Health and Safety - Child Abuse And Neglect

It is impossible to determine how many children suffer abuse. All observers can do is count the number of reported cases—which include only those known to public authorities—or they can survey families, in which case parents may deny or downplay abuse. As a result, most estimates of child abuse are generally considered low. The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) and its annual report, Child Maltreatment, is the primary source of national information on abused and neglected children that has been reported to state child protective services agencies.

In 2002 1.8 million referrals alleging child abuse or neglect of more than three million children were sent to state child protective services agencies. Approximately 896,000 children were found to be victims of child maltreatment. Reports most often came from professional

FIGURE 5.4

sources, such as educators, the legal system, social service employees, and medical professionals, and less often from nonprofessional sources, such as relatives, friends, neighbors, parents, the victims themselves, and a small percentage of perpetrators. (See Figure 5.4.)

In 2002 60.5% of reported victims suffered neglect; 18.6% were physically abused; 9.9% were sexually abused; and 6.5% were emotionally or psychologically maltreated. (Figure 5.5 shows victimization rates for each group per one thousand children.) The highest rate of victims was among children three years or younger (sixteen per one thousand), followed by children four to seven years of age (13.7 per one thousand). (See Figure 5.6.) The rate of occurrence decreased as the child's age increased.

The most tragic result of child maltreatment is death. In 2002 an estimated fourteen hundred children died as a result of abuse or neglect. Children in the youngest age groups were most likely to die of maltreatment; three-quarters of the children who died were three years old or younger.

FIGURE 5.5

The largest group of abusers were mothers acting alone (40.3%) followed by fathers acting alone (19.1%). (See Figure 5.7.) Abuse of children was overwhelmingly perpetrated by parents; only 13% of perpetrators were not parents.