Safe at Home

Child maltreatment includes child abuse and child neglect.

• Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, through action or through failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. Child abuse can be physical, sexual and/or emotional.
• Child neglect is when a parent or caregiver does not give the care, supervision, affection and support needed for a child’s health, safety and well-being. Child neglect can include neglect of physical, emotional, medical and/or educational needs.¹

Types of maltreatment:

• Nationwide, 70% to 80% of substantiated (determined to have occurred) child welfare cases involving young children are because of neglect¹
• 20% of cases involve physical abuse
• 10% involve sexual abuse
• 11% involve other types of abuse or failure of supervision²

Percentages do not add to 100% because some cases involve more than one type of abuse and/or neglect.

Rates of substantiated child abuse have declined over time in the US, but rates of substantiated neglect have not. Children’s actual exposure to neglectful circumstances may be higher than reported.³

Of those responsible for child maltreatment nationwide in 2012:

• 82% were parents
• 12% were non-parents, most often a male relative or male partner of a parent
• 6% were unknown⁴

Rates of maltreatment by gender and race nationwide in 2012, per 1,000 children:⁵

Gender:

• Girls: 9.5
• Boys: 8.7

Race:

• American Indian/Alaska Native: 12.4
• Asian: 1.7
• Black: 14.2
• Hispanic: 8.4
• Multiracial: 10.3
• Pacific Islander: 8.7
• White: 8.0

Rates of maltreatment by child’s age:

The youngest children are the most vulnerable to child maltreatment. Nationwide, in 2012,

• 47% of all cases involved children ages five or younger
• 27% involved children under age three
• Children under age three account for seven in ten child maltreatment deaths.⁶