13 Child Maltreatment 2019: Summary of Key Findings

This factsheet presents data from Child Maltreatment 2019, a report based on data submissions by State child protective services (CPS) agencies for Federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019. The full Child Maltreatment 2019 report is available on the Children’s Bureau website. The report includes comparison statistics for the last 5 years. These statistics indicate an increase in the overall rates of child victimization as well as an increase in the overall rates of children who received a response from a CPS agency.

States voluntarily provide data on child abuse and neglect to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) that are used for the annual Child Maltreatment report. States have their own definitions of child abuse and neglect based on standards set by Federal law.¹ Additionally, States’ screening policies and responses to maltreatment may differ, as does what each State reports to NCANDS.

1 For more information about State definitions, refer to Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Definitions of Child Abuse and Neglect.

HOW MANY ALLEGATIONS OF MALTREATMENT WERE REPORTED AND INVESTIGATED

During FFY 2019, CPS agencies received an estimated 4.4 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 7.9 million children.² The national referral rate is 59.5 referrals per 1,000 children in the population. Of these referrals, approximately 2.4 million reports—concerning approximately 3.5 million children—were screened in as “appropriate” for CPS response and received either an investigation or alternative response.³ The national rate for children receiving either an investigation or alternative response was 47.2 children per 1,000 in the population.

4.4 million

During FFY 2019, CPS agencies received an estimated 4.4 million referrals involving the alleged maltreatment of approximately 7.9 million children.²

More than half (54.5 percent) of referrals were screened in for investigation or assessment by CPS agencies in the 45 States that reported statistics for both screened in and screened-out reports. Approximately one-fifth (16.7 percent) of the children investigated were found to be victims of abuse or neglect—a rate of 8.9 per 1,000 children in the population. The remainder of the children investigated (83.3 percent) were found to be nonvictims of maltreatment or received an alternative response. The following, also illustrated in figure 1, are additional details about the dispositions of the investigations (duplicate count):⁴

• 16.0 percent substantiated
•  0.7 percent indicated
• 56.5 percent unsubstantiated
• 10.6 percent no alleged maltreatment
• 13.8 percent alternative response⁵
• 1.3 percent closed with no finding
• 1.0 percent “other”
• 0.1 percent unknown
• 0.0 percent intentionally false

2 Over time, the Child Maltreatment report series has transitioned from using duplicate counts to unique counts for most analyses. For example,
a “duplicate” count of child victims counts a child each time he or she was found to be a victim, while a “unique” count of child victims counts a
child only once, regardless of the number of times he or she was found to be a victim during the reporting year. All numbers provided here are
unique counts, unless noted otherwise.
3 Alternative response is the provision of a response other than an investigation that determines whether a child or family needs services.
In alternative responses, a determination of maltreatment is not made, and a perpetrator is not determined.
4 For definitions of these types of dispositions, refer to the glossary (appendix B) in Child Maltreatment 2019.
5 Beginning with Child Maltreatment 2015, children reported to NCANDS as alternative response victims or alternative response nonvictims are
presented in one category, regardless of victim status.

WHO REPORTED CHILD MALTREATMENT?

For FFY 2019, more than two-thirds (68.6 percent) of all reports of alleged child abuse or neglect were made by professionals. The term “professional” means that the person who was the source of the report had contact with the alleged child maltreatment victim as part of his or her job. The most common professional report sources were education personnel (21.0 percent), legal and law enforcement personnel (19.1 percent), medical personnel (11.0 percent), and social services staff (10.3 percent). Professional reporters also included foster care providers (0.4 percent) and child daycare providers (0.7 percent). The remaining reports were made by nonprofessionals (15.7 percent), such as friends, neighbors, and relatives, or by unclassified reporters (15.7 percent), a category that includes anonymous and unknown reporters.

WHO WERE THE CHILD VICTIMS?

In FFY 2019, an estimated 656,000 children were victims of abuse or neglect nationwide, which is a rate of 8.9 victims per 1,000 children in the population. The following is additional information about children confirmed as victims by CPS agencies in FFY 2019:

• Children in the age group of birth to 1 year had the highest rate of victimization at 25.7 per 1,000 children of the same age in the national population. The rate declines as children’s ages increase.
• Based on data from 49 States, nearly three-fourths (70.3 percent) of victims were first-time victims. This equates to a rate of 6 first-time victims per 1,000 children in the population.
• Slightly more than one-half (51.4 percent) of all child victims were girls, and 3 percent were boys. The gender was unknown for 0.3 percent of victims.
• Most victims were from three races or ethnicities:⁶ White (43.5 percent), Hispanic (23.5 percent), and African American (20.9 percent). American Indian or Alaska Native children had the highest rates of victimization at 14.8 per 1,000 children in the population of the same race or ethnicity, and African American children had the second- highest rate at 13.8 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.

