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| << Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 >> |
Each State bases its own definitions of child abuse and neglect based on the standards set by Federal and State laws. The child protective services (CPS) units within each State respond to the safety needs of children who are alleged to have been maltreated based on those State definitions. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), (42 U.S.C.A. §5106g), as amended by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003, defines child abuse and neglect as:
National child maltreatment estimates for Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2007 are based on child populations for the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. During FFY 2007:
This chapter provides in-depth information about the characteristics of children found to be abused or neglected during FFY 2007. This chapter also discusses the 5-year trend of children who received investigations or assessments and the 5-year trend of victimization rates.
Based on data from 50 States, the rate of children who were subjects of a screened-in referral (a report) and who subsequently received an investigation or assessment was 47.2 per 1,000 children.2 State rates ranged from 8.4 to 127.4 per 1,000 children.
When applied to the national population for all 52 States, an estimated 3.5 million children received an investigation or assessment.3 The national rate of children who received an investigation or assessment rose from 46.3 during FFY 2003 to 48.3 in FFY 2005, but has been declining since 2005.4 The FFY 2006 rate was 47.9 and the FFY 2007 rate was 47.2 per 1,000 children (figure 3–1). The national estimate of children who received an investigation or assessment has declined from 3.6 million during 2006 to 3.5 million during 2007.
Based on data from 50 States, nearly one-quarter (22.5%) of children who received an investigation or assessment were found to have been maltreated.5 This compares to 25.2 percent of children who were found to have been maltreated during FFY 2006. The number of reported victims of maltreatment from the 50 States was 753,357.6 The victimization rate for FFY 2007 was 10.6 per 1,000 in the population.7 State rates of victimization ranged from 1.5 to 26.3 per 1,000 children. Based on the victimization rate of 10.6 per 1,000 in the population, an estimated 794,000 children were victims of maltreatment during FFY 2007.8
Between FFY 2003 and FFY 2006, the rate of victimization fluctuated between 12.2 and 12.0 per 1,000 children. Between FFY 2006 and FFY 2007, the rate of victimization dropped from 12.1 to 10.6 per 1,000 children, which is a change of 12 percent. This decrease can be attributed to several factors including the increase in children who received an “other” disposition, the decrease in the percentage of children who received a substantiated or indicated disposition, and the decrease in the number of children who received an investigation or assessment. It is not possible to tell whether this year’s decrease indicates a trend until more data are collected.
Approximately three-quarters of victims (75.4%) had no history of prior victimization.9 Information regarding first-time victims is a Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) measure. The Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Program (CBCAP) reports this PART measure to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) each year as an average of all States. Individual State data are not reported to OMB.
Nearly 32 percent (31.9%) of all victims of maltreatment were younger than 4 years old (figure 3–2). An additional 23.8 percent were in the age group 4–7 years and 19.0 percent were in the age group 8–11 years.10 Victimization was split almost evenly between the sexes; 48.2 percent of victims were boys and 51.5 percent of the victims were girls. The sex of 0.3 percent of child victims was unknown.
The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization. The rate of child victimization for boys in the age group of birth to 1 year was 22.2 per 1,000 male children of the same age group (figure 3–3). The child victimization rate for girls in the age group of birth to 1 year was 21.5 per 1,000 female children of the same age group. The victimization rate for children in the age group of 4–7 years was 11.4 per 1,000 for boys and 11.6 per 1,000 for girls. The victimization rate for children in the age group of 16–17 was 5.4 per 1,000 children in the same age group. Overall, the victimization rates decreased for older age groups.
African-American children, American Indian or Alaska Native children, and children of multiple races had the highest rates of victimization at 16.7, 14.2, and 14.0 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively. Hispanic children and White children had rates of 10.3 and 9.1 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively. Asian children had the lowest rate of 2.4 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.11 Nearly one-half of all victims were White (46.1%), one-fifth (21.7%) were African-American, and one-fifth (20.8%) were Hispanic.
During FFY 2007, 59.0 percent of victims experienced neglect, 10.8 percent were physically abused, 7.6 percent were sexually abused, 4.2 percent were psychologically maltreated, less than 1 percent were medically neglected, and 13.1 percent were victims of multiple maltreatments (figure 3–4).12 In addition, 4.2 percent of victims experienced such "other" types of maltreatment as "abandonment," "threats of harm to the child," or "congenital drug addiction." States may code any condition that does not fall into one of the main categories—physical abuse, neglect, medical neglect, sexual abuse, and psychological or emotional maltreatment—as "other."
The data for victims of specific types of maltreatment were analyzed in terms of report sources,
race, and age group. Of victims of physical abuse, 25.4 percent were reported by teachers, 23.9
percent were reported by police officers or lawyers, and 13.3 percent were reported by medical
staff.13 Police officers or lawyers accounted for the largest report source percentage of neglect victims (28.1%) and sexual abuse victims (29.4%). "Other" and unknown reporters are not
classified as either professional or nonprofessional reporters. They were responsible for 11.5
percent of all reports. Overall, 67.5 percent of victims were reported by professionals and 20.9
percent were reported by nonprofessionals.
When looking at the maltreatment types by race, some disproportionality issues become apparent. Of the victims of all maltreatments, 45.4 percent were White, but only 36.4 percent of medical neglect victims were White. African-Americans comprised 21.4 percent of all victims, but 35.3 percent of medical neglect victims.14 Of the sexual abuse victims, more than one-half (51.5%) were White, compared with 45.4 percent of all victims who were White.
Analyzing the data by age groups reveals that of the victims who were medically neglected, 20.4 percent were younger than 1 year old (figure 3–5). Victims who were younger than 1 year old comprised 12.0 percent of all maltreatment victims.
