Letter from the Associate Commissioner:
Child Maltreatment 2003
Administration for Children and Families |
Letter from the Associate Commissioner:
I am pleased to present a copy of Child Maltreatment 2003. This fourteenth annual publication of data collected via the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) is for Federal fiscal year 2003. It reflects our commitment to provide the most complete national information about child maltreatment known to the States' child protective services (CPS) agencies. Key findings in this report include the following.
- During 2003, an estimated 906,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect.
- An estimated 2.9 million referrals—at a rate of 39.1 referrals per 1,000 children—of abuse or neglect concerning approximately 5.5 million children were received by CPS agencies. More than two-thirds of those referrals were accepted for investigation or assessment.
- Nationally, 63.2 percent of child victims experienced neglect (including medical neglect), 18.9 percent were physically abused, 9.9 percent were sexually abused, and 4.9 percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated.
- For 2003, a nationally estimated 1,500 children died of abuse or neglect—a rate of 2.00 children per 100,000 in the national population, which is comparable to the rate of 1.98 children per 100,000 in the national population for 2002.
Included in this report are national- and State-level findings about perpetrators of maltreatment, CPS workforce workload, and preventive and postinvestigation services.
I hope that you find this report to be a useful reference. The document will be posted on the Web site of the Administration for Children and Families at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm#can. For additional copies of the report and other information about child maltreatment, contact the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information at 1-800-394-3366, or http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov.
Sincerely, Susan Orr, Ph.D. |
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