over the last few years to prevent human trafficking and sexual abuse. State police had 31 human trafficking arrests for 2024, but she could not say whether they were convicted or not.
“We [state police] do everything that we humanly can, possibly can, to make sure that the child is removed from a dangerous space. We speak to judges, we get on the phone as soon as we know this is going on and the child is in the home whether it be a caretaker or a parental,” noted Murphy.
Murphy shared that if victims of sexual abuse need to reach the state police department, they can go to their website to file a complaint or see specific department numbers to call. According to Murphy, the state police is not a first-reporting agency. If someone calls 911, it goes to their local sheriff’s office and not the state. The victim then files a report locally.
While procedures in place are being followed, according to the state police, Murphy said there are not enough personnel staffed.
“People don’t wanna be the police anymore. This is a very thankless job,” Murphy said.
Places to house juvenile victims, like foster homes, would better help children in sexual abuse situations. As of present, the state police has no way to contact foster homes.
In 2023, family services received 856 intake calls.
Dr. Rebecca Hook, the interim assistant secretary of child welfare, shared that family services can determine if the child is in need of care and if allegations are justified and valid. They conduct their own separate investigations but are still in conjunction with local law enforcement.
When the family services receives complaints, the human trafficking complaints get routed to the state police, and the sexual abuse cases go directly to local law enforcement agencies. As of policy in place now, if a sexual abuse report is made to family services, it is a criminal offense and should be reported to law enforcement.
While the state police and family services investigates every report, representatives noted that sometimes these allegations do not turn out viable. Cases come up where children have been coached or coerced into making false reports.
As of now, the state police is unable to provide overall statistics for each parish on how many convictions were made for sex trafficking or sexual abuse offenders.