Of the victims who were sexually abused, 35.2 percent were in the age group 12–15 years, 23.8 percent were in the age group 8–11 years, and 23.3 percent were in the age group 4–7 years.15
Data are incomplete for the living arrangement of victims. Some States that reported data were excluded from the analysis if the State reported more than 50 percent of the data as unknown or missing. Less than one-half of the States (22) reported usable data for this field. It is hoped that the reporting of this data element will improve in the coming years.16
In the 22 States that reported living arrangement data, approximately 26 percent (25.5%) of victims were living with a single mother. Nearly 20 percent (19.1%) of victims were living with married parents, while approximately 21 percent of victims (20.9%) were living with both parents, but the marital status was unknown.
Children who were reported with any of the following risk factors were considered as having a disability: Mental retardation, emotional disturbance, visual or hearing impairment, learning disability, physical disability, behavioral problems, or another medical problem. In general, children with such risk factors are undercounted, as not every child receives a clinical diagnostic assessment from CPS agency staff. Slightly more than 8 percent (8.1%) of victims had a reported disability. Approximately 3 percent (3.1%) of victims had behavior problems, another 3.1 percent had some other medical condition, and 1.9 percent of victims were emotionally disturbed. A victim could have been reported with more than one type of disability.17
The data were examined to determine if the child had a caregiver risk factor of domestic violence, meaning the caregiver perpetrated or was the victim of domestic violence in the child's home environment. For the 34 States that reported this data element, 14.9 percent of victims and 2.6 percent of nonvictims had a caregiver risk factor of domestic violence.18
Victim data were analyzed by relationship to their perpetrators. Nearly 39 percent (38.7%) of victims were maltreated by their mother acting alone (figure 3–6). Nearly 18 percent (17.9%) of victims were maltreated by their father acting alone. Nearly 17 percent (16.8%) were maltreated by both parents.19
For many victims, the efforts of the CPS system have not been successful in preventing subsequent victimization. Through the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSR), the Children's Bureau has established the current national standard for the absence of maltreatment recurrence as 94.6 percent, defined as:
"Absence of Maltreatment Recurrence. Of all children who were victims of substantiated or indicated abuse or neglect during the first 6 months of the reporting year, what percent did not experience another incident of substantiated or indicated abuse or neglect within a 6-month period?"20
The number of States in compliance with this standard has increased from 17 States for FFY 2004 to 24 States for FFY 2007.21 The national average percent—the average percentage of all States that is reported to the Office of Management and Budget—increased from 91.9 during FFY 2004 to 93.2 for FFY 2007.
Through the CFSR, the Children's Bureau established a national standard for the absence of maltreatment in foster care as 99.68 percent, defined as:
"Absence of Maltreatment in Foster Care. Of all children in foster care during the reporting period, what percent were not victims of a substantiated or indicated maltreatment by foster parents or facility staff members?"22
The number of States in compliance has increased from 16 States that met this standard for FFY 2004 to 19 States for FFY 2007.23 During FFY 2007, seven States were unable to provide the data needed to compute this measure using the Child File. The national average percent decreased from 99.53 during FFY 2004 to 99.50 during FFY 2007.
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. Additional information regarding methodologies that were used to create the tables is provided below.
Table 3-1
Table 3-2
Table 3-3
Table 3-4
Table 3-5
Table 3-6
Table 3-7
Table 3-8
Table 3-9
Table 3-10
Table 3-11
Table 3-12
Table 3-13
Table 3-14
Only those States that reported both victim and nonvictim caregiver risk factors were included in this analysis.
Table 3-15
Table 3-16
Table 3-17
Footnotes
1 This chapter is primarily about child victims, but includes some information about nonvictims and, therefore, is titled "Children." back
2 Supporting data are provided in table 3–1, which is located at the end of this chapter. The child disposition rate was
computed by dividing the total count of children who received an investigation (3,359,295) by the child population for
the 50 States that reported these data (71,099,024) and multiplying by 1,000. back
3 A national estimate of 3,535,501 (rounded to 3.5 million) children who were the subjects of an investigation was calculated
by multiplying the child investigation rate (47.2) by the national child population for all 52 States (74,904,677)
and dividing by 1,000. back
4 See table 3–2. back
5 The percentage of children who were determined to have been abused or neglected is the total number of victims with
substantiated, indicated, or alternative response victim dispositions. back
6 See table 3–3. A victim was counted once for each report of maltreatment, and therefore, this number is duplicated.
Counting each victim only once, regardless of the number of maltreatment reports, gives an unduplicated count of
683,549. This unduplicated victim count is for 48 States, as the States that reported data via the Summary Data Component
(SDC) can not report unduplicated counts. back
7 The victimization rate was computed by dividing the number of total victims (753,357) by the child population for the
50 States that reported these data (71,099,024) and multiplying by 1,000. back
8 See table 3–4. A national estimate of 794,000 child victims was calculated by multiplying the victimization rate (10.6)
by the national population (74,904,677), dividing by 1,000, and rounding to the nearest 1,000. back
9 See table 3–5. These are unduplicated victims. back
10 See table 3–6. back
11 See table 3–7. back
12 See table 3–8. back
13 See table 3–9. back
14 See table 3–10. back
15 See table 3–11. back
16 See table 3–12. back
17 See table 3-13. back
18 See table 3-14. back
19 See table 3-15. back
20 The Data Measures, Data Composites, and National Standards to be Used in the Child and Family Services Reviews,
71 Fed. Reg. 109, 32973 (June 7, 2007). back
21 See table 3–16. back
22 The Data Measures, Data Composites, and National Standards to be Used in the Child and Family Services Reviews,
71 Fed. Reg. 109, 32973 (June 7, 2007). back
23 See table 3–17. back
| << Chapter 2 | Chapter 4 >> |
