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 sus-pected 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 following 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.
What is the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS)?
NCANDS is a federally sponsored effort that collects and analyzes annual data on child abuse and neglect. The 1988 CAPTA amendments directed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a national data collection and analy-sis program. The data is collected and analyzed by the Children’s Bureau in the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF), the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The data is submitted voluntarily by the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The first report from NCANDS was based on data for 1990. This report for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2023 is the 34th issuance of this annual publication.
How are the data used?
NCANDS data is used for the Child Maltreatment report series. In addition, the data is a critical source of information for many publications, reports, and activities of the federal government and other groups. For example, NCANDS data is used in the annual publication, Child Welfare Outcomes: Report to Congress. More information about these reports and programs are available on the Children’s Bureau website at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb.
What data is collected?
Once an allegation (called a referral) of abuse or neglect is received by a CPS agency, it is either screened-in for a response by CPS or it is screened-out. A screened-in referral is called a report. CPS agencies respond to all reports. In most states, the majority of reports receive investigations, which determine if a child was maltreated or is at-risk of maltreatment and establish whether an intervention is needed. Some reports receive alternative responses, which focus primarily upon the needs of the family and do not determine if a child was maltreated or is at-risk of maltreatment.
NCANDS collects case-level data on all children who received a CPS agency response in the form of an investigation response or an alternative response. Case-level data (meaning individual child record data) includes information about the characteristics of screened-in referrals (reports) of abuse and neglect that are made to CPS agencies, the children involved, the types of maltreatment, the dispositions of the CPS responses, the risk factors of the child and their caregivers, the services that are provided, and the perpetrators. NCANDS collects agency-level aggregate statistics in a separate data submission called the Agency File.
Where are the data available?
The Child Maltreatment reports from this edition back to 1995 are available on the Children’s Bureau website at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/data-research/child-maltreatment. If you have questions or require additional information about this report, please contact the Child Welfare Information Gateway at info@childwelfare.gov or 1–800–394–3366. Restricted use files of NCANDS submissions are archived at the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) at Cornell University https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov. Researchers who are interested in using these files for statistical analyses may contact NDACAN by phone at 607–255–7799 or by email at ndacan@cornell.edu. See chapter 1 for more information about NCANDS and the data collection.
How many allegations of maltreatment are reported and screened in for an investigation response or alternative response?
For 2023, CPS agencies received a national estimate of 4,399,000 total referrals. The total referrals alleging maltreatment includes approximately 7,782,000 children. The national rate of screened-in referrals (reports) is 28.7 per 1,000 children in the national population. Among the 46 states that report both screened-in and screened-out referrals, 47.5 percent of referrals are screened-in and 52.5 percent are screened-out.
Who reported child maltreatment?
For 2023, professionals submitted 70.9 percent of reports alleging child abuse and neglect. The term professional means that the person has contact with the alleged child maltreatment victim as part of his or her job. This term includes teachers, police officers, lawyers, and social services staff. The highest percentages of reports are from legal and law enforcement personnel (21.4%), education personnel (21.1%), and medical personnel (11.2%).
Nonprofessionals, including friends, neighbors, and relatives, submitted fewer than one-fifth of reports (14.8%). Unclassified sources submitted the remaining reports (14.4%). Unclassified includes anonymous, “other,” and unknown report sources. States use the code “other” for any report source that does not have an NCANDS designated code. See Appendix D, State Commentary, for additional information provided by the states as to what is included in “other.” See chapter 2 for more information about referrals and reports.
Who were the child victims?
For FFY 2023, there are 546,159 victims of child abuse and neglect nationally. The victim rate is 7.4 victims per 1,000 children in the population. (See chapter 3.) Victim demographics include:
Children younger than 1 year old have the highest rate of victimization at 21.0 per 1,000 children of the same age in the national population.
The victimization rate for girls is 7.9 per 1,000 girls in the population, which is higher than boys at 6.9 per 1,000 boys in the population.
American Indian or Alaska Native children have the highest rate of victimization at 13.8 per 1,000 children in the population of the same race or ethnicity; and Black or African-American children have the second highest rate at 11.9 per 1,000 children of the same race or ethnicity.
What were the most common types of maltreatment?
NCANDS collects all maltreatment type allegations, however only those maltreat-ments with a disposition of substantiated or indicated are included in the Child Maltreatment report. A child may be determined to be a victim multiple times within the same FFY and up to four different maltreatment types in each victim report.
In the analysis included in chapter 3, FFY 2023 victims are counted for each inves-tigation that resulted in a substantiation and displays the victims with a single type of maltreatment at the state level. If a victim has two or more substantiated maltreat-ment types in the same report, the victim is counted in the multiple maltreatment type category. For FFY 2023, 64.1 percent of duplicate victims experience neglect only, and 10.6 percent experience physical abuse only. Fewer than 10 percent of duplicate victims experienced sexual abuse only (7.5%) or psychological abuse only (3.5%) substantiated maltreatment types.
How many infants with prenatal substance exposure are there?
The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016 includes an amendment to CAPTA to collect and report the number of infants with prenatal substance exposure (IPSE), IPSE with a plan of safe care, and IPSE with a referral to appropriate services.
FFY 2023 data shows 44,453 infants in 49 states being referred to CPS agencies as infants with prenatal substance exposure. The majority (72.5%) of IPSE were screened-in to CPS to receive either an investigation or alternative response. For FFY 2023, 35 states reported 22,319 screened-in IPSE (72.1%) have a plan of safe care and 32 states reported 20,468 screened-in IPSE (68.4%) have a referral to appropriate services.
What risk factors do caregivers have?
Risk factors are characteristics of a child or caregiver that may increase the likeli-hood of child maltreatment. Caregivers with these risk factors who are included in each analysis may or may not be the perpetrators responsible for the maltreatment. Refer to chapter 3 or Appendix B, Glossary for definitions of caregiver risk factors included in this report.
In 40 reporting states, 106,594 victims (24.9%) have the drug abuse caregiver risk factor and in 38 reporting states, 108,112 victims (25.1%) have the domestic violence caregiver risk factor. See chapter 3 for more information about maltreatment victims.
How many children died from abuse or neglect?
Child fatalities are the most tragic consequence of maltreatment. For FFY 2023, a national estimate of 2,000 children died from abuse and neglect at a rate of 2.73 per 100,000 children in the population. See chapter 4 for more information about child fatalities. The child fatality demographics show:
The youngest children are the most vulnerable to maltreatment, with children younger than 1 representing 44.0 percent of child fatalities; a fatality rate of 24.11per 100,000 children in that age range.
Boys have a higher child fatality rate at 3.15 per 100,000 boys in the population when compared with girls at 2.30 per 100,000 girls in the population.
The rate of Black or African-American child fatalities (6.04 per 100,000 Black orAfrican-American children) is 3.1 times greater than the rate of White children (1.94 per 100,000 White children) and 3.4 times greater than the rate of Hispanic children(1.76 per 100,000 Hispanic children).
Who abused and neglected children?
A perpetrator is the person who is responsible for the abuse or neglect of a child. Fifty-two states reported 422,117 perpetrators. See chapter 5 for more information about perpetrators of maltreatment. The analyses of case-level data show:
The majority (69.2%) of perpetrators are between the ages of 25 and 44 years old.
More than one-half (51.6%) of perpetrators are female, 47.3 percent of perpetratorsare male, and 1.1 percent have an unknown sex.