6 All races exclude children of Hispanic origin. Children of Hispanic ethnicity may be any race.

WHAT WERE THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF MALTREATMENT?

As in previous years, neglect was overwhelmingly the most common form of child maltreatment (see figure 2).  CPS investigations determined the following:7

• 9 percent of victims suffered neglect.
• 5 percent of victims suffered physical abuse.
• 3 percent of victims suffered sexual abuse.
• 1 percent of victims suffered psychological maltreatment.
• 3 percent of victims suffered medical neglect.
• 8 percent of victims experienced “other” maltreatment, which may include threatened abuse or  parental substance use. States define “other” differently, but it generally refers to any maltreatment that does not fit in one of the NCANDS categories.

7 If a victim is reported with two or more different maltreatment types, the victim is counted in multiple maltreatment-type categories. A victim is counted once for each substantiated 
  maltreatment type, but only a maximum of once per type.

HOW MANY CHILDREN DIED FROM ABUSE OR NEGLECT?

NCANDS defines “child fatality” as the death of a child caused by an injury resulting from abuse or neglect or where abuse or neglect was a contributing factor. The following are data regarding child fatalities due to child maltreatment during FFY 2019:

• An estimated 1,840 children died due to abuse or neglect.
• The overall rate of child fatalities was 5 deaths per 100,000 children in the national population.
• Nearly three-quarters (70.3 percent) of the children who died due to child abuse or neglect were younger than 3 years old.
• Of the children who died, 72.9 percent suffered neglect, and 44.4 percent suffered physical abuse. Since children may have suffered from more than one type of maltreatment, the total percentage of the reported types of maltreatment exceeds 100 percent.
• Boys had a slightly higher child fatality rate than girls (2.98 boys per 100,000 boys in the population compared with 2.20 girls per 100,000 girls in the population).
• The majority (89.9 percent) of children who died from maltreatment were one of three races or ethnicities⁸: White (44.1 percent), African-American (29.4 percent), or Hispanic (16.4 percent).
• More than one-third (34.3%) of the fatalities had at least one prior CPS contact in the 5 years prior to the date of the death.
• Most perpetrators were caregivers to their More than three-fourths (79.7 percent) of child fatalities involved parents acting alone, together, or with other individuals.

For more information about child maltreatment fatalities, including information about what States and communities are doing to prevent fatalities, read Information Gateway’s Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities2019: Statistics and Interventions.

8 All races exclude children of Hispanic origin. Children of Hispanic ethnicity may be any race.

WHO ABUSED AND NEGLECTED CHILDREN?

NCANDS tracks child maltreatment by caregivers, including parents and other household members who are responsible for children’s well-being. These cases are generally handled by child welfare agencies. Cases of child maltreatment committed by out-of-home perpetrators are considered criminal cases and are generally handled by law enforcement.

In FFY 2019, 52 States⁹ reported a total of 525,319 perpetrators of child maltreatment (each perpetrator counted once, regardless of the number of children or reports involved). The following data describe those perpetrators:

• The majority of perpetrators (77.5 percent) were parents of their victims.
• More than four-fifths (83.0 percent) of all perpetrators were between the ages of 18 and 44
• More than one-half (53.0 percent) of perpetrators were women, 46.1 percent of perpetrators were men, and 9 percent were of unknown sex.
• The three largest categories for perpetrator race or ethnicity¹⁰ were White (48.9 percent), African American (21.1 percent), and Hispanic (19.7 percent).
• The largest nonparent categories for perpetrator relationship were relatives other than a parent (6.5 percent), those who had multiple relationships to their victims (e.g., unmarried partner to a parent) (4.1 percent), and other (e.g., foster sibling, nonrelative, babysitter) (3.8 percent).

9 In the context of NCANDS, the term "States" includes the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
10 All races exclude people of Hispanic origin. People of Hispanic ethnicity may be any race.