Chapter 6 Perpetrators

A perpetrator of child abuse and/or neglect is a person who has maltreated a child while in a caretaking relationship to the child. Although the majority of perpetrators are parents, other persons in caretaking roles—for example, other household members, other relatives, day care providers, and residential facility staff—may also be considered perpetrators of maltreatment.

This chapter describes the characteristics of perpetrators—including age, sex, and relationships to child victims; attention is also given to the relationships between perpetrators of specific types of maltreatment and their victims, based on case-level data from the DCDC.

6.1 Characteristics of Perpetrators

Figure 6-1 shows that for the States that submitted case-level data, about three-fourths (73.1%) of substantiated or indicated reports identified only one perpetrator, regardless of the number of maltreatment victims. Almost half (49.6%) of the reports had only one perpetrator and one victim.

As seen in figure 6-2, three-fifths (60.4%) of perpetrators were female, and two-fifths (39.6%) were male. Female perpetrators were typically younger than their male counterparts, as reflected by the difference in their respective median ages, 31 and 34. Figure 6-2 shows that nearly half (46.1%) of the perpetrators were women between the ages of 20 and 39.

6.2 Relationships of Perpetrators to Child Victims

As displayed in figure 6-3, more than four-fifths (87.1%) of victims were maltreated by one or both parents. The most common pattern of maltreatment was a child neglected by a female parent with no other perpetrators having been identified (44.7%). This pattern may be influenced by the fact that female parents are more likely to have primary caretaking responsibilities, especially in single-parent households.

Table 6-1 indicates that when the type of maltreatment is considered, there are similar patterns of relationships between victims and perpetrators. For all types of maltreatment, more than half of the children who were victims were maltreated by one or both of their parents. The most striking difference, however, is that children who were victims of physical and sexual abuse, compared to children who were victims of neglect and medical neglect, were more likely to be maltreated by a male parent acting alone. In cases of sexual abuse, more than half (55.9%) of the victims were abused by male parents, male relatives, or other males.