Chapter 3
Victims
Child Maltreatment 2003
Child protective services (CPS) agencies respond to the needs of children who are alleged to have been maltreated and ensure that they remain safe. The rate of children who received a disposition by CPS agencies was 45.9 per 1,000 children in the national population.1 This yields an estimate of 3,353,000 children who received investigations or assessments during 2003.
An estimated 906,000 children were found to be victims, which was approximately 31.7 percent of all children who received an investigation or assessment. A child was counted each time he or she was found to be a victim of maltreatment.2 The national rate of victimization was 12.4 per 1,000 children; the rates by individual State are illustrated in figure 3-1.
The rate of all children who received an investigation or assessment increased from 36.1 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 45.9 per 1,000 children in 2003, which is a 27.1 percent increase (figure 3-2). The rate of victimization decreased from 13.4 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 12.4 per 1,000 children in 2003, which is a 7.5 percent decrease.3
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Types of Maltreatment
During 2003, 60.9 percent of victims experienced neglect, 18.9 percent were physically abused, 9.9 percent were sexually abused, 4.9 percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated, and 2.3 percent were medically neglected.4 In addition, 16.9 percent of victims experienced such "other" types of maltreatment as "abandonment," "threats of harm to the child," and "congenital drug addiction." States may code any maltreatment type that does not fall into one of the main categories—physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and psychological or emotional maltreatment—as "other." These maltreatment type percentages total more than 100 percent because children who were victims of more than one type of maltreatment were counted for each maltreatment.
Figure 3-3 illustrates that the rates of victimization by type of maltreatment have fluctuated slightly from year to year.5 For 2003, the rates of neglect and other abuse increased.
There are distinct patterns of maltreatment associated with different reporters of certain types of maltreatment. More than 40 percent of physical abuse victims were reported to CPS by either educational personnel (21.8%) or legal and justice personnel (21.5%).6 Legal and justice personnel (including law enforcement, correctional facility staff, and court staff) reported 25.7 percent of neglect victims, 25.6 percent of sexual abuse victims, and 29.9 percent of psychological maltreatment victims. Medical personnel reported 26.4 percent of medical neglect victims.
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Sex and Age of Victims
For 2003, 48.3 percent of child victims were boys, and 51.7 percent of the victims were girls.7 The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization. The rate of child victimization of the age group of birth to 3 years was 16.4 per 1,000 children of the same age group. The victimization rate of children in the age group of 4-7 years was 13.8 per 1,000 children in the same age group.8 Overall, the rate of victimization was inversely related to the age of the child (figure 3-4).
The youngest children accounted for the largest percentage of victims. Children younger than 1-year-old accounted for 9.8 percent of victims.9
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Race and Ethnicity of Victims
Pacific Islander children, American Indian or Alaska Native children, and African-American children had the highest rates of victimization at 21.4, 21.3, and 20.4 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively. White children and Hispanic children had rates of approximately 11.0 and 9.9 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively. Asian children had the lowest rate of 2.7 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.10
One-half of all victims were White (53.6%); one-quarter (25.5%) were African-American; and one-tenth (11.5%) were Hispanic (figure 3-5). For most racial categories, the largest percentage of victims suffered from neglect.11
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Reported Disability of Victims
Child victims who were reported with a disability accounted for 6.5 percent of all victims in the 34 States that reported these data. Children with the following risk factors were considered as having a disability: mental retardation, emotional disturbance, visual impairment, learning disability, physical disability, behavioral problems, or another medical problem. In general, children with such conditions are undercounted as not every child receives a clinical diagnostic assessment by CPS.12
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Perpetrators of Maltreatment
More than 80 percent (83.9%) of victims were abused by at least one parent. Approximately two-fifths (40.8%) of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone; another 18.8 percent were maltreated by their fathers acting alone; 16.9 percent were abused by both parents.13 Victims abused by nonparental perpetrators accounted for 13.4 percent of the total (figure 3-6).
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Factors Influencing the Determination that a Child is a Victim of Maltreatment
The determination as to whether or not a child is considered a victim of maltreatment is made during a CPS investigation. A multivariate analysis was conducted to examine what factors and characteristics of children influence this determination. This analysis was possible because the Child File format incorporates child characteristics—such as maltreatment type—for children who were victims and children who were not.
