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| << Chapter 4 | Chapter 6 >> |
The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) defines a perpetrator as a person who is considered responsible for the maltreatment of a child. This chapter provides data about only perpetrators of child maltreatment and does not include data about alleged perpetrators. A perpetrator is counted once for each child in each report, meaning that a perpetrator may be counted multiple times if he or she maltreated more than one child.
Given the definition of child abuse and neglect, which largely pertains to caregivers and not to persons unknown to a child, most perpetrators of child maltreatment are parents. Data also include relatives, foster parents, and residential facility staff. The introduction of alternative response by child protective services (CPS) agencies to allegations of maltreatment has not only contributed to the decrease in victims, but also to a decrease in perpetrators. During Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2008:
This chapter presents data about the demographic characteristics of perpetrators, the relationship of perpetrators to their victims, and the types of maltreatment they committed.
For FFY 2008, 56.2 percent of the perpetrators were women, 42.6 percent were men and 1.1 percent were of unknown sex.2 Of the women who were perpetrators, more than 40 percent (45.3%) were younger than 30 years of age, compared with one-third of the men (35.2%) (figure 5–1). These proportions have remained consistent for the past few years.
The racial distribution of perpetrators was similar to the race of their victims. During FFY 2008, nearly one-half (47.8%) of perpetrators were White and one-fifth (19.6%) were African-American. Approximately 20 percent (19.5%) of perpetrators were Hispanic.3 These proportions also have remained consistent for the past few years.
Approximately 80 percent (80.1%) of perpetrators were parents.4 Other relatives accounted for an additional 6.5 percent. Unmarried partners of parents accounted for 4.4 percent (figure 5–2). Of the parents who were perpetrators, more than 90 percent (90.9%) were biological parents, 4.4 percent were stepparents, and 0.7 percent were adoptive parents.5
More than one-half (61.1%) of all perpetrators were found to have neglected children.6 More than 13 percent (13.4%) of all perpetrators were associated with more than one type of maltreatment. Approximately 10 percent (10.0%) of perpetrators physically abused children and 6.8 percent sexually abused children.
Perpetrators were analyzed by relationship to their victims and type of maltreatment. For this analysis, a perpetrator is counted once for each child for each report. Therefore, the pattern of perpetrators closely mirrors the pattern of maltreatment types. In other words, neglect represented both the most frequent form of maltreatment and the greatest number of perpetrators. Physical abuse ranked second, and so on.
Overall, 6.8 percent of all perpetrators were associated with sexually abusing a child. However, analyzing the data by perpetrator category shows that of the perpetrators who were categorized as friends and neighbors, 2,335 of 4,007 (58.3%) committed sexual abuse. Of the perpetrators who were categorized as "other," 13,056 of 31,858 (41.0%) committed sexual abuse, and of the perpetrators who were categorized as other professionals, 349 of 967 (36.1%) committed sexual abuse.7
The following pages contain the data tables referenced in Chapter 5. 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 5-1
Table 5-3
Table 5-4
Table 5-5
Table 5-6
Footnotes
1 These are duplicated counts. The number of unduplicated perpetrators was 507,990. back
2 Supporting data are provided in table 5-1, which is located at the end of this chapter. back
3 See table 5-2. back
4 See table 5-3. back
5 See table 5-4. back
6 See table 5-5. back
7 See table 5-6. back
| << Chapter 4 | Chapter 6 >> |
