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Chapter 4
Perpetrators
Child Maltreatment 2001

Perpetrators of child maltreatment are the persons responsible for a child's well-being, such as the parents or nonparental caretakers, who have abused or neglected the child. Caretakers typically include those persons who are responsible for the supervision of a child, e.g., relative, foster parent, and residential facility staff.

Based on case-specific data, perpetrators are described from two perspectives.¹ The first uses the perpetrator as the unit of analysis. A perpetrator was counted for each report and each child with whom he or she is associated. The second considers the maltreated child as the unit of analysis.

Characteristics of Perpetrators (Child File)

For 2001, 59.3 percent of the perpetrators were women and 40.7 percent were men.² Female perpetrators were typically younger than male perpetrators. Of female perpetrators, 42.3 percent were less than 30 years of age compared to 31.9 percent of male perpetrators (figure 4-1). The median age of perpetrators was 31 years for women and 34 years for men.

A "Parent" accounted for 80.9 percent of perpetrators.³ A "Nonparent" accounted for 15.9 percent and "Unknown or Missing" accounted for 3.2 percent of perpetrators (figure 4-2).⁴

For almost every type of perpetrator, neglect was the most common type of maltreatment (figure 4-3). Almost one-third of perpetrators with a relationship of "Other Relative" were associated with sexual abuse.⁵

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Victims in Relation to Their Perpetrators (Child File)

In order to establish whether perpetrators acted alone or in concert with others, the data were examined from the perspective of the victim. In these analyses new categories of relationship were constructed —namely, "Mother Only," "Father Only," "Mother and Father," and other relationship combinations.⁶

More than 10 percent (11.9%) of child victims were maltreated by a nonparental perpetrator who acted alone. Eighty-four percent of child victims were maltreated by one or more parents. Almost half of child victims (40.5%) were maltreated by a "Mother Only," and a fifth of victims (19.3%) were maltreated by a "Mother and Father" (figure 4-4). These percentages were similar to those in 2000.

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Supplementary Tables

The following pages contain the tables referenced in Chapter 4. Unless otherwise explained, a blank indicates that the State did not submit usable data, and a number in bold indicates either a total or an estimate.

Chapter Four: Figures and Tables

Notes

¹ Two criteria were used in order to determine whether to include a State's perpetrator data in each analysis. For analyses on relationship, States were excluded if fewer than 25 percent of perpetrators had relationship data or fewer than 50 percent of perpetrators were coded as "parent." When these tests were applied, several States were excluded from relationship analyses. Back
² Supporting data are provided in supplementary table 4-1, which is located at the end of this chapter. Back
³ See supplementary table 4-2. Back
⁴ Nonparent includes "Other Relative," "Foster Parent," "Residential Facility Staff," "Child Day Care Provider," "Unmarried Partner of Parent," "Legal Guardian," and "Other." Back
⁵ See supplementary table 4-3. Back
⁶ In this report, the terms "Mother" and "Father" include biological parent, adoptive parent, and stepparent. These terms are generated from codes indicating the perpetrator's sex (male or female) and relationship to the child (parent). back

 

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