The problem of child abuse is real and growing.
The problem of child abuse is real, and growing. Last year,
alone, child protective service agencies investigated more than 2
million reports alleging maltreatment of more than 3 million
children. A 1998 report from the Department of Health and Human
Services documents:
The national rate of children who were reported was 44 per 1,000
children in the population.
Reports were received from professionals (52 percent), persons in
the families of the victims, including parents, other relatives, and
the victims themselves (18 percent), and friends and neighbors (9
percent). Twenty percent of reports were from other or anonymous
persons.
The national rate of victimization was 15 victims per 1,000
children in the population.
More than half (52 percent) of all victims suffered neglect,
while almost a quarter (24 percent) suffered physical abuse. About
12 percent of the victims were sexually abused. Children suffering
medical neglect and emotional maltreatment accounted for 3 percent
and 6 percent of all victims, respectively. A greater proportion of
neglect and medical neglect victims were children younger than 8
years old, while a greater proportion of physical, sexual, and
emotional abuse victims were children age 8 or older.
More than half (53 percent) of all victims were white. African
American children represented the second-largest group of victims
(27 percent). Hispanic children were about 11 percent of victims,
American Indian/Alaska Native children about 2 percent of victims
and Asian/Pacific Islander children about 1 percent of victims. The
percentages of African American and American Indian/Alaska Native
victims were disproportionately high, almost twice their
representation in the national child population.
An estimated 1,077 child maltreatment fatalities occurred in the
50 States and the District of Columbia in 1996. Based on data from a
subset of states, children younger than age 4 accounted for 76
percent of fatalities. |