|NA Not available.


1 The number of Children Subject of An Investigation is calculated from the total number of children by Disposition, and is a national estimate for the 50 States and theDistrict of Columbia based on submissions from reporting States.
2 Victims are defined as children subject of a substantiated or indicated maltreatment. In 1998, Ohio included "In Need of Services," and North Dakota did not use these dispositions.
3 Includes estimates for States that did not report.

Source: U.S. Deparment of Health and Human Services, National Centeron Child Abuse and Neglect, National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, Working Paper 2, 1991 Summary Data Component, May 1993.Child Maltreatment - 1992, May 1994; and Child Maltreatment -1993, April 1995; Child Maltreatment -- 1994, May 1995; and Child Maltreatment -- 1995.Child Maltreatment 1996: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect System, April 1998.Child Maltreatment 1997: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect System, April 1999.Child Maltreatment 1998: Reports From the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect System, April 2000.

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*WHAT IS CHILD MALTREATMENT?

Child abuse and neglect are defined in both Federal and State legislation. The Federal legislation provides afoundation for States by identifying a minimum set of acts or behaviors that characterize maltreatment. Thislegislation also defines what acts are considered physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse.

HOW DO WE DEFINE CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT?

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), as amended and reauthorized in October 1996(Public Law 104-235, Section 111; 42 U.S.C. 5106g), defines child abuse and neglect as, at a minimum, anyrecent act or failure to act:

Resulting in imminent risk of serious harm, death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, orexploitation

Of a child (a person under the age of 18, unless the child protection law of the State in which the childresides specifies a younger age for cases not involving sexual abuse)

By a parent or caretaker (including any employee of a residential facility or any staff person providingout-of-home care) who is responsible for the child's welfare.

CAPTA defines sexual abuse as:

Employment, use, persuasion, inducement, enticement, or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist anyother person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct or any simulation of such conduct for the purpose ofproducing any visual depiction of such conduct; or

rape, and in cases of caretaker or inter-familial relationships, statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, orother form of sexual exploitation of children, or incest with children.

With the reauthorization of CAPTA, withholding of medically indicated treatment has been defined as failure torespond to an infant's life-threatening conditions by denial of treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration,and medication) that would most likely be effective in ameliorating or correcting all life-threatening conditions. Thisdefinition does not refer to situations where treatment of an infant, in the treating physician's reasonable medicaljudgment, would prolong dying, be ineffective in ameliorating or correcting all the infant's life-threatening conditions,or be futile in helping the infant to survive. In addition, this definition does not include situations where the infant ischronically or irreversibly comatose.

Each State is responsible for providing definitions of child abuse and neglect within the civil and criminal context.Civil laws, or statutes, describe the circumstances and conditions that obligate mandated reporters to report knownor suspected cases of abuse, and they provide definitions necessary for juvenile/family courts to take custody of achild alleged to have been maltreated. Criminal statutes specify the forms of maltreatment that are criminallypunishable. (The State Statutes Desk at the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information offersa comprehensive resource summarizing over 30 civil and criminal State statutes pertaining to child maltreatment.)*WHAT ARE THE MAIN TYPES OF MALTREATMENT?

There are four major types of child maltreatment: physical abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse.

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse is the infliction of physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning,shaking, or otherwise harming a child. The parent or caretaker may not have intended to hurt the child, ratherthe injury may have resulted from over-discipline or physical punishment.

Child Neglect

Child neglect is characterized by failure to provide for the child's basic needs. Neglect can be physical,educational, or emotional. Physical neglect includes refusal of or delay in seeking health care,abandonment, expulsion from the home or refusal to allow a runaway to return home, and inadequatesupervision. Educational neglect includes the allowance of chronic truancy, failure to enroll a child ofmandatory school age in school, and failure to attend to a special educational need. Emotional neglectincludes such actions as marked inattention to the child's needs for affection, refusal of or failure to provideneeded psychological care, spouse abuse in the child's presence, and permission of drug or alcohol use bythe child. The assessment of child neglect requires consideration of cultural values and standards of care aswell as recognition that the failure to provide the necessities of life may be related to poverty.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse includes fondling a child's genitals, intercourse, incest, rape, sodomy, exhibitionism, andcommercial exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials. Many expertsbelieve that sexual abuse is the most under-reported form of child maltreatment because of the secrecy or"conspiracy of silence" that so often characterizes these cases.

Emotional Abuse (Psychological/Verbal Abuse/Mental Injury)

Emotional abuse includes acts or omissions by the parents or other caregivers that have caused, or couldcause, serious behavioral, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders. In some cases of emotional abuse, theacts of parents or other caregivers alone, without any harm evident in the child's behavior or condition, aresufficient to warrant child protective services (CPS) intervention. For example, the parents/caregivers mayuse extreme or bizarre forms of punishment, such as confinement of a child in a dark closet. Less severe acts,such as habitual scapegoating, belittling, or rejecting treatment, are often difficult to prove and, therefore,CPS may not be able to intervene without evidence of harm to the child.

Although any of the forms of child maltreatment may be found separately, they often occur in combination.Emotional abuse is almost always present when other forms are identified.

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