Recent years have seen an increase in child torture due to certain Utah cases

Salt Lake City, Utah – Investigators claim that the number of youngsters being tortured has increased recently, but they do not know why.

Child activists are concerned about this expanding issue in Utah and beyond. Furthermore, a lot of these cases have uncanny similarities to two well-known Utah cases.

Although the nation has been outraged by the death of Gavin Peterson in West Haven and the abuse and torture of Ruby Franke’s children, child activists claim that incidents similar to theirs have become much more common in recent years nationwide.

More than a year has passed since Franke’s children were saved from months of torture, and their mother and convicted child abuser Jodi Hildebrandt were taken into custody.

Since then, how have the children been doing?

According to their father, Kevin Franke, “I will say that each one of them is doing well, progressing, healing, and, in many ways, thriving in their own ways.”

Although he is not permitted to discuss his children’s progress, it is clear that they are still attempting to come to terms with the tragedy they have experienced.

“I firmly believe that there are some things worse than death, especially based on my conversations and interactions with my own children following those devastating events. Torture would undoubtedly fall under that category, in my opinion. It’s horrifying that it’s deliberately delaying and prolonging death’s arrival,” he remarked.

Kevin Franke claimed to have learnt every tactic used by suspected abusers to conceal their crimes from police since his wife’s incarceration. He’s also discovering that this is a far more serious issue than most people think.

“I believe this kind of child abuse is far more common than people realize, than the average person realizes,” he stated. This kind of abuse, in my opinion, occurs in every city and neighborhood.

According to the data, Kevin Franke is correct that there has been an increase in child torture instances, particularly since 2020.

“My team has had 12 in such a short time, which tells us something is going on,” says Dr. Antoinette Laskey, medical director of child abuse at Primary Children’s Hospital.

As the center’s director, she receives abuse cases from all over the area. Cases like this were much less common prior to 2020, she added.

After nearly 25 years in the field, Laskey stated, “I can say that in the first 10 to 15 years of my career, I only had, maybe, two cases.” Although they were quite similar to the ones we are currently witnessing, the numbers have simply increased at an inconceivable rate in the last five years.

According to her, no one seemed to understand why this spike is occurring across the country.

In 2021, the CDC reported that 1,820 children nationwide lost their lives as a result of abuse and neglect. In 2022, that figure increased to 1,990, according to the U.S. Department of Health.

Laskey finds it particularly concerning that many of the children in these situations experienced the same kind of abuse as the Franke children and that these cases are so comparable.

According to Laskey, “they all have remarkably similar characteristics, such as confinement in small areas like closets or dog crates, or confinement with ropes or handcuffs.” Starvation, often to the point of death, is a feature of the great majority of them.

They also include rigorous isolation, heavy forced exercise, severe psychological harm, and whipping.

“Removing kids from school and preventing them from leaving the house.” Some of the neighbors are literally unaware that this child even exists,” she remarked.

Although he was successful in getting Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt convicted, Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke stated that he did not think their sentences were severe enough.

“This isn’t parenting,” he replied. We must all work to safeguard the children in our communities because this is torture.

In order to give the law much more authority when it comes to penalizing those found guilty of torturing children, Clarke has been working on a new bill.

Kevin Franke, meantime, stated that Utahns would need to reconsider their child welfare laws since he feels that they provide abusive parents an excessive amount of authority.