The basic hypothesis explored in this analysis is that some child characteristics or circumstances place children at greater risk for being identified as victims during the investigation process. The odds ratio analyses indicate the likelihood of different groups of children to be found to be victims of maltreatment by the CPS agency. Highlights of the findings are listed below.
- Children who have been identified as victims in the past were 60 percent more likely to be determined to be maltreated compared to children who were not victimized previously.14
- Children with allegations of multiple types of maltreatment were 203 percent more likely to be determined to be maltreated than were children with allegations of physical abuse. Children with allegations of sexual abuse were about 48 percent more likely to be considered victims than children with allegations of physical abuse.
- Findings of victimization were inversely related to the age of a child. Children who were younger than 4 years old were most likely to be determined to be maltreated compared to all other age groups.
- American Indian or Alaska Native children were 29 percent more likely to be determined victims than White children. This result indicates that even though fewer children of American Indian or Alaska Native decent were determined to be maltreated, of those who were reported, a high percentage were determined to be maltreated.
- Children who were reported by educational personnel were 131 percent more likely to be determined to be maltreated as children reported by social services and mental health personnel.15
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Child and Family Services Reviews: Maltreatment in Foster Care
Through the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR), the Children's Bureau established a national standard for the incidence of child abuse or neglect in foster care as:
A State meets the national standard for this indicator if, of all children in foster care in the State during the period under review, the percentage of children who were the subject of substantiated or indicated maltreatment by a foster parent or facility staff is 0.57% or less.16
Analysis of NCANDS CFSR data indicates that States have improved in meeting this standard as the percentage of States in compliance has increased from 57.14 percent for 2000 to 76.32 percent for 2003; this is an improvement of 33.6 percent.17
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Child and Family Services Reviews: Recurrence of Maltreatment
For many children who experience repeat maltreatment, the efforts of the CPS system have not been successful in preventing subsequent victimization. Through the CFSR, the Children's Bureau established the national standard for recurrence of maltreatment as:
A State meets the national standard for this indicator if, of all children who were victims of substantiated or indicated child abuse and/or neglect during the first 6 months of the period under review, 6.1% or fewer children had another substantiated or indicated report within 6 months.18
An analysis of CFSR data indicates that States have improved in meeting this standard as the percentage of reporting States in compliance has increased from 29.4 percent for 2000 to 38.6 percent for 2003, an improvement of 31.3 percent.19
Twenty-three States provided sufficient data to support an analysis of the factors that influence the likelihood of recurrence.20 In this analysis, recurrence is defined as a second substantiated or indicated maltreatment occurring within a 6-month period (183 days). The major results of the analysis are summarized below.
- Child victims who were reported with a disability were 51 percent more likely to experience recurrence than children without a disability.
- In comparison to children who experienced physical abuse, children who were neglected were 31 percent more likely to experience recurrence.
- Children who received postinvestigation services were 20 percent more likely to be found to be maltreated again compared to children who did not.
- Children who had been removed from their home were 15 percent more likely to experience abuse and neglect again than children who remained with their families.
- The youngest children (from birth through age 3) were the most likely to experience a recurrence of maltreatment.
- Compared to White children, Asian-Pacific Islanders were 33 percent less likely to experience recurrence. African-American children were 22 percent less likely to experience recurrence than White children.
- Children reported by "other" or unknown sources, which for the most part were nonprofessionals, were 29 percent more likely to experience recurrence than children reported by social services or mental health personnel. Children reported by educational personnel were 25 percent more likely to experience abuse or neglect again than children reported by social services or mental health personnel.
- Children for whom the perpetrator was not a parent were 21 percent less likely to experience recurrence than children who were abused by their mother.
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Tables
The following pages contain the tables referenced in Chapter 3. Unless otherwise explained, a blank indicates that the State did not submit usable data. Specific information about State submissions can be found in Appendix D.
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Table Notes
Additional information regarding methodologies that were used to create the tables is provided below.
Table 3-1
- The child disposition rate was computed by dividing the total count of children who were the subjects of an investigation or assessment (2,856,284) by the child population for the 44 States that reported this data (62,245,444) and multiplying by 1,000.
- Maryland reported a total of 15,843 substantiated and indicated maltreatment victims but counts are excluded from this table due to incomplete reporting for other dispositions.
- A national estimate of 3,353,000 children who were the subjects of an investigation or assessment was calculated by multiplying the child disposition rate (45.9) by the national child population (73,043,506) and dividing by 1,000. The total was rounded to the nearest 1,000.
