Child Maltreatment Report 2020

[qwazse]

A statistical resource from the US Department of Health and Human Services:

https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/report/child-maltreatment-2020

It took a couple of hops from Bryan on Scouting to find it, so I thought I'd drop it at a top level here.

There are overall national stats as well as executive summaries from individual state agencies.

Regarding maltreatment

Quote

chAPter 3: Children 27Child Maltreatment 2020
Perpetrator Relationship (unique count of child victims and duplicate count of relationships)
In this section, data are analyzed by relationship of victims to their perpetrators. A victim may be maltreated multiple times by the same perpetrator or by different combinations of perpetrators (e.g., mother alone, mother and nonparent(s), two parents). This analysis counts every
combination of relationships for each victim in each report and, therefore, the percentages total more than 100.0 percent.

The FFY 2020 data show 90.6 percent of victims are maltreated by one or both parents. The parent(s) could have acted together, acted alone, or acted with up to two other people to maltreat the child. Nearly 40.0 percent (37.6%) of victims are maltreated by a mother acting alone, 23.6 percent of victims are maltreated by a father acting alone, and 20.7 percent of victims are maltreated by both parents (two parents of known sex). More than 14.0 percent (14.4%) of victims are maltreated by a perpetrator who was not the child’s parent. The largest categories in the nonparent group are relative(s) (5.4%), unmarried partner(s) of parent (3.3%), and “other(s)” (3.2%). (See table 3–14 and related notes.) The NCANDS category of “other(s)” perpetrator relationship includes any relationship that does not map to one of the NCANDS relationship categories. According to states’ commentary, this category includes nonrelated adult, non-related child, foster sibling, babysitter, household staff, clergy, and school personnel.

Regarding fatalities

Quote

chAPter 4: Fatalities 58Child Maltreatment 2020
Perpetrator Relationship
The FFY 2020 data show that most perpetrators are caregivers of their victims. More than 80.0 percent (80.6%) of child fatalities involved parents acting alone, together, or with other individuals. More than 15 percent (15.3%) of fatalities did not have a parental relationship to their perpetrator. Similarly to all victims, the largest categories in the nonparent group are relative(s) (5.3%) and “other(s)” (3.6%). The NCANDS category of “other(s)” perpetrator relationship includes any relationship that does not map to one of the NCANDS relationship categories. According to states’ commentary, this category includes nonrelated adult, nonrelated child, foster sibling, babysitter, household staff, clergy, and school personnel. Child fatalities with unknown perpetrator relationship data accounted for 4.2 percent. (See table 4–4 and related notes.)

Edited April 6, 2022 by qwazse

[skeptic]

I would think that this particular report would be a major point of discussion and concern.  Some things immediately stand out as already know, specifically that the largest percentage are family members, by far.  Interesting to me, and a surprise, is that apparently this study anyway indicates that females are slightly more responsible for abuse.  Age groups are not a huge surprise.  I would think the takeaway from this particular study and report would be that more focus needs to be where the most perpetrators are; the family.  We continue to demonize a small percentage of people at higher level than we do the worst offenders, or so it appears.  No abuse is okay.  That is a given.  But we still need to have the courage to put the spotlight on the highest levels of perpetrators, rather than focusing on the sensational and actually lesser of the evils.  Just an observation, and I am NOT the expert, only a moderately aware reader of the data.  

[qwazse]

@skeptic, criminology is difficult. So we have to take each of these reports with a grain of salt. This report covers maltreated children of all ages, and most infants and toddlers are primarily exposed to their moms.  There’s a whole lot gone wrong with a mom who kills or nearly kills her kid, but most scouters are dealing with kids after they have survived that hurdle.
It’s the wise scouter who knows that one or two of the youth in his/her charge may have survived the depredations of relatives. We do what we do in hopes of steering youth away from becoming such terrible parents/aunts/uncles/siblings/coaches.

Edited April 6, 2022 by qwazse