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Chapter 3
Victims
Child Maltreatment 2004
Child protective services (CPS) agencies respond to the needs of children who are alleged to have been maltreated and ensure that they remain safe. Based on a rate of 47.8 per 1,000 children, an estimated 3,503,000 children received an investigation by CPS agencies in 2004.1 Based on a victim rate of 11.9 per 1,000 children, an estimated 872,000 children were found to be victims. A child was counted each time he or she was A child was counted each time he or she was the subject of a report. The count of child victims is based on the number of investigations that found the child to be a victim of one of more types of maltreatment. The count of victims is, therefore, a report-based count and is a "duplicated count."2 The victimization rates by individual State are illustrated in figure 3-1.
The rate of all children who received an investigation or assessment increased from 36.1 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 47.8 per 1,000 children in 2004, which is a 32.4 percent increase (figure 3-2). The rate of victimization decreased from 13.4 per 1,000 children in 1990 to 11.9 per 1,000 children in 2004, which is an 11.2 percent decrease.3 The highest rate of victimization occurred during 1993, when the rate was 15.3. There has been a 51.3 percent increase in the number of children who received an investigation from 1990 to 2004; there has been 1.4 percent increase in the number of child victims.
Based on data from 39 States, nearly three-quarters of the victims (74.3%) had no history of prior victimization.4 Information regarding first-time victims is a Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) measure. The Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention Program 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.
During 2004, 62.4 percent of victims experienced neglect, 17.5 percent were physically abused, 9.7 percent were sexually abused, 7.0 percent were psychologically maltreated, and 2.1 percent were medically neglected.5 In addition, 14.5 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." These maltreatment type percentages total more than 100 percent because children who were victims of more than one type of maltreatment were counted for each maltreatment.
Figure 3-3 illustrates that victimization rates by type of maltreatment have fluctuated only slightly during the last 5 years.6
Victims of specific types of maltreatment were analyzed in terms of what the report sources were. Of victims of physical abuse, 24.1 percent were reported by educational personnel, 21.8 percent were reported by law enforcement, and 11.0 percent were reported by medical personnel.7 Overall, 72.7 percent were reported by professionals and 27.3 percent were reported by nonprofessionals. The patterns of reporting of neglect and sexual abuse victims were similar—law enforcement accounted for the largest percentage of neglect victims (26.2%) and the largest percent of sexual abuse victims (26.5%); 60.8 percent of reporters of neglect were professionals and 68.9 percent of reporters of sexual abuse were professionals. The patterns of reporting medical neglect were different. Nearly one-third of all reports of medical neglect victims were made by medical personnel; three-quarters (73.1%) were made by professionals compared with 26.9 percent by nonprofessionals.
For 2004, 48.3 percent of child victims were boys, and 51.7 percent of the victims were girls.8 The youngest children had the highest rate of victimization. The rate of child victimization of the age group of birth to 3 years was 16.1 per 1,000 children of the same age group. The victimization rate of children in the age group of 4-7 years was 13.4 per 1,000 children in the same age group.9 Overall, the rate of victimization was inversely related to the age of the child (figure 3-4).
The youngest children accounted for the largest percentage of victims. Children younger than 1 year accounted for 10.3 percent of victims.10
Nearly three-quarters of child victims (72.9%) ages birth to 3 years were neglected compared with 52.4 percent of victims ages 16 years and older. For victims in the age group of 12-15 years, 22.8 percent were physically abused and 16.5 percent were sexually abused, compared with 16.8 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively, for victims in the age group of 4-7 years old.11
African-American children, Pacific Islander children, and American Indian or Alaska Native children had the highest rates of victimization at 19.9, 17.6, and 15.5 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively (figure 3-5). White children and Hispanic children had rates of approximately 10.7 and 10.4 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity, respectively. Asian children had the lowest rate of 2.9 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.12
One-half of all victims were White (53.8%); one-quarter (25.2%) were African-American; and 17.0 percent were Hispanic. For most racial categories, the largest percentage of victims suffered from neglect.13
Data are incomplete on the living arrangement of victims. Only one-half of the States were able to report on living arrangement and among these States, nearly one-half of the victims (44.2%) had unknown or missing data on living arrangement. Approximately 10 percent of victims (10.3%) were reported as living with two married biological parents or with a parent and stepparent. Less than 5 percent (4.2%) were reported as living with unmarried parents or a parent and a cohabitating parent; 14.2 percent were reported as living with both parents of unknown marital status. It is hoped that reporting will improve in the coming years.14
Reported Disability of Victims
Child victims who were reported with disabilities accounted for 7.3 percent of all victims in the 36 States that reported these data. Children with the following risk factors were considered as having a disability: mental retardation, emotional disturbance, visual impairment, learning disability, physical disability, behavioral problems, or another medical problem. In general, children with such conditions are undercounted, as not every child receives a clinical diagnostic assessment by CPS.15 When the subpopulation of medical neglect victims ages birth to 5 years was examined, it was found that 13.5 percent of these children were reported as having disabilities.16
Factors Influencing the Determination that a Child is a Victim of Maltreatment
The determination as to whether or not a child is considered a victim of maltreatment is made during a CPS investigation. A multivariate analysis was conducted to examine what factors and characteristics of children influence this determination. This analysis was possible because the case-level data file format incorporates child characteristics—such as maltreatment type—for victims and nonvictims.
