The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System cites the prevalence of the following four categories of child abuse during 2016 as:
NEGLECT OR DEPRIVATION OF NECESSITIES: A type of maltreatment that refers to the failure by the caregiver to provide needed, age-appropriate care although financially able to do so or offered financial or other means to do so. PHYSICAL ABUSE: Type of maltreatment that refers to physical acts that caused or could have caused physical injury to a child. SEXUAL ABUSE: A type of maltreatment that refers to the involvement of the child in sexual activity to provide sexual gratification or financial benefit to the perpetrator, including contacts for sexual purposes, molestation, statutory rape, prostitution, pornography, exposure, incest, or other sexually exploitative activities. PSYCHOLOGICAL OR EMOTIONAL MALTREATMENT: Acts or omissions—other than physical abuse or sexual abuse—that caused or could have caused—conduct, cognitive, affective, or other behavioral or mental disorders. Frequently occurs as verbal abuse or excessive demands on a child’s performance.
2016 Maltreatment statistics reported by the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children:
- In 2016, there are estimated 676,000 victims of child abuse and neglect.
- The national victim rate was 9.1 victims per 1,000 children in the population.
- Child Victims of Maltreatment by state, 2012-2016
- Children under 1 year of age, had the highest rate of victimization at 24.8 per 1,000 children of the same age
- American-Indian or Alaska Native children victimization rate was 14.2 per 1,000 children
- African-American children victimization rate was 13.9 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.
- For all victims younger than 1 year, alcohol and drug abuse increased the rates of abuse.
How many children die from abuse and neglect?
Child fatalities are the most tragic consequence of maltreatment. In 2016, 49 states reported 1,700 fatalities. Based on these data, a national estimate of 1,750 children died from abuse and neglect. Analyses of case-level fatality data indicates:
- The national rate of child fatality associated with maltreatment was 2.36 deaths per 100,000 children.
- Seventy percent of all child fatalities were younger than 3 years old.
- Boys had a higher child fatality rate than girls at 2.87 boys per 100,000 boys in the population. Girls had a child fatality rate of 2.11 per 100,000 girls in the population.
- The rate of African-American child fatalities (4.65 per 100,000 African-American children) is 2.2 times greater than the rate of White children (2.08 per 100,000 White children) and nearly 3 times greater than the rate of Hispanic children (1.58 per 100,000 Hispanic children).
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The most common form of child abuse is the result of neglect..
References
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau. (2018). Child maltreatment 2016. Available from https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/child-maltreatment.
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