Who Are the Victims?

Of those children documented as abused in 2004, approximately 62 percent experienced neglect, 18 percent were physically abused, 10 percent were sexually abused, and 7 percent were emotionally or psychologically abused. In addition, more than 14 percent of victims experienced other types of maltreatment such as abandonment, threats of harm, or congenital drug addiction. Children from birth through age 3 experienced the highest rate of victimization at 16.1 per 1,000 children in the same age group. In general, rates of victimization were inversely related to the age of the child (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2005).

Of the roughly 3.5 million crimes committed against a family member between 1998 and 2002, 11 percent were crimes against a son or daughter age 12 or older. Of these victimizations, 68 percent and 18 percent were simple and aggravated assaults, respectively. In addition, the majority of children victimized by a parent were female (63 percent) and white (78 percent). In 50 percent of the cases in which children were victimized by a parent, the victims were under the age of 18, 27 percent were between the ages of 18 and 24, and 13.6 percent were between the ages of 25 and 34 (Durose et al., 2005). In all, nearly 84 percent of child victims were abused by a parent acting alone or with another person; 39 percent by mothers acting alone.