The basic hypothesis explored in this analysis was that some child characteristics or circumstances place children at a greater risk for being identified as victims during the investigation process. The odds ratio analyses indicate the likelihood of allegations of maltreatment being confirmed by the CPS agency. Highlights of the findings are listed below.17
- Children with allegations of multiple types of maltreatment were nearly three times more likely to be determined to be maltreated than were children with allegations of physical abuse. Children with allegations of sexual abuse were about 71 percent more likely to be considered victims than children with allegations of physical abuse.
- Children who were reported as disabled were 68 percent more likely to be found to be a victim of maltreatment than children who were not reported as disabled.18
- Children who were reported by educational personnel were twice as likely to be determined to be maltreated as children reported by social and mental health personnel.
For many children who experience repeat maltreatment, 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 established the national standard for recurrence as:
"A State meets the national standard for this indicator if, of all children who were victims of substantiated or indicated child abuse and/or neglect during the first 6 months of the period under review, 6.1% or fewer children had another substantiated or indicated report within 6 months."19
Analysis of CFSR data indicates that States have improved in meeting this standard. The percentage of reporting States in compliance has increased from 29.4 percent for 2000 to 42.2 percent for 2004, an improvement of 43.6 percent.20
Twenty-five States provided sufficient data to support an analysis of the factors that influence the likelihood of recurrence. In this analysis, recurrence was defined as a second substantiated or indicated maltreatment occurring within a 6-month period (183 days). The major results of the analysis are summarized below.21
- Children who had been prior victims of maltreatment were 84 percent more likely to experience a recurrence than those who were not prior victims.
- Child victims who were reported with a disability were 61 percent more likely to experience recurrence than children without a disability.
- The oldest children (16-21 years of age) were the least likely to experience a recurrence, and were 52 percent less likely than children who were the youngest children (0-3 years of age).
- Compared with White children, Asian-Pacific Islander children were 59 percent less likely to experience recurrence.
Nearly 84 percent (83.4%) of victims were abused by a parent acting alone or with another person. Approximately two-fifths (38.8%) of child victims were maltreated by their mothers acting alone; another 18.3 percent were maltreated by their fathers acting alone; 18.3 percent were abused by both parents.22 Victims abused by such nonparental perpetrators as an unmarried partner of parent, legal guaradian, or foster parent accounted for 10.1 percent of the total (figure 3-6).
Through the CFSR, the Children's Bureau established a national standard for the incidence of child abuse or neglect in foster care as:
"A State meets the national standard for this indicator if, of all children in foster care in the State during the period under review, the percentage of children who were the subject of substantiated or indicated maltreatment by a foster parent or facility staff is 0.57% or less."23
Analysis of NCANDS CFSR data indicates that States have improved in meeting this standard. The percentage of States in compliance has increased from 57.1 percent for 2000 to 84.2 percent for 2004.24 During 2004, 13 States had difficulty with providing the data needed to compute this measure using the Child File.
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
- The child disposition rate was computed by dividing the total count of children who were the subjects of an investigation (3,424,354) by the child population for the 49 States that reported these data (71,694,961) and multiplying by 1,000.
- Maryland counts are excluded from this table due to incomplete reporting.
Table 3-2
- The rate of victims for each State was based on their number of victims divided by the State's child population,multiplied by 1,000.
Table 3-3
- Victimization and investigation rates were computed by dividing the respective counts of children by the population and multiplying by 1,000.
- The number of total children who were subjects of an investigation and total victims are rounded to the nearest 100,000. If fewer than 51 States reported data, the total is an estimate based on multiplying the rate by the national child population for that year.
Table 3-4
- Only children with substantiated, indicated, or alternative response victim dispositions or a maltreatment death are included in this table.
