Overview
All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories have child abuse and neglect reporting laws that mandate certain professionals and institutions refer suspected maltreatment to a child protective services (CPS) agency. Each state has its own definitions of child abuse and neglect that are based on standards set by federal law. Federal legislation provides a foundation for states by identifying a set of acts or behaviors that define child abuse and neglect. The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), (P.L. 100–294), as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111–320), retained the existing definition of child abuse and neglect as, at a minimum:
- Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation [ ]; or an act or failure to act, which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.
The Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (P.L. 114–22) added the requirement to include sex trafficking victims in the definition of child abuse and neglect. The follow ing pages provide a summary of key information from this report. The information is provided in a question-and-answer format as the Children’s Bureau is anticipating the most common questions for each chapter of the report. Please refer to the individual chapters for detailed information about each topic and the relevant data. Definitions of terms also are provided in Appendix B, Glossary.
For federal fiscal year (FFY) 2022, 52 states submitted both a Child File and an Agency File. Key findings in this report include:
■ Nationally during FFY 2022, 3,096,101 children received either an investigation response or alternative response at a rate of 42.4 children per 1,000 in the population.
■ For FFY 2022, 52 states reported 558,899 victims of child abuse and neglect. This is a national rate of 7.7 victims per 1,000 children in the population.
■ FFY 2022 data show 74.3 percent of victims experience neglect, 17.0 percent are physically abused, 10.6 percent are sexually abused, and 6.8 percent are psychologically maltreated.
■ A nationally estimated 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect at a rate of 2.73 per 100,000 children in the population.
