Soundview Child Rapist Captured in New Orleans after Multi-State Manhunt

  Assemblyman Marcos A. Crespo, member of the Assembly Standing Committee on Cities, released the following statement on the successful manhunt and capture of the Soundview child rapist.

“The terrible news that a child, once again, had been a victim of a horrendous crime stunned New York City when it was reported. The crime involved the rape of the seven-year old child in Soundview, Bronx.

The depraved perpetrator of this case of child sexual abuse fled from New York and a diligent manhunt by law enforcement agencies has led to his capture in New Orleans, Louisiana.  I commend the New York City Police Department and other law enforcement agencies involved in finding this child abuser and bringing him to justice.

It is my hope that our court system will use its full authority and sentence this derived individual to the maximum sentence allowed by law.

Unfortunately, cases of child abuse are too common in our nation, our State and our city.  According to groups working to prevent child abuse and neglect, from 1990 to 2010, substantiated cases of sexual abuse dropped from 23 per 10,000 children under 18 to 8.6 per 10,000 sexual abuses by an adult who was not a family member from 1992 to 2010. The majority of sexual abuse cases involve family members or acquaintances rather than strangers, studies have found.

I am thankful that to the hard work of our law enforcement agencies because their diligent work will send a clear message that if a crime against a child is committed, law enforcement will find you and bring you to justice.

Child abuse and neglect is an issue that needs more attention because the incidents of abuse show our children are being victimized in their own homes.

In New York State in 2010, 114 children died as a result of abuse or neglect, a fatality rate of 2.58 per 100,000 children, according to Child Maltreatment 2010. This is a 4.4 percent increase from 109 fatalities that occurred in 2009.

In 2010, child sexual abuse comprised 3.5% of the 79,668 cases of substantiated investigations into child abuse and neglect in New York State.

Child neglect continues to comprise the largest portion of cases of child maltreatment. According to the federal report Child Maltreatment 2010, figures for the country and for New York State are as follows:

	United States	New York State
Neglect	78.3%	66.6%
Physical Abuse	17.6%	11.4%
Sexual Abuse	9.2%	3.5%
Psychological Maltreatment	8.1%	.9%
Medical Neglect	2.4%	5.7%
Other	10.3%	32.0%

In 2010, according to the NYS Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (the Child Abuse Reporting Hotline) — 170,224 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, involving 223,340 children were received.”