Table 3-5
- A child may have been the victim of more than one type of maltreatment, and therefore, the total percent may equal more than 100.0.
Table 3-6
- Rates were based on the number of victims divided by the child population in the reporting States and multiplied by 1,000. The population numbers for victims were based on data from reporting States for that year.
Table 3-8
- Rates were based on the number of boy or girl victims divided by the boy or girl population, respectively, and multiplied by 1,000.
Table 3-11
- A child may have been the victim of more than one type of maltreatment, and therefore, the total percent may equal more than 100.0.
Table 3-12
- Victims of both Asian and Pacific Islander heritage were placed in the multiple race category.
- Counts associated with specific racial groups, (e.g.,White only) do not include Hispanic children.
- Rates were computed by dividing the victim count by the population count and multiplying by 1,000.
- States for which more than 50 percent of records were missing race or ethnicity were excluded.
Table 3-13
- The category of multiple maltreatment types includes children who were the victims of any two or more types of maltreatments.
Table 3-14
- States that had more than 90 percent of data in the unknown or missing categories were not included in this analysis.
Table 3-15
- Each child is counted as a victim only once and is, therefore, "unique."
Table 3-17
- Odds ratios indicate the likelihood, relative to the reference group, of the outcome occurring.
- Odds ratios greater than 1.00 indicate an increased likelihood of occurrence while odds ratios less than 1.00 indicate a decreased likelihood of occurrence.
- The category of neglect includes medical neglect.
- Asterisks indicate statistical significance.
Table 3-18
- The national average percent was taken from the National Child and Family Services Reviews and is not a calculation from the data on the table.
- Reports within 24 hours of the initial report are not counted as recurrence. However, recurrence rates may be influenced by reports alleging the same maltreatment from additional sources if the State information system counts these as separate reports.
Table 3-19
- Risk ratios indicate the likelihood, relative to the reference group, of the outcome occurring.
- Risk ratios greater than 1.00 indicate an increased likelihood of occurrence. Risk ratios less than 1.00 indicate a decreased likelihood of recurrence.
- The effect of child sex was tested, but found to make no contribution to the overall model.
- The category of neglect includes medical neglect.
- Asterisks indicate statistical significance.
Table 3-20
- The categories "mother and other" and "father and other" include victims with one perpetrator identified as a mother or father and a second perpetrator identified as a nonparent.
- The category of "other" can include more than one person.
- The category of nonparental perpetrator is defined as a perpetrator who was not identified as a parent and includes other relative, foster parent, and residential facility staff.
- States are included in this analysis only if they can link more than 74 percent of perpetrators to victims, report perpetrator relationship for more than 74 percent of perpetrators, and report data for multiple perpetrators per report.
Table 3-21
- States are included in this analysis only if they can link more than 74 percent of victims to perpetrators and report perpetrator relationship for more than 74 percent of perpetrators.
- The national average percent was taken from the National Child and Family Services Reviews and is not a calculation from the data on the table.
Notes
1 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 were the subjects of an investigation (3,424,354) by the child population for the 49 States that reported these data (71,694,961) and multiplying by 1,000. A national estimate of 3,503,000 children who were the subjects of an investigation was calculated by multiplying the child disposition rate (47.8) by the national child population (73,277,998) and dividing by 1,000. The total was rounded to the nearest 1,000. Back
2 See table 3-2. Back
3 See table 3-3. Back
4 See table 3-4. This is a Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) measure. Back
5 See table 3-5. Back
6 See table 3-6. Back
7 See table 3-7. Back
8 See table 3-8. Back
9 See table 3-9. Back
10 See table 3-10. Back
11 See table 3-11. Children may have been the victims of more than one type of maltreatment. Back
12 See table 3-12. Back
13 See table 3-13. Back
14 See table 3-14. Back
15 See table 3-15. Back
16 See table 3-16. Back
17 The bulleted findings identify those factors that were more than 1.50 or less than 0.50. See table 3-17. Back
18 This finding may be related to providing assessments that determine disability during or after the investigation. Back
19U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children,
Youth and Families. National Standards for the Child and Family Service Reviews. Information Memorandum, ACYF-CBIM-00-11. December 28, 2000.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Updated National Standards for the Child and Family Service Reviews and Guidance on Program Improvement Plans. Information Memorandum, ACYF-CB-IM-01-07. August 16, 2003. Back
20 See table 3-18. Back
21 The bulleted findings identify those factors that were more than 1.50 or less than 0.50. See table 3-19. Back
22 See table 3-20. Back
23 See footnote 19. Back
24 See table 3-21. Back
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