TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A total of 130 children were fatally abused in Florida in 2011, a decrease from the previous year.
A new state report released Friday shows that the number of verified child abuse or neglect deaths has continued to drop the last few years. There were 200 verified deaths in 2009 and 155 deaths last year.
Most of the children who died were under the age of five.
A state committee that reviewed nearly all of the verified deaths concluded that the most of the children died from neglect, with 32 children dying from drowning and 30 children dying as a result of unsafe sleeping practices that can lead to suffocation.
The state review concluded that most of the children who died from abuse had been previously abused.
