Letter from the Associate Commissioner:
Child Maltreatment 2005
Administration for Children and Families |
Letter from the Associate Commissioner:
I am pleased to present Child Maltreatment 2005. This 16th annual publication of data collected via the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) is for Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2005. It reflects our commitment to provide the most complete national information about child maltreatment known to the States' child protective services (CPS) agencies. Key findings in this report include the following.
- During FFY 2005, an estimated 899,000 children in the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect. The increase of about 20,000 victims from FFY 2004 to FFY 2005 is due to the inclusion of data from Alaska and Puerto Rico for FFY 2005.
- Since 2001, the rate and number of children who received an investigation have been increasing. For 2001, the rate was 43.2 children per thousand children, resulting in an estimated 3,136,000 children who received an investigation; for FFY 2005, the rate was 48.3, resulting in an estimated 3,598,000 children.
- Nationally, 62.8 percent of child victims experienced neglect, 16.6 percent were physically abused, 9.3 percent were sexually abused, and 7.1 percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated. Rates of victimization by maltreatment type have fluctuated only slightly during the past several years.
- For FFY 2005, a nationally estimated 1,460 children died of abuse or neglect—a rate of 1.96 children per 100,000 in the national population, which is less than the rate of 2.03 children per 100,000 in the national population for FFY 2004.
Included in this report are additional national- and State-level findings about perpetrators of maltreatment, CPS workforce workload, and preventive and postinvestigation services.
I hope that you find this report to be a useful reference. The document is posted on the Web site of the Administration for Children and Families at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/index.htm#can. For additional copies of the report and other information about child maltreatment, contact the Child Welfare Information Gateway at 1-800-394-3366 or http://www.childwelfare.gov/.
Sincerely, Susan Orr, Ph.D. |
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