2009 Statistics. State child protective services (CPS) agencies received approximately 3.3 million referrals, involving an estimated 6.0 million children, alleging abuse or neglect in 2009. More than 58.3 percent of these reports were made by professionals, including teachers, police officers, lawyers, and social services staff. Nonprofessionals, including parents, neighbors, friends, other relatives, and anonymous reporters made 28.1 percent of the reports; other and unknown sources submitted the remainder of reports (13.6 percent). CPS investigations determined that an estimated 702,000 individual children were victims of abuse or neglect in 2009, equaling a victimization rate of 9.3 per 1,000 children in the population. Neglect was the most common type of maltreatment (experienced by 78.3 percent of victims), followed by physical abuse (17.8 percent), sexual abuse (9.5 percent), psychological maltreatment (7.6 percent), and medical neglect (2.4 percent).
This image is described in the Data section. Child Abuse & Neglect: Recognizing and Preventing Child Abuse. Understanding child abuse and neglect Child abuse is more than bruises or broken bones. While physical abuse is shocking due to the scars it leaves, not all child abuse is as obvious. Ignoring children’s needs, putting them in unsupervised, dangerous situations, or making a child feel worthless or stupid are also child abuse. Regardless of the type of child abuse, the result is serious emotional harm. Myths and facts about child abuse and neglect MYTH #1: It's only abuse if it's violent. Fact: Physical abuse is just one type of child abuse.
MYTH #2: Only bad people abuse their children. Fact: While it's easy to say that only "bad people" abuse their children, it's not always so black and white. MYTH #3: Child abuse doesn't happen in “good” families. Fact: Child abuse doesn't only happen in poor families or bad neighborhoods. MYTH #4: Most child abusers are strangers. Fact: While abuse by strangers does happen, most abusers are family members or others close to the family. Types of child abuse. Barahona victim confides in new foster mother about alleged abuse.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - In the year since Nubia Barahona's body was found in the back of a car on I-95 in West Palm Beach, her twin brother Victor has been in the care of Katia Garcia, his new foster mother. The State Attorney's Office says the twins were brutally beaten by Jorge and Carmen Barahona for years. Victor survived. Now he's opening up about the alleged abuse to his foster mother Katia. "His father would put a bag over his head and choke him. And there were a couple times he was close to dying," said Garcia, in an earlier taped interview released Monday. Victor tells Garcia the abuse was often to torture, not to kill. "He says his father poured hot sauce in his eyes, ears, nose and mouth. " Garcia also told investigators Victor talks about the abuse he and Nubia allegedly suffered. Garcia says the boy is calm unless he's talking about the abuse; she says when describing it he becomes physically upset.
Jorge and Carmen remain behind bars on murder and child abuse charges. Researchers: Child abuse, neglect can trigger permanent brain damage. Child NeglectChronic Child Neglect – Understanding the definition and impact of neglect. Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child maltreatment in the United States. According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), of the approximately 899,000 children in the United States who were victims of abuse and neglect in 2005, 62.8 percent (564,765 children) suffered from neglect alone, including medical neglect (USDHHS, 2007). According to NCANDS, 42.2 percent of child maltreatment fatalities in the United States in 2005 occurred as a result of neglect only, 24.1 percent as a result of physical abuse and neglect, and 27.3 percent as a result of multiple maltreatment types (USDHHS, 2007).
In an independent study, Prevent Child Abuse America estimated that 1,291 children in the United States died in 2000 as a result of maltreatment, and that 45 percent of these child maltreatment fatalities were attributable to neglect (Peddle et al., 2002). NCANDS reported an increase of approximately 20,000 victims between 2004 and 2005. What Is Neglect? References.