Table 3-2
- The rate of victims for each State was based on their number of victims divided by the State's child population,multiplied by 1,000.
- A national estimate of 906,000 child victims was derived by multiplying the national rate of victimization of (12.4 child victims per 1,000 children in the population) by the national child population (73,043,506) and dividing by 1,000. The total was rounded to the nearest 1,000.
Table 3-3
- Victimization and investigation rates were computed by dividing the respective counts of children by the population and multiplying by 1,000.
- All totals are rounded to the nearest 100,000. If fewer than 51 States reported data, the total is an estimate based on multiplying the rate by the national child population for that year.
Table 3-4
- A child may have been the victim of more than one type of maltreatment, and therefore, the total percent may equal more than 100.
Table 3-5
- Rates were based on the number of victims divided by the child population in the reporting States and multiplied by 1,000. The population numbers for victims were based on data from reporting States for that year.
Table 3-7
- Rates were based on the number of boy or girl victims divided by the boy or girl population, respectively and multiplied by 1,000.
Table 3-10
- Victims of both Asian and Pacific Islander heritage were placed in the multiple race category.
- Counts associated with specific racial groups, (e.g. White only) do not include Hispanic children.
- Rates were computed by dividing the victim count by the population count and multiplying by 1,000.
- States for which more than 50 percent of records were missing race or ethnicity were excluded.
Table 3-11
- The category of neglect includes medical neglect.
- The category of multiple maltreatment types includes children who were the victims of any two or more types of maltreatment.
Table 3-13
- The categories "mother and other" and "father and other" include victims with one perpetrator identified as a mother or father and a second perpetrator identified as a nonparent.
- The category of nonparental perpetrator is defined as a perpetrator who was not identified as a parent and includes other relative, foster parent, residential facility staff, etc.
Table 3-14
- Logistic regression models associate the contribution of the categories within a factor to the outcome of interest (in this case victimization). Odds ratios indicate the likelihood, relative to the reference group, of the outcome occurring. Odds ratios greater than 1.00 indicate an increased likelihood of occurrence. (E.g., victims of prior abuse or neglect are 60 percent more likely to be victims of maltreatment than children with no history of prior abuse or neglect.) Odds ratios less than 1.00 indicate a decreased likelihood of occurrence. (E.g., children who are age 16 or older are 40 percent less likely to be victims than children age birth to 3.)
- The category of neglect includes medical neglect.
Table 3-16
- Reports within 24 hours of the initial report are not counted as recurrence. However, recurrence rates may be influenced by reports alleging the same maltreatment from additional sources if the State information system counts these as separate reports.
Table 3-17
- Proportional hazard models associate the contribution of the categories within a factor to the distribution of elapsed time to the event of interest (in this case recurrence). Risk ratios indicate the likelihood, relative to the reference group, of the outcome occurring. Risk ratios greater than 1.00 indicate and increased likelihood of occurrence (e.g., victims of prior abuse or neglect are 150 percent more likely to be victims of maltreatment than children with no history of prior abuse or neglect.). Risk ratios less than 1.00 indicate a decreased likelihood of recurrence (e.g., victims who are age 16 or older are 51 percent less likely than children age birth to 3 to suffer recurrence). The effect of child sex was tested, but found to make no contribution to the overall model.
- The category of neglect includes medical neglect.
Chapter Three: Tables and Figures
Notes
1 See table 3-1. back
2 See table 3-2. A national estimate of 803,000 unique victims was calculated by dividing the number of reported unique victims (634,049) by the child population for the reporting States (57,770,062) and multiplying by 1,000. The resulting rate (10.9) was multiplied by the national child population and divided by 1,000. back
3 See table 3-3. back
4 See table 3-4. back
5 See table 3-5. back
6 See table 3-6. back
7 See table 3-7. back
8 See table 3-8. back
9 See table 3-9. back
10 See table 3-10. back
11 See table 3-11. back
12 See table 3-12. back
13 See table 3-13. back
14 Includes substantiated, indicated, and alternative response victim. back
15 See table 3-14. back
16 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. National Standards for the Child and Family Service Reviews. Information Memorandum, ACYF-CB-IM-00-11. December 28, 2000. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Updated National Standards for the Child and Family Service Reviews and Guidance on Program Improvement Plans. Information Memorandum, ACYF-CB-IM-01-07. August 16, 2003. back
17 See table 3-15. back
18 See footnote 16. back
19 See table 3-16. back
20 See table 3-17. back
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