Some current data on child abuse (US):
According to "
Child Maltreatment 2004" (Children's Bureau/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), the most recent report of data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), approximately
872,000 children were found to be victims of child abuse or neglect in calendar year 2004. Of this number,
62.4 percent suffered neglect,
17.5 percent were physically abused,
9.7 percent were
sexually abused,
7 percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated, and
2.1 were medically neglected. In addition, 14.5 percent of victims experienced "other" types of maltreatment such as "abandonment," "threats of harm to the child," and "congenital drug addiction."
The largest percentage of perpetrators (
78.5 percent) were
parents, including birth parents, adoptive parents, and stepparents. Other relatives accounted for an additional 6.5 percent, residential staff for 0 .2 percent, and day care providers for 0.7 percent. Unmarried partners of parents accounted for 4.1 percent of perpetrators while foster parent accounted for 0.4 percent of perpetrators.
In terms of gender, 57.8 percent of child abuse and neglect perpetrators were females and 42.2 percent were males. For the most part, female perpetrators were younger than male perpetrators; of the women who were perpetrators, 44.4 percent of females were younger than 30 years of age as compared to 34.1 percent of males.
Note: The data has limitations. Government statistics are based on cases that were reported to social service agencies, investigated by child protection workers, and had sufficient evidence to determine that a legal definition of "abuse" or "neglect" was met. A good number of cases are
underreported.
Link to official report:
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm04/index.htm
