Kids are safer with Dads

                       

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release

Monday 9th February 2009

Kids are safer with Dads

The Australian Institute of Criminology has reviewed the most recent child homicide statistics from its National Homicide Monitoring Program. The new data shows that during 2006-07, eleven child homicides were perpetrated by a mother, while five perpetrators were fathers, and another five were de-facto partners of the mother who lived with the child. Importantly, no child victims were killed by a complete stranger during this period.

Greg Andresen, spokesman for radio program Dads on the Air said, “Stories are appearing regularly in the media inferring that the safety of children is put at risk when the courts award sole custody to fathers or when shared custody is given to both parents. These figures show that, in terms of child homicides, this simply isn’t the case. Children are three times safer when they are with their fathers than when they are with other custodians.”

Dads in Distress co-ordinator for Western Sydney, Phil York said, “Whenever a child is killed, it is a tragic, devastating, incomprehensible event. We need to examine the reasons why parents sometimes kill their children: their mental health issues and the social pressures that might lead them to commit this most horrific of acts. The real tragedy is that our health and social services aren’t finding these parents and helping them before it’s too late.”

Media contacts:

Greg Andresen    greg@dadsontheair.net                      0403 813 925

Phil York            didswesternsydney@yahoo.com.au   0401